I have always had a love for the vintage horror movie posters from the 1930's-1950's. For me it's a lost art, something you don't get anymore in Hollywood. What is it that draws people into seeing a horror movie? For some, it's the word of mouth from sombody that has already seen a film, but for the rest, it's the horror movie poster. That's because a good horror movie poster is able to convey a lot of information about the film in just a single image. Before the modern day of multimedia exposure, the poster primarily was the only way to attract a viewer into the theaters.
In the golden age of Hollywood, the film studios would commission artists to create their horror movie posters. These posters were wonderful works of art, often times the posters were far better than the movie they were meant to depict. These days, there is such a huge market for collectors looking for vintage horror movie posters.
I would like to show some of my favorite horror movie posters, I hope you enjoy the art as much as I do.
Vampyres foreign
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The Vampire Lovers Foreign
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Gojira 1954
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Night of the Living Dead Italian
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Last but surely not least, in the final segment of my three part blog where I have examined the made-for-TV horrors, I will take a look at some of my favorite horror television series. The television series is unique in that it gives the creators more time to flesh out a character or mythology for a particular property, rather than the limited time available for a movie or mini-series. Usually a series gains more followers or cult status due to the extended exposure that comes with more episodes. There are so many horror related TV shows which I feel are the best in the genre, but I’m going to try to limit them to the top 10.
-Hammer House of Horror
This was an anthology series from famed British film studio Hammer. It aired in 1980 and only ran for 13 episodes. These episodes featured a slightly different format than what was produced for their cinema offerings. These shows usually featured a plot twist at the end similar to shows like The Twilight Zone. The episodes featured everything from witches, Satanism, monsters, and serial killers. The show was unique in that it had excellent stories and was made quite well with some really good scares. The shows featured some of the best actors in British cinema, including Peter Cushing, Brian Cox, Pierce Brosnan, Denholm Elliott, Robert Urquhart, and Diana Dors.
The episode for me which stood out the most was called “The Children of the Full Moon”, and featured a kindly woman with a large family hiding a terrible secret.
Watch the opening title sequence here,
-Millennium
Millennium aired on the Fox network from 1996 to 1999, and was created by Chris Carter who also created The X-Files. The show centered on Frank Black (Lance Henriksen), an ex-FBI agent and law enforcement consultant who had the ability to get inside the minds of murderers and serial killers. He worked for a mysterious organization known as The Millennium Group. The series had its own mythology which dealt with some supernatural, demonic, and apocalyptic stories involving the coming millennium in 2000. The show was extremely dark and bleak in tone which is what I loved the most about it.
Alongside Lance Henriksen, it starred Megan Gallagher, Terry O'Quinn, Brittany Tiplady, Bill Smitrovich, and Stephen J. Lang. Unfortunately, due to dwindling viewership, Fox cancelled the series in 1999.
Watch the opening credits for Millennium,
-American Gothic It originally aired on CBC from 1995 to 1996, and lasted only one season. It was created by Shaun Cassidy (The Hardy Boys), and executive produced by Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead).
The show was set in the heart of South Carolina in a small town called Trinity. In this town not everyone are as they seem and everyone seems to follow their leader, Sheriff Lucas Buck... who might not be as human as he seems.
American Gothic had a stellar cast, including Gary Cole as Sheriff Lucas Buck, Lucas Black, Paige Turco, Brenda Bakke, Sarah Paulson, Jake Weber, and Nick Searcy.
The show was such an underrated gem that didn’t deserve to be cancelled after just one season. It was truly chilling and macabre.
“Someone’s at the door”
Watch the series trailer,
-Tales from the Darkside
Tales from the Darkside is another anthology horror series which was produced by George A. Romero (Night of the Living Dead). It originally aired in syndication from 1983 to 1988. Each episode was a short story with a twist, similar to Tales from the Crypt, Night Gallery, and The Twilight Zone.
Many of the shows episodes were written by famous authors of the genre, including Stephen King, George A. Romero, Harlan Ellison, Clive Barker, Robert Bloch, Michael McDowell, and Fredric Brown. Also of note is Romero’s long-time collaborator and make-up FX wizard Tom Savini had his directorial debut with an episode of the show, and went on to direct two more. One of the series highlights was the pilot episode entitled “Trick or Treat” written by Romero.
I always loved the opening credits for the show, the theme and accompanying voice-over was very scary.
“Man lives in the sunlit world of what he believes to be reality. But... there is, unseen by most, an underworld, a place that is just as real, but not as brightly lit... a DARKSIDE.”
Then during the closing credits, there was a second voice-over.
“The dark side is always there, waiting for us to enter, waiting to enter us. Until next time, try to enjoy the daylight.”
Watch the opening title sequence here,
-Rod Serling’s Night Gallery
Night Gallery was another anthology TV series that aired on the NBC network from 1970 to 1973 and featured stories of horror and the macabre. Rod Serling was the show’s creator and the on-air host as well as a major contributor of the scripts. Some of the episodes were down-right scary; some were a little more lighthearted in tone. The one thing that was pretty much the same for all of them was they all featured the trademark Rod Serling plot twist at the end.
Many of the stories were penned and directed by Serling, some were based on stories from famous writers of the genre, including H.P. Lovecraft (Cool Air, Pickman’s Model), August Derleth, Algernon Blackwood, Richard Matheson, Orson Welles, and Clark Ashton Smith.
Another interesting point of interest is that the eerie paintings used to introduce each episode were all painted by artist Tom Wright, and depicted each episode.
My favorite episode of the show was “Pickman’s Model” based on a Lovecraft story. It was very creepy and featured a cool monster, which was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Make-up.
Watch the Night Gallery intro here,
-Werewolf The Series
Werewolf aired on the then fledgling Fox network during its inaugural season from 1987 to 1988. Again, as with many of these series, Werewolf only ran for one season. The show featured protagonist Eric Cord (John J. York-Night of the Creeps, General Hospital) as the unlucky recipient of a werewolf bite, thus cursing him to become a werewolf as well. He determines the only way to rid himself of his curse is to kill the originator of his bloodline. He goes on a quest each week to find the originator of the bloodline, Janos Skorzeny (Chuck Connors in his last television appearance), and is dogged by a bounty hunter, “Alamo” Joe (Lance LeGault-The A-Team) out to stop him. Eric Cord’s character traveled from town to town each episode similar to shows like The Hitchhiker and The Incredible Hulk.
The show featured state-of-the-art make-up FX by Academy Award winning Greg Cannom (Bram Stoker’s Dracula). The show’s werewolves were 7 foot tall, bipedal, and extremely ferocious looking. For the transformation scenes, the character’s hand would show a pentagram shaped scar that would rise, thicken, and begin to bleed as the metamorphosis began.
Werewolf was such a cool series, one of my favorites, it’s such a shame it only lasted one season and has never been released to DVD. In a bit of trivia, Chuck Connor’s character Janos Skorzeny is named after Barry Atwater’s vampire in The Night Stalker television movie in 1972.
Watch the intro here,
-Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Buffy aired on the WB network from 1997 to 2003 and ran for seven seasons. The show created by writer/director Joss Whedon, featured the exploits of Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar-The Grudge) as a high school vampire slayer. Slayers are from a long line of girls who are chosen to do battle with vampires, demons, monsters, and the forces of evil. She is aided by her “Watcher” Giles (Anthony Stewart Head), who guides, teaches, and trains her in the ways of being a slayer. Buffy has her close friends (The Scooby gang) who help her in her exploits, including Xander (Nicholas Brendon), Willow (Alyson Hannigan), Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter), Spike (James Marsters), and Anya (Emma Caulfield).
The series featured its own mythology shows as well as the monster-of-the-week shows popularized by other similar shows. Buffy had strong writing which made it extremely popular with the younger demographics. Buffy was one of the best shows of its type and featured a spin-off show based on the character of Angel the vampire.
Watch the Buffy opening credits,
Kolchak: The Night Stalker
Kolchak ran on ABC from 1974 to 1975, and again only lasted one season. The show was preceded by two television movies, The Night Stalker (1972) and The Night Strangler (1973). The premise of the show featured Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin-A Christmas Story) as a Chicago newspaper reporter who investigates stories that others will not pursue, including the police. These investigations led him to stories that featured supernatural elements including vampires, werewolves, mummies, zombies, witches, succubus, Native American spirits, extraterrestrials, and others.
The Night Stalker also continued the character of Editor Tony Vincenzo (Simon Oakland) from the two television movies. Other cast included Ron Updyke (Jack Grinnage), Emily Cowles (Ruth McDevitt), and Monique Marmelstein (Carol Ann Susi). It was one of the first TV shows to feature a different monster-of-the-week format which became more popular in shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and The X-Files. Kolchak was resurrected by ABC again in 2005 for a short-lived series that was cancelled before the end of the first season. The Night Stalker is also planned for a big screen movie directed by Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead) and to star Johnny Depp.
Kolchak: The Night Stalker was one of my first experiences with horror on TV and it scared the crap out of me on a weekly basis, which is the reason the show will permanently hold a place in my heart. It may not hold up as well today as it did in 1974, but it’s still one of the best examples of horror television ever made. In a bit of trivia, Kolchak: The Night Stalker was one of the main inspirations for Chris Carter to create The X-Files show.
Watch the series opening credit sequence here,
-The Walking Dead
The Walking Dead needs no introduction, unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past two years. This hugely popular cable series premiered on Halloween 2010 and is still in production with season 3 set to air on AMC this coming October. The series is based on the Robert Kirkman comic of the same name. The series follows the exploits of Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), a sheriff’s deputy who wakes in a hospital after being in a coma, only to discover the world has been taken over by “Walkers” or zombies. He tries to find his family and finds other survivors along the way.
The series is held in high regards by fans and critics alike for its very strong characterizations and story lines and has set ratings records for the network. The series also stars Jon Bernthal, Sarah Wayne Callies, Laurie Holden, Jeffrey DeMunn, Steven Yeun, Chandler Riggs, Norman Reedus, IronE Singleton, Lauren Cohan, and Scott Wilson. The show was developed for TV by Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption), Gale Anne Hurd (Aliens), and Glen Mazzara.
The show features some of the most gripping television I’ve ever watched; each episode is an edge-of-your-seat experience. The Walking Dead also features the best zombie make-up I’ve ever seen, either on TV or film. This show is a true juggernaut in every sense of the word. It will definitely open the door for more zombie horror on TV and film for years to come, like it or not.
Watch the trailer,
-The X-Files
The X-Files aired on the Fox network from 1993 to 2002, and was created and executive produced by Chris Carter. The show was a mixture of science fiction and horror. It features FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) in their investigations of X-Files: unsolved cases involving paranormal phenomena. Mulder’s character is the believer in the existence of extraterrestrials and the paranormal, while Scully’s character is the skeptic, a medical doctor assigned to debunk Mulder’s theories. As the series progresses, the two develop a close relationship starting out as friends and progressing towards romantic involvement. The show has at its base, a deep mythology storyline involving big government conspiracies concerning the existence of aliens where Mulder and Scully are pawns of their government. The show is also a to a greater degree, a monster-of-the-week show with everything from werewolves, mutations, monsters, and too many more to mention.
The rest of the cast includes Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi), Alex Krycek (Nicholas Lea), Cigarette Smoking Man (William B. Davis), Frohike (Tom Braidwood), Byers (Bruce Harwood), Langly (Dean Haglund).
The characters of Mulder and Scully were so well written; you cared so much about them and what happens to them. Duchovny and Anderson’s chemistry together was undeniable and made for great scenes with each other. I have to say, out of all the horror TV series that have come down the pipe over the years, The X-Files is my hands down favorite of the bunch. I have never cared so much about a show before or its characters as I cared about this one. The episodes were compelling, gripping, and downright scary at times.
The series spawned two feature films with plans for another in the future, a spin-off series, The Lone Gunman, comic books, conventions, and countless die-hard fans. The series added phrases from the series that have become part of our pop-culture lexicon:
“Trust No One”
“The Truth is Out There”
“I Want to Believe”
Long live Mulder and Scully!
Watch the opening here,
When it comes to the made-for-TV horror films that were made, none were more of an event than those that were made to be a mini-series. These were treated specially because they usually aired for two or more nights, and were huge ratings boosts for whatever network aired them. The television mini-series seems to have disappeared from today’s network television schedules. In the 1970’s and 80’s, they were hugely popular. I suppose with today’s shrinking attention spans, maybe network executives figure no one will tune in on more than one consecutive night to watch. In this article, I will examine some of my favorite television horror mini-series based on my preferences only, not necessarily the biggest or best.
 House of Frankenstein 1997
This 4 hour mini-series aired first on October 28, 1997 on the NBC network. Detective Coyle is trying to solve several bizarre murders and is having no luck finding a suspect. But when his girlfriend turns into a werewolf and gets kidnapped by a vampire, things start to fall into place.
House of Frankenstein revives Universal studios classic threesome of monsters, the vampire (Crispian Grimes), Frankenstein’s monster (Peter Crombie), and the werewolf (Teri Polo). This interpretation is set in Los Angeles in the late 90’s. The vampire owns a nightclub called House of Frankenstein and is where vamps hang out. The Make-up FX are top-notch and acting is solid by all involved.
Watch a brief clip here,
 Stephen King’s It 1990
It aired as a two-part television mini-series on November 18 and November 20, 1990 on ABC. The film's all-star cast includes Dennis Christopher, Annette O'Toole, John Ritter, Richard Thomas, Tim Reid, Michael Cole, and Tim Curry as the evil Pennywise. British actress Olivia Hussey appears in Part 2 as Audra.
The story revolves around an inter-dimensional predatory creature called “IT”, which has the ability to transform itself into its prey’s worst nightmares allowing it to exploit the fears of its victims. At the heart of the story are the main protagonists called “The Lucky Seven”, a group of social outcasts who discover “IT” and vow to destroy him. The movie takes place during two different time periods. First when the group are children and they discover “IT” and then 30 years later as adults when they come together to do battle with “IT”.
Stephen King’s IT is wonderfully creepy and at the same time, heartfelt in its portrayals of “The Lucky Seven”. Tim Curry does an outstanding job playing the evil Pennywise and the rest of the cast is incredible. For those who haven’t seen this yet, do yourself a favor and take the time to watch.
Watch the trailer here,
 Salem’s Lot 1979
Salem’s Lot is another Stephen King book adaptation that aired on CBS in November of 1979. The film directed by Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), starred David Soul, James Mason, Lance Kerwin, Bonnie Bedelia, Lew Ayres, Geoffrey Lewis and Reggie Nalder as Barlow.
The story centers around Ben Mears (David Soul-Starsky and Hutch), an author, returning to his home town of Salem’s Lot to write a book about a locally rumored haunted house called the Marsten House. Mears finds the Marsten House has been recently bought by an ominous stranger, Richard Straker (James Mason-20,000 Leagues under the Sea). When a large crate is delivered to the Marsten House one night, people in town begin to die of unnatural causes. Mears discovers that Straker is the protector of a master vampire named Barlow.
Mears befriends a teenage boy named Mark (Lance Kerwin) who’s a horror movie buff and can help. The vampires start to spread; Mears and Mark must try to stop them before they take over the entire town.
Salem’s Lot is a very creepy movie, when I was a kid, several scenes really scared me. The scene when the Glick boy is floating outside Mark’s window as a vampire, beckoning Mark to let him in with the mist surrounding was really creepy, also when vampires are slowly crawling towards Mark in the Marsten House basement is another incredibly scary scene. Barlow’s vampire design is very rat-like, reminiscent of Count Orlok from Nosferatu. Director Tobe Hooper made a very effective vampire chiller not to be missed.
Watch the trailer here,
 Count Dracula 1977
Count Dracula originally aired in two parts for the BBC in the UK in December of 1977. It stars Louis Jourdan, Frank Finlay, Susan Penhaligon, Judi Bowker, Jack Shepherd, and Bosco Hogan. This BBC mini-series is widely regarded as the most faithful film adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel.
Jonathan Harker (Bosco Hogan) visits Count Dracula (Louis Jourdan) at his castle to help him complete the purchase of his house in London. The Count takes a definite interest in a photo of Harker's fiancée Mina (Judi Bowker) and her sister Lucy (Susan Penhaligon). He imprisons Harker deep within the castle then moves to London where he has plans to take Mina and Lucy as his own. It is left to Dr. Van Helsing (Frank Finlay), an expert in strange and obscure diseases to stop Dracula.
I remember one scene in particular where Dracula brought his brides an infant to feed on that had the censors going crazy at the time. Jourdan played an excellent Dracula, one of the best.
Watch the trailer here, the quality is marginal.
 The Kingdom 1994
The Kingdom is an 8 episode Danish television mini-series, created by Lars Von Trier (Melancholia). It stars, Ernst-Hugo Järegård, Kirsten Rolffes, Holger Juul Hansen and Udo Kier.
The Kingdom is the most advanced hospital in Denmark. A rash of uncanny occurrences weaken the staff’s faith in medical science, a phantom ambulance pulls in every night, but disappears; voices echo in the hallways; a pregnant doctor’s fetus develops far faster than is medically possible. The show follows a number of characters, both staff and patients, as they encounter bizarre phenomena, both natural and supernatural.
Watch the trailer here,
 Something is Out There 1988
While not entirely horror per say, it does have a cool alien monster that makes it all worth-while. This mini-series aired on NBC in 1988 and ran for two nights. It proved to be so popular, it spawned a short-lived television series. It stars Joe Cortese (Tales from the Darkside) as a police detective investigating a series of brutal murders in which organs have been removed from the victims. He discovers the murders are being committed by an alien creature who has escaped from an alien prison starship. He teams up with a beautiful medical officer from that ship, Ta'Ra (Maryam d'Abo-The Living Daylights) to track the creature down.
This mini-series was action packed and featured a lot of monster mayhem.
Watch the trailer here,
 The Stand 1994
Yet another Stephen King book adaptation is on my list, his work was very prolific on television. It was aired by ABC in 1994. It was directed by frequent King devotee Mick Garris (Bag of Bones, Masters of Horror, Desperation, Riding the Bullet, The Shining, Sleepwalkers) and starring Gary Sinise, Molly Ringwald, Jamey Sheridan, Ruby Dee, Corin Nemec, Matt Frewer, and Rob Lowe.
When a virus escapes from a government run facility, 99% of the earth’s population is wiped out. Those who are immune to the virus form into two camps. The first is led by Mother Abigail on the good side and Randall Flagg leads the evil survivors. There becomes a final confrontation between the representatives of the good and evil camps.
The Stand is one of the best Stephen King adaptations filmed, full of rich characters and thrilling suspense sequences.
Watch the trailer here,
Be sure to watch for part 3 of my Made-for-TV Terrors where I will be examining Horror television series.
I have wonderful memories of the 70’s and 80’s made-for-TV movies. They are another relic of the past, since they don’t seem to exist anymore in the 21st century world of television. Bygone are the days of the movie of the week, they produced many well-made genre offerings. Of course, my favorites were always the scary ones that aired from time to time. Many of the genre’s greatest writers, director’s, and actors would showcase their work in this format, Stan Winston, Richard Matheson, Stephen King, Dan Curtis, just to name a few. Most of the time the telefilm had much smaller budgets and more limited resources than their feature film counterparts did, so the makers of these films had to be much more creative with what they put on screen, often times resulting in some real gems of the genre. I would like to examine some of my favorite telefilms that I liked the best. My list does not necessarily include the best that the genre has to offer, but more of what I liked and what scared me. This list is in no particular order.
 Gargoyles (1972) originally aired on the CBS network. It stars Cornel Wilde as Dr. Boley, an anthropologist who is traveling with his daughter Diana (Jennifer Salt) through the American Southwest and is brought to the site of a skeleton of a creature that no one has seen before. While investigating the skeleton at a roadside museum, Boley and his daughter are taken to a shack by the old man who runs the museum. The old man tells of Indian legends about “winged devils” that live up in the rocks and he wants the Dr. to write a book about them and split the profits. The old man locks the door to the shack because the sun is setting. Suddenly, they are attacked by creatures that seem to be after the skeleton that Boley wants to study. It turns out the legendary gargoyles have just awaked from a 500 year hibernation in order to hatch their eggs in order to fulfill an ancient prophecy of the gargoyles taking over mankind. Dr. Boley and his daughter must enlist the help of some locals to defeat the gargoyles before they can regain control over the human race.
Some notable facts about this production include a bit part by a young Scott Glen (The Right Stuff) and the scene stealing gargoyle creature design by Stan Winston (Terminator, Jurassic Park, Aliens). While watching this film in 1972, it really scared me and I’ve always remembered that, especially the scenes of the gargoyles that were shown in slow-motion to give them a more menacing appearance. This was one of the finest horror telefilms of the 1970’s.
 Death Moon (1978) also aired on the CBS network. It stars Robert Foxworth as Jason Palmer, a business man suffering from nightmares, so his doctor orders him to take a vacation to relieve his stress. He chooses Hawaii for his holiday and once there continues to have nightmares and starts having blackouts and when he awakens, he finds that there have been murders by some wild animal. Jason chats up all the young, beautiful stewardesses on layover and develops a love interest for a businesswoman Diane (Barbara Trentham) in Hawaii for a business conference. Jason soon discovers that he has been the victim of an ancient family voodoo curse that transforms him into a bloodthirsty werewolf and murders young women during the seemingly endless Hawaiian full moon cycle. Joe Penny (Jake and the Fatman) portrays a hotel detective investigating jewel thefts and must solve the murders of hotel guests by some wild animal.
The plot for Death Moon is barely there, and there are many inconsistencies. Also the werewolf makeup is very basic even for television standards, but there is something about this movie that has always stuck with me and I love it, cheese and all. I will always remember a scene from this movie, there is a full moon overhead, a party is raging in a room and Joe Penny as the hotel detective is hot on the heels of the jewel thief, chasing him through the hotel. The thief played by Charles Haid (Hill Stree Blues) crashes the party, running through the room and out the front door which he slams behind him. Joe Penny is following and goes to open up the door and suddenly, right there, is a snarling werewolf clawing at him. He closes the door quickly with his back to it, not realizing what he just saw. I tell you that scene scarred me for life, in a good way. Death Moon may not be one of the best horror telefilms ever made, but it’s one of my top movies.
Check out a brief scene from the movie, it's labeled as "worst werewolf transformation scene ever", but I have to disagree.
 Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981), starred Charles Durning, Robert F. Lyons, Lane Smith, and Larry Drake. It is a very atmospheric and creepy telefilm in which a retarded man, Bubba (Larry Drake-Dr. Giggles) is unjustly accused of attacking and killing a young girl in a rural, small town. The local postman Otis (Charles Durning-When a Stranger Calls) and his cronies dislike Bubba and are always giving him a hard time. When they hear erroneously that the little girl was killed by Bubba, they form a posse to track him down and bring their own form of vigilante justice. Bubba hides in a cornfield disguised as a scarecrow but is tracked down by Otis and his posse. They shoot and kill Bubba, leaving him in the cornfield. Otis and his friends later learn the girl is still alive and that Bubba had actually saved the girl from being attacked by a vicious dog. Not caring that Bubba was really innocent, Otis lies in court, saying that Bubba came at him and his friends with a weapon and they had no choice but to defend themselves, with the judge agreeing. Otis and his pals thinking they got off scot-free, begin to be stalked by a mysterious, supernatural scarecrow.
Director Frank De Felitta has crafted a yearn that evokes a good many chills in his highly effective supernatural thriller. Performances are uniform throughout with the best performances coming from Durning and Drake. Dark Night of the Scarecrow comes in as one of the creepiest made-for-TV films of the 80’s and is worth searching out as an almost forgotten gem.
 The Night Stalker (1972) aired on the ABC network. It starred Darren McGavin, Carol Lynley, Simon Oakland, Claude Akins, and Barry Atwater. Karl Kolchak (Darren McGavin-A Christmas Story) is a big-time, big-city newspaper reporter who has been fired from all of his big city newspaper jobs due to his abrasive personality and uncanny ability to get to the truth, no matter what the cost. He’s landed a job in Las Vegs from his editor friend Vincenzo (Simon Oakland-The Night Strangler) when the story of his life just landed on his lap, but will anyone let him print the truth? It seems as if young women are being murdered and drained of all their blood with bite marks on their necks. Is there a real, live vampire on the loose in Las Vegas? Kolchak is the only one willing to get to the real truth about the murders, but will it get him killed in the process?
Produced by Dan Curtis, the man behind Dark Shadows, Trilogy of Terror, Burn Offerings, Bram Stokers Dracula, and many more, and written by Richard Matheson, who wrote the legendary novel I am Legend among countless other works in the horror/sci-fi genre. Karl Kolchak’s character was so popular, it spawned a sequel, The Night Strangler (1973) and a television series all his own, Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974-1975). On a side note, Kolchak: The Night Stalker was the inspiration for Chris Carter and his X-Files hit television show. The Night Stalker is an extremely well-made and creepy telefilm, a must see for anyone who has never seen it.
 Vampire (1979) originally aired on ABC, with an all-star cast including, Richard Lynch, E.G. Marshall, Jason Miller, Kathryn Harrold, and Joe Spinell. At the groundbreaking of a new church in San Francisco, the bright sun shines on a large cross, making a shadow on the ground, the earth smokes and the outline of the cross is burned into the earth. Later after dark when all are gone, the dark outline of someone clawing their way out of the earth appears onscreen. The 40 year slumber of Anton Voytek (Richard Lynch-Rob Zombie’s Halloween) has been interrupted by the church groundbreaking. The site was blessed as they broke ground and a vampire cannot be on hallowed ground. The vampire Voytek seeks revenge against architects that caused him to lose his valuable art treasures he has acquired over the ages. A retired detective, Harry Kilcoyne (E.G. Marshall-Creepshow) knows the truth about Voytek and vows to destroy him before the vampire can kill everyone he loves.
This was originally the pilot for a hopeful television series that never got off the ground. Lynch plays a suave, sophisticated, yet evil vampire in this film. Lynch was forever typecast as the heavy in his roles due to his gravelly voice and sinister look. Vampire was gothic and atmospheric with its share of chills and thrills. Since it was a made-for-TV film, it lacked really any blood or gruesomeness in the vampire killings, but that’s to be expected for TV of the time. Overall, this was a creepy show with great atmosphere; Lynch plays a cool vampire that you wouldn’t want to mess with.
 Snowbeast (1977) originally aired on the NBC network. Starring Bo Svenson, Yvette Mimieux, Robert Logan, and Clint Walker. A Colorado ski resort is terrorized by a mysterious creature that’s neither human nor animal. Snowbeast follows the Jaws formula where a winter carnival is going on at the ski resort, a guest is attacked and killed by the creature, the head of the ski patrol Tony (Robert Logan-Mountain Family Robinson) catches a glimpse of the creature as it disappears into the woods. He warns the owner of the resort about it, wanting to close down the lodge before anyone else gets killed, but she wants to suppress it in order to save the winter carnival. The local sheriff (Clint Walker-The Night of the Grizzly) believes it to be a bear doing the killing and will not call off the winter carnival. Tony recruits his friend Gar (Bo Svenson-Walking Tall part 2), an ex-Olympic skier and persuades the sheriff to try to track the beast down and kill it, but the Snowbeast has other plans in mind, it’s ticked off and it’s hungry.
This was a really well-made telefilm, full of suspense and scares. It was written by Joseph Stefano who wrote many episodes of The Outer Limits. It used a lot of the creature POV which I thought really added to the fright in combination with good, scary music. The filmmakers wisely decided not to show the creature very often, adding to the fright and I’m sure due to budgetary limitations. This is a good creature feature, when I watched it; it scared the crap out of me when I was a kid.
 Moon of the Wolf (1972) originally aired on ABC. A fairly creepy made for TV movie which originally aired in 1972. Starring David Jansen, Barbara Rush, Bradford Dillman, Geoffrey Lewis. A small town sheriff (David Jansen-The Fugitive) in Louisiana investigates a series of murders that point to a supernatural mystery. A prominent family in town is hiding a horrific secret, a family curse that leads to a terrifying revelation; a blood-thirsty werewolf is on the loose!
It’s an effective chiller that was pretty well-made for the day. Due to the usual limited TV budgets, the werewolf make-up is very minimal, almost laughable by today’s standards, but in 1972, it was pretty good. David Jansen was effective playing the small town sheriff trying to track down the killer. It had a fair amount of chilling sequences involving the werewolf. It was another TV chiller that frightened me as a kid.
 Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (1973) aired on the ABC network. It starred Kim Darby, Jim Hutton, Barbara Anderson, and William Demarest. Sally (Kim Darby-True Grit) and her husband Alex (Jim Hutton-Ellery Queen) inherit her family’s spooky mansion, and they decide to move in. Sally begins to redecorate with the help of a decorator. She finds a locked room that no one seems to have the key for, except the handyman. He insists that the room stay locked, but after arguing with him, Sally gets the key. Upon entering the room, they find the fireplace and ash pit are sealed shut. She has the fireplace and ash pit opened up. Afterwards, strange things begin to happen; Sally sees small creatures in the house. She tells her husband and others but they do not believe her, they think she’s going crazy. The miniature monsters only come out at night because they are afraid of the dark. The situation turns deadly when the evil creatures kill someone, then they come after Sally, wanting to keep her for their own.
This is a really scary little movie, filled with creepy scenes and wonderful atmosphere. Kim Darby does a wonderful job of playing a neurotic woman, besieged by these creatures. It has a great premise and the director pulls no punches when it comes to executing some serious hair-raising scares that will make you want to sleep with your light on.
Watch for part 2 of my tribute to Made-for-TV Terrors where I will examine my favorite horror Mini-series.
As a fan of horror since an early age, I’ve always gravitated towards the dark things in life, whether it is scary movies, books, or music. You can’t tell by looking at me, because I look deceptively normal, but I’ve loved extreme heavy metal music since I was in high school in the early 1980’s. There are so many different sub-genres of metal I listen to like black metal, thrash metal, speed metal, death metal, doom metal, and the one I’m going to talk about…Horror metal. Horror metal describes extreme music that is heavily influenced by horror, whether it is movies or just atmosphere. Horror metal can be defined by its themes rather than the music. Horror metal bands are usually horror movies fanatics and make great use of references to the latter in their lyrics. They also often incorporate movies or original soundtrack samples in their songs. Horror and heavy metal music pretty much go hand in hand with each other. The bands I’m going to list showcase some of the best that horror metal has to offer.
 King Diamond King Diamond-King Diamond is the stage name of one of my favorite performers of the genre. He has been in music since 1974; He is a Grammy nominated vocalist known for his vocal range, in particular his use of falsetto. One of this Danish born singers signature trademarks is his shrill, high pitched vocal style that’s unforgettable if you’ve ever heard him sing. Another of his signature trademarks is his facial makeup. He uses black and white stage makeup usually with an inversed crucifix and blood. Diamond formed the famed band Mercyful Fate and his own self-titled band, King Diamond. Diamond uses horror themed theatrics for both his stage show and as inspiration for his albums. Diamond was heavily influenced by Alice Cooper for his stage show. He uses a microphone handle made out of a tibia bone and a femur bone in the shape of a cross. Diamond is a self-professed Satanist, he follows LaVeyan Satanism named after the infamous Anton Lavey. King Diamond’s music and horror themed conceptual albums are well written, creepy, and display a love of all things that go bump in the night.
 Necrophagia-They are an American death metal band from Ohio. The name Necrophagia is derived from the act of cannibalizing or eating a corpse. They are one of the first bands to be classified as death metal, but the groups lead singer and founder, Killjoy does not consider Necrophagia as a death metal band. They focused on gore and horror movies since their beginning and are credited as the pioneers of the horror metal subgenre. Frontman Killjoy says, “I consider it a horror/gore band, like the soundtrack to a nightmare, You're WORST nightmare.” Killjoy has always been an avid fan of horror for as long as he could remember, it is very obvious, it almost seems he is obsessed with horror movies by the titles of some of his songs, for example, “Chainsaw Lust”, “Autopsy On the Living Dead”, “It Lives in the Woods”, “They Dwell Beneath”, and “Cannibal Holocaust”. Killjoy tries to push the envelope as much as possible concerning his horror movie song lyrics and especially their music videos. When watching a Necrophagia music video, you would think you were watching a short horror film.
Warning: This video is not to be viewed by children under 18, not for the faint of heart!
 Rob Zombie Rob Zombie-He is a musician, film director, screenwriter, and film producer. He founded the heavy metal band White Zombie and also his self-titled band Rob Zombie. Zombie’s directorial and screenwriting credits include, House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil’s Rejects, Rob Zombie’s Halloween, Halloween 2, and the upcoming The Lords of Salem. His band White Zombie had lyrics heavily by horror films and pseudo-Satanic imagery. One of Rob Zombie’s most popular albums, Hellbilly Deluxe was very successful, it sold over 3 million copies, and included the hit singles “Dragula”, “Living Dead Girl”, “Superbeast”. The song “Dragula” was inspired by the ‘60’s TV series The Munster’s. The dragula was a dragster built by Grandpa Munster, built from a coffin.
 Gwar-They are an outrageous shock-rock metal band that are known for their elaborate science fiction/horror film inspired costumes, obscene lyrics, and graphic stage performances. During their concerts, they spray the audience with blood and all other forms of fake bodily fluids. Gwar references many horror movies in their music; they also have many references to H.P. Lovecraft themes (Antarctica, Yig, Giant Penguins, Fleshy Insanities, and Cthulhu). The band member names are just as outrageous as their stage shows, Oderus Urungus is the lead singer, Balsac the Jaws of Death is lead guitarist, Beefcake the Mighty is their bassist, and Jizmak Da Gusha is the drummer. The fictional origins for Oderus Urungus is that he’s 43 billion years old, and was assembled on a planet called Scumdogia in "Syntho Womb 5" after pieces of his mouldy war frame were found scattered throughout the galaxy. According to interviews, Oderus' father was a supercomputer, and his mother was a petri dish. The origins for the rest of the group are just as whacky.
 Mortician-They are a horror metal/death metal two piece band from New York, founded in 1989. They are heavily inspired by horror movies which are expressed in their lyrics, artwork, and the use of samples of horror movies throughout their discography. Hacked Up for Barbeque, Chainsaw Dismemberment, Darkest Day of Horror, Re-Animated Dead Flesh, House by the Cemetery are some of their album names.
 Cannibal Corpse-They are a death metal band from Buffalo, New York formed in 1988. They have a large cult following and are an extremely controversial band due to their album covers and lyrics which both draw heavily from horror fiction and horror films. Several times throughout their career, many countries have banned Cannibal Corpse from playing within their borders or have banned the sale and display of their original album covers. In 1995, US Senator Bob Dole accused Cannibal Corpse of undermining the national character of the United States. Some of Cannibal Corpse's most controversial song titles include "Meat Hook Sodomy", "Entrails Ripped from a Virgin's C**t", "Necropedophile", and "F***ed with a Knife". Lead vocalist George Fisher said in an interview: "We don't sing about politics. We don't sing about religion...All our songs are short stories that, if anyone would so choose they could convert it into a horror movie. Really, that's all it is. We like gruesome, scary movies, and we want the lyrics to be like that. Yeah, it's about killing people, but it's not promoting it at all. Basically these are fictional stories, and that's it. And anyone who gets upset about it is ridiculous." [1] [1] ^ Fisher, Mark (January 2004). "Interview: George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher - 2004". Mark's Record Reviews. Retrieved 2009-02-05.
 Some heavy metal bands are not classified as horror metal but I would like to include a video or two from some of these mainly because they deal with horror in their songs and videos.
Type O Negative-This band is a gothic metal band formed in 1991 from Brooklyn, New York. Their lyrics emphasized themes of romance, depression, and death, and were nicknamed “The Drab Four” (In homage to The Beatles). “Black No.1 (Little Miss Scare-All)” is a single from their album Bloody Kisses. The lyrics detail a woman involved in the Goth sub-culture, and has references to Halloween, Nosferatu, and Lily Munster.
 Ozzy Osbourne-I’ve included Ozzy because I love his “Bark at the Moon” video. The lyrics for the song written by Osbourne and video are from 1983. The song itself is about a werewolf that once terrorized a town, was killed and then resurrected itself to once more wreak havoc. The music video, however, is about a scientist (played by Osbourne) who accidentally turns himself into a werewolf, is killed, and resurrected as a free human again. In the early ‘80’s, Osbourne was influenced by films like An American Werewolf in London, The Howling, Michael Jackson’s Thriller video, Wolfen, The Company of Wolves. Werewolves were prolific in the early 1980’s and had a big influence on popular culture. Osbourne wanted to capitalize on the werewolf craze, creating “Bark at the Moon.” On a side note, Osbourne wanted Oscar winning makeup artist Rick Baker (An American Werewolf in London) to create the werewolf makeup for his video, but Baker was taking a break. Oscar winning makeup artist Greg Cannom (Bram Stoker’s Dracula) stepped in to eventually create the werewolf design.
In closing, there are many extreme horror metal bands in existence that definitely show a love of the horror genre. I’ll be the first to admit this type of music is definitely not for all tastes, but if you like heavy, aggressive, metal with lyrics dealing with death, horror movies, and other aberrations then check out some of these bands. In the coming months I will continue showcasing more of these bands that delve heavily into horror so stay tuned.
 As with some of my previous blogs, I like to reminisce about my childhood experiences with horror and delve into what made me the horror fanatic I am today. One of my fondest memories is when I was 7 or 8 years old and had gotten my hands on some of the book-and-record sets put out by a company called Power Records. Power Records was a branch of record label Peter Pan Records that specialized in children’s music. Power Records was geared towards older children. The book-and-record sets frequently featured original comic books along with an extended-play 7" record of the story. These book-and-records sets were meant to aid in helping children with reading. The tie-in to popular characters of the time would be the first in a long, successful series of story records based on television shows, comics and movies. They had dozens of titles including such subjects as Superman, Batman, and Spiderman of the comics, Star Trek, Six Million Dollar Man, and Kojak from television, and some of the Planet of the Apes movies. What drew me in was their line of monster book-and-record sets. Their monster series was primarily based on Marvel comics characters.
 A favorite of mine from this series was titled, The Curse of the Werewolf. It featured comics character Jack Russell, the lead in Marvel’s Werewolf by Night comic series. It tells the story of how Jack Russell was cursed to become a werewolf. It recounts his family heritage and how his father became a werewolf, that he passed his curse down to his son Jack, and on his 18th birthday he would become a werewolf. It’s a wonderfully exciting story, full of frights and the music from the record was really creepy. The comic was full color and included a 45 rpm record of the story to listen to as you read.
Read and listen to this story here:
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 Another in the series was a Frankenstein story entitled The Monster of Frankenstein. It retells the story of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein as Victor recounts his efforts to create life out of the corpses he has stolen. He successfully manages to bring life to his creature but realizes he has made a grave mistake as the monster is uncontrollable in his bloodlust to destroy everything that is dear to its creator. After succumbing to grief and exhaustion from the loss of his family to the monster, Victor ends up in an asylum. Months later, he is released with a vow to track down the monster and seek revenge for his family. He tracks his monster to the arctic and faces an exciting and harrowing conclusion. This is another great story made even more so by the wonderful voice acting, sound effects, and creepy music score. It included a full color comic and a 45 rpm record of the story.
Click here to listen to the audio for this story:
 The next in the monster series was Dracula-Terror in the Snow. It was also based on a Marvel comic character from their series The Tomb of Dracula. It was a reprint from the original comic with a story by the famed writer Marv Wolfman. The granddaughter of Abraham Van Helsing is trapped in the Transylvanian Alps with Dracula after a helicopter crash. The two need each other to survive, each hating the other with all their passion. Rachel needs Dracula in order to survive the ordeal and Dracula needs her as a possible food source if they are stranded too long. The blizzard filled mountains provide a harrowing backdrop to this suspenseful story. The voice acting is good as well as the sound effects. It also includes a full color comic book and a 45 rpm record of the story.
Read and listen to this story here:
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 Continuing in the series is the Man-Thing in his story called Night of the Laughing Dead. The Man-Thing was Marvel’s answer to the more popular Swamp Thing character from rival DC comics. The story begins as a carnival clown commits suicide by shooting himself in the head (great children’s story, right). He was in love with a woman who didn’t return his love so he couldn’t make people laugh as a clown when all he felt inside was pain and sadness. The Man-Thing comes across his body and decides to bury him deep in the swamp. The clown does not rest in peace when his ghost tries to seek peace and crosses paths with his girlfriend and some carnival villains; the Man-Thing must come to the rescue. This story was one of the more morbid stories in the monster series and I find it hard to believe that the subject matter was approved for children. This also followed the same format as the others providing a full color comic with a 45 rpm record.
Read and listen to the story here:
 The next release was a little different format compared to the other releases, this one contained a larger 33 rpm record and a larger LP size comic. A Story of Dracula, The Wolfman, and Frankenstein was released in 1975. It was an anthology that combined the story of the 3 monsters similar to Universal studios monster mash movies like House of Dracula and Frankenstein.
"Frankenstein's monster, Count Dracula, and the Werewolf all meet under unusual and bizarre circumstances in this masterpiece of terror and suspense. Power Records is proud to present this magnificently illustrated original tale. Heightening the intense dramatic portrayal are sound effects and music that will keep you on the edge of your chair. This package is designed to be read and played -- and treasured for years to come."-back cover blurb
It tells the story of Baron Frankenstein’s nephew Vincent and his girlfriend as they are helped by a kindly, aristocratic man who offers them refuge in his castle. Well, he turns out to be Dracula of course, and he wants Frankie’s nephew to create a monster for him that will obey and watch over the Count while he sleeps during the day. Dracula threatens to kill Victor’s girlfriend so he will make him a monster. The monster comes to life and throws Victor’s girlfriend out the castle window and she is attacked by a werewolf, thus turning her into one as well. The action concludes as all 3 monsters clash in the story’s finale. As a child of 8, this was the ultimate monster book-and-record set due to the fact it had all of the “big 3” monsters all in one story. The artwork was fantastic and the record story was terribly exciting and scary all at the same time.
Watch and listen to part 1 & 2 of the story here:
 Finally, this next one was never part of the monster series, but it was a favorite of mine nonetheless. It was a Spiderman story called, The Amazing Spiderman-The Mark of the Man-Wolf! J. Jonah Jameson’s son John was an astronaut who returned from a moon walk. He had a moon stone he picked up that was turned into a pendant he wore. The moon stone possessed a power that turned him into a werewolf during the full moon. He couldn’t take off the pendant because it had grafted itself to his skin. When in wolf form, his instinct was to kill the ones he loved, his father, his fiancé, etc. Spiderman had to save his enemy J. Jonah Jameson by battling the werewolf. It was a great story and an interesting spin on werewolf mythology by using a moon stone as the source of the curse. The Man-Wolf went on to battle and team up with Spiderman in several other issues of Marvel comics.
The Power Records monster series was a huge influence on me when I was a kid. They not only helped me in the reading process but helped scare me as well, thus helping to cement my love of horror and monsters in particular. I will always remember listening to these records as I read along with the stories. The hiss, crackle, and pop of the vinyl records is something I will never forget. It was an art form and media source that was unique to the time, something from a bygone era.
Watch and listen to the story here:
Since today is Friday the 13th, I would like to poll our readers. I want to know what your favorite Friday the 13th film is. Feel free to leave any comments regarding your vote, I would love to hear what you think about your favorite film and why.
Ordinarily, I wouldn’t write about a topic as mundane as breakfast cereal, but in this instance, I will make an exception. Any American horror fan of my generation probably has fond memories of the General Mills monster cereals that came out in the early 1970’s. If you’re outside the US, then this might interest you as a bit of horror trivia.
What could be better to any self-respecting young horror fan than the combining of two of your favorite things, monsters and cereal? These cereals are still around today, albeit now only return from the grave during the month of October (of course), Halloween time. The more popular of these cereals included, Count Chocula, Franken Berry, and Boo Berry. The first two cereals were introduced in 1971; Boo Berry came out in ‘73. Fruit Brute was introduced in 1974 and, much later, Yummy Mummy was introduced in 1987.
 Count Chocula is a cartoon vampire made to impersonate Bela Lugosi’s Count Dracula character from the Universal film. His tagline was “I vant to eat your cereal”. Instead of blood, Count Chocula craved chocolate. In the late 1980’s General Mills altered the design of the monsters to make them “less scary”??? In 1987 there was a box of CC produced that included the image of Bela Lugosi; it’s a real collector’s item today. Count Chocula was the first chocolate cereal introduced to the American cereal market and remains the most popular of the "Big 3” monster cereals.
 Franken Berry is a pink colored Frankenstein’s monster character made to mimic Boris Karloff’s voice portrayal of the monster in the Universal films. Franken Berry is a strawberry flavored cereal that he craves to eat. In an interesting bit of trivia about Franken Berry, it was extremely popular for kids when first introduced because it contained a pink dye that was used to color the cereal that turned the kid’s feces a bright pink color! It was referred to as “Franken Berry stool.” It was soon after changed to a different dye to correct the problem.
 circa 1973 and 2010 Boo Berry is a blueberry flavored cereal whose mascot is a blue colored ghost with the appearance and voice imitating the classic, cult horror actor Peter Lorre. Boo Berry was voiced by the actor Paul Frees who was more famously known as a voice actor, voicing the characters of Santa in Frosty the Snowman, and many other notable roles.
 circa 1975 Fruit Brute is a fruit flavored cereal that has a werewolf as its mascot. It was not as popular as the “Big 3” cereals and was discontinued in 1982. Director Quentin Tarantino favored Fruit Brute as a child and featured the cereal box in Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs.
 circa 1988 Finally, Yummy Mummy was the last monster cereal to be introduced in 1987, but unfortunately, it only lasted until 1992. It featured a fruit colored mummy as the cereal’s mascot. General Mills never really considered Yummy Mummy to be a part of their monster cereal line, but how could they not, right?
 celebrity cereal monsters As a huge fan of the classic Universal monsters, anything related to them pops up on my radar, and the monster cereals were something I fondly remember from my childhood that I wanted to share with my readers. Anything that allows me to share my love of monsters with anyone that will listen is a plus to me. The monster cereals are a part of the American pop culture that will always be a reminder to me that horror can be found in the strangest of places.
I have also included the original television commercials for each of the cereals, enjoy!
As the year draws to a close, it’s time to reflect back and come up with a list that showcases the best that horror has to offer us in 2011. My “best of” list is a bit unorthodox compared to similar year end lists. My list is a best of film, television, literature, and video games all rolled up into one. I don’t want to leave anything out, and if I just made a best of film list, I would feel guilty that I didn’t include everything, and I don’t want to make it more complicated than it needs to be by having four different lists. I must preface this list by saying this is only my opinion of what I’ve seen or read or played. There is so much out there, as much as I would like to see it all, I can’t, so if I’ve left something important out, it’s probably because I haven’t had a chance to get to it yet. So hang on tight, and here goes…
Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark-Film
This film is Guillermo Del Toro’s “love letter” to the 1973 made-for-TV movie of the same name. He was so captivated by the original, he wanted to remake it and bring it to a new generation of horror film goers. The story centers on a little girl who is sent to live with her father and his new girlfriend. They are renovating their new home, but the house comes with a secret, it’s inhabited by pint-sized creatures that are after the little girl. This film has some seriously creepy moments and is well written by Del Toro, Definitely worth a watch.
American Horror Story-Television
American cable channel FX premiered this show earlier this year to positive critical reviews and great word-of-mouth praise. The story concerns a not so happily married couple and their moody teenage daughter move into a Victorian mansion they got for a “steal”. The wife (Connie Britton-Friday Night Lights) is recovering from a recent miscarriage and the husband (Dylan McDermott-The Practice) has just been caught cheating on his wife with a 20 year-old woman. Their daughter (Taissa Farmiga) is languishing in familial hell caught in the middle. As it turns out, this mansion also happens to be incredibly haunted! The show has great storylines and gives us some not so typical scares to boot.
Tucker & Dale vs. Evil-Film (see full review http://www.darkriverpress.com/tucker-and-dale-vs-evil.html) This wonderful horror/comedy hybrid caught me by surprise and turned out to be one of the best of its type in recent years. The film centers around two bumbling, yet lovable hillbillies who are going to a cabin by the lake they just purchased. They run into a group of college kids headed in the same vicinity for a camping trip and are mistakenly labeled by the kids as inbred, backwoods, chainsaw killers like in the movies. Hilarity ensues as the duo come to the aid of one of the campers, while the rest of the group believe that Tucker & Dale have kidnapped her and plan on harming her. While trying to get her back, they end up offing themselves in hilariously gruesome fashion. Tucker & Dale is a great mix of horror and hilarity and one that’s not to be missed. Attack the Block-Film
The plot is relatively simple but it’s executed to near perfection. A gang of teenagers in South London have to defend their block from alien invaders. Teenage thugs who fancy themselves to be something special they’re not, mug lone women, befriend drug dealers, and end up having to save their neighborhood from big, hairy, wolf/gorilla like aliens, that are blind but have a lot of teeth and know how to use them. This film is a highly entertaining horror/action flick, filled with cool alien monsters, a decent amount of gore and fun characters that turn out to be really engrossing.
Dead Island-Video Game
At first glance, Banoi looks like a tropical island paradise, with pristine beaches, tall palm trees, luxury hotels and lots and lots of zombies. The shambling dead have infested this once luxury resort island and you have to fight the zombies to survive. Dead Island is a gruesomely fun, action role-playing game that pits you against hordes of the undead. DI is an ultra-violent game played in the first-person perspective that has you fighting in melee combat most of the time. Dead Island is a good zombie hack-em-up game that delivers on the grisly goods.
The Last Werewolf-Novel
Written by British author Glen Duncan, Werewolves for some reason have never been atop the literary or cinematic heap that the more recognized monsters like vampires or zombies have attained. The Last Werewolf follows the exploits of a 200 year-old werewolf named Jake Marlowe. Marlowe eats humans every full moon, he has a libido the size of King Kong, and he is tiring of his supernatural existence. Marlowe has become the last surviving werewolf in the world. He’s constantly on the run from occult assassins as well as being sought after by vampires because his blood may contain a cure for their affliction to daylight. The Last Werewolf has the scope of epic “Bondian” proportions, exotic locations, secret agents, weaponry, very beautiful and very willing women. Duncan’s novel has been described as “cerebral and campy”. At times, it may be too cerebral for its own good, but otherwise it’s a fun read and I highly recommend it.
The Hammer Vault: Treasures from the archive of Hammer Films-Coffee Table Book
By Marcus Hearn. It arrived late in the year, December 20th to be exact, but no less deserving of its inclusion on my list. Anyone with even a passing interest in the horror genre is familiar with the name of Hammer film studios, even if they haven’t seen any of the movies. The prolific studio that launched the career of legendary actor Christopher Lee, most notably in the role of Dracula in the series of films they produced, as well as the legendary Peter Cushing. The studio resurrected the Universal monsters, Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, The Mummy, The Phantom of the Opera, and The Werewolf, for a new generation. This exquisite book examines each of Hammer’s 79 films with archival material like press kits, lobby cards, posters etc. If you’re a fan of Hammer studios this is a must have book for your collection.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Escalation-Call of the Dead-Video Game
I know, I know, more zombies? As much as I believe the market is already over-saturated with zombie fare, there are some that are at the top of the genre heap like Black Ops-Call of the Dead game. It was released as a map pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops, it brings 4 new maps to this war shooter game. One of the add-on packs, Call of the Dead is the one we are most interested in. The story is this, Legendary Night of the Living Dead director George A. Romero has cast Danny Trejo (Machete), Robert Englund (A Nightmare on Elm Street), Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Michael Rooker (The Walking Dead), in his new zombie flick on location in the frozen wasteland of Siberia. While on set, the 4 actors find themselves being overrun by actual zombies and led by a newly zombified George A. Romero. Up to 4 players can assume the roles and start slaying the zombies. Gameplay is challenging and extremely fun, but the best part is the obvious genre homages to Romero and the other actors.
Teen Wolf-Television
Leave it to MTV to produce a television series remake of the 1985 Michael J. Fox film of the same name. This time around the show is played without the laughs and totally straight adding a pretty good dose of horror along with more traditional looking werewolves, leaving the Twilight tween wolves in the dust. Scott (Tyler Posey) is attacked in the woods by a werewolf and inherits the curse. With the help of his best friend Stiles (Dylan O’Brian), Scott tries to cope with his new affliction and control his new animal instincts the best he can. He also gets a new enemy in the wolf that turned him, Derek (Tyler Hoechlin). This TV series really surprised me, I liked it a lot more than I thought I would, it is much better than it deserves to be.
Graveminder-Novel
Written by Melissa Marr who is best known for her YA paranormal novels, takes her first foray into adult fiction. Claysville looks to be like any other small town in America, except it has its secrets. Rebekkah Barrow returns to her hometown when her grandmother is murdered. Unbeknownst by Rebekkah, she will have to take her grandmothers place as the town graveminder, a job her family has held for centuries. The dead have to be taken care of and nurtured if they are to remain in their graves. If they are not properly taken care of they come back from the dead and wreak havoc on the living. When the dead come back, they are hungry and the locals are on the menu. Graveminder is not your average zombie novel; Marr has created a new kind of creature. Graveminder is a deliciously creepy gothic tale of the undead that’s a page turner that was hard to put down.
Grimm-Television
NBC network has created a series that’s reminiscent of past supernatural dramas like Buffy the Vampire Slayer. That’s because the creators of the show Jim Kouf and David Greenwalt both worked on the Buffy series. Nick (David Giuntoli) is a detective in Portland, Oregon. He recently learned that he is a “Grimm”; he’s from a long line of hunters who are born with the ability to see supernatural creatures as they actually are, that walk among us hidden to everyday people. His job as a grimm is to protect mankind from these otherworldly creatures that very few know about. Yes it’s similar to Buffy and Angel and has even a little bit of the X-files thrown in for good measure. It’s basically a monster-of-the-week storyline, so far it’s been done right and it’s a series that has much potential for creepy goodness.
Paranormal Activity 3-Film
This is the third film in the wildly popular series, which is actually a prequel to the previous two films. It takes place in 1988, and centers around two young sisters, Katie and Kristi. They befriend an invisible entity that lives in their home. The real horror begins after that, the unknown entity begins to terrorize the girls and their family. It’s a familiar formula that we’ve already seen in the previous two films, but somehow the filmmakers make it fresh again. It’s a creepy film at times, not a film to watch alone in the dark if you are afraid of such things. The premise is wearing thin by now but still a good, scary watch that may raise the hair on the back of your neck.
Stake Land-Film
Stake Land was one of the year’s most pleasant surprises for me. I was expecting another in a long line of tedious vampire flicks that have come along, boy was I surprised. Martin (Connor Paolo-Camp Hell) is a teenage boy whose parents are murdered by vampires. A vampire epidemic has spread across the country, wiping out most of the population. Martin is befriended by a vampire hunter named Mister (Nick Damic-The Caller) who is trying to get Martin to a Canadian epidemic free zone called “New Eden”. The storyline is awesome; it has great action sequences, not your usual vampire film. It’s a breath of fresh air in an otherwise stagnant vampire sub-genre.
I Saw The Devil-Film
I Saw The Devil is a Korean film about a deranged serial killer and a man who will stop at nothing for revenge. This film is wickedly brutal in its depiction of violence, but the story is so engrossing that I couldn’t stop watching it. Kyung-chul (Choi Min-sik) is a deranged serial killer who murders people for the sheer pleasure of it. One night, Kyung-chul murders and dismembers the pregnant fiancé of Soo-hyun (Lee Byung-hun), a secret agent in the Korean government. Grief-stricken and enraged, Soo-hyun vows that he will do everything in his power to seek vengeance for his fiancé’s murder. He has to become as much of a monster as the killer is in order to get his revenge. The main plotline here is who is the real monster in this film, the sick, twisted serial killer or the man who is seeking bloody vengeance in the most gruesome of ways? At times, this film is hard to watch but I found it hard to turn off, I had to watch to the end, it had me so caught up in the story. This bloody revenge film is not for weak stomachs but so engrossing nonetheless, I highly recommend this film.
TrollHunter-Film
This was another surprise hit for me this year. It’s a Norwegian made film that received a very limited release here in the US, mostly at film festivals. Another entry in the “found footage” or “shaky-cam” sub-genre but it works to good effect in this film. Three young students are making a documentary on bear poachers; they’re following Hans (Otto Jespersen), whom they suspect as being the poacher. He invites them to tag along with him one night and they discover that he is actually employed by the Norwegian government to track down and control the troll population when they wander out of their protected areas. The students discover that there are hundreds of different types of trolls, some that are tiny and some that are as tall as trees. The documentary style of filming works well in this context, it shows the trolls when needed, but also only offers brief glimpses of them in action sequences. The CGI trolls are downright impressive and UGLY! It’s a mockumentary film that’s really fun and at times scary as well.
The Walking Dead-Television
In October of this year, AMC network premiered the highly anticipated second season of The Walking Dead TV series. Its second season opener set a ratings record for cable television shows. It had the highest ratings for any show in cable television history, an impressive feat for a horror series about zombies. I should say anyone who has seen the show knows it’s not really about the zombies; it’s about the characters that make this show work so well, the zombies are just the cherry on top. Since the first season was such a big hit, the network ordered more episodes for the second season, a welcome relief to the fans who were starving for more after a mere 6 episodes of season one. The characters are so creatively and wonderfully written that we care so much for them, thus making the show so engrossing to follow. In the second season, we follow the group of survivors as they decide to migrate out of Atlanta and find a new safe haven and more survivors at Hershel’s farm. I can only say that The Walking Dead is the best zombie horror show I have seen, and is the best show on TV right now, bar none, a definite must watch!
Insidious-Film
Insidious was my favorite movie of this year! Directed by James Wan (Saw) has conjured up an impressively made chiller. Parts of this movie actually scared me, anyone who knows me, knows that is something that’s next to impossible to do because I’ve seen it all when it comes to horror films. This story centers on a boy named Dalton (Ty Simpkins) who was investigating in the attic of his family’s new house. He slipped and fell off a ladder and hit his head. He seemed to be perfectly ok after being checked out, but the next morning he wouldn’t wake up from sleeping. He goes into a mysterious coma lasting for months. One day he awakens from his coma, seemingly no worse for wear. Then strange occurrences begin to happen, the family begins to see spectral apparitions. The mother Renai (Rose Byrne-Bridesmaids) believes their new house is haunted, and convinces her husband Josh (Patrick Wilson-Watchmen) to move to another house. The family soon starts seeing apparitions in their new house too. They invite a medium and a team of ghost hunters to come investigate the situation, but the terror only worsens for Dalton and his family. Insidious is one seriously well-crafted and very suspenseful horror movie. It had me on the edge of my seat for the duration of the film, I haven’t been as spooked as I was from this film for a long time, another must see movie.
Well, that’s it everyone, take it or leave it. I can only say that I seriously recommend every one of these offerings I’ve included on my list. If you like horror, these were the cream of the crop for me in 2011. If there is something on my list you were not aware of, by all means check it out, hopefully you will be pleasantly surprised, and let me know about it. I would love to hear from you all about what you think of my “best of” list, agree or disagree let me know. 2012 looks like it’s shaping up to be a big year for horror, I’m eagerly awaiting all the new year has to offer, and I will gladly share it all with you right here at Dark River Press. Happy New Year everyone!
There is something inherently scary about hospitals; there is almost a palpable feeling of dread that hangs in the air. During my recent week long hospital stay, many times I would lie in my bed in the middle of the night and my mind would wander, wondering what roams the hallways in the night when no one is around, what lurks in the deepest recesses deep down in the bowels of this hospital. Think about all the suffering and death that fills a hospital. Can it be absorbed into the walls like a sponge? Is there a trace that remains in an institution as large as a hospital? Parapsychology experts would say “yes” that something can remain, a place that contains as much death and suffering has to leave a remnant behind. It got me thinking about some of the hospital horror movies that I have seen. I have compiled a brief list of some of the better films that deal with the horrors in a hospital.
These films are in no particular order, first up is Visiting Hours (1982), this film is a basic serial killer/slasher film that is set in a hospital. It stars genre vets Michael ironside and William Shatner. A hard-nosed journalist gets on the wrong side of a serial killer who stabs her, sending her to the hospital. The nut job killer then tries to finish what he started by trying to dispatch her in the hospital and anyone else that gets in the way. It’s by no means a great film, but the hospital scenes left a mark on me when I was younger.
Halloween 2 (1981)
This sequel takes place directly after the events of the original Halloween (1978). Laurie Strode has been rushed to Haddonfield hospital to get patched up and recover from her attack by Michael Myers. Michael is still alive and follows Laurie to the hospital where he stalks, slashes and stabs his way through the staff in order to get to Laurie and kill her. This film is not quite as good as the original but a classic in its own right.
Awake (2007)
Stars Hayden Christensen and Jessica Alba, tells the tale of a 22 year-old who needs a heart transplant. During the transplant surgery, he encounters “anesthetic awareness”, a condition where he is awake and aware of the surgery but paralyzed at the same time. He is still able to feel the pain of the surgery as well. The doctors and the new wife are part of a muddled plot to kill the patient for his money. The movie itself is a bit of a mess, but the scenes of Christensen waking up during surgery are absolutely terrifying.
Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 (1988)
This sequel to Hellraiser (1987) takes place mostly in an asylum/hospital environment. The dark setting of this film is perfect for my hospital horrors list. Kirsty (Ashley Laurence) has been sent to an insane asylum/hospital after the death of her family from the first film, under the care of Dr. Channard (Kenneth Cranham). The evil doctor has been searching for a doorway to Hell for years, and thanks to Kirsty and the Cenobites, he finds it and much more.
The Manitou (1978)
A young woman (Susan Strasberg) goes into the hospital with a large, growing tumor on her back. It turns out that the tumor is a living creature. To their horror, the doctors discover the tumor to be the spirit of a 400 year-old Indian, looking to be reborn for vengeance. Creepy hospital scenes abound in this schlock film.
Coma (1978)
Stars Michael Douglas and Genevieve Bujold. Again, this is one of the films on my list that’s not entirely a horror movie, but more of a thriller, but still with some chilling hospital scenes. There’s a secret plot to put patients into a coma so they can have their organs harvested and sold to the wealthy. The scenes alone of the coma patients’ hanging from the ceiling by hooks was enough to scare the shit out of me when I was a kid.
Dead Ringers (1988)
Starring Jeremy Irons in an incredible dual performance as twin gynecologists, and directed by the great David Cronenberg. One of the twins ends up becoming obsessed with one of his patients, and then goes insane involving her unusual reproductive organs. He designs these horrific gynecological tools that are creepy and twisted even to look at. Dead Ringers is Cronenberg at his best.
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