Category: Horror

George Romero’s Tribute Statue Gets Perfect Location!

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If you were going to decide on the perfect place for this bust of George Romero, the man who re-invented and re-invigorated the zombie movie genre, where would it be?

If you asked me (and no one did) I’d say the mall where the original Dawn of the Dead was filmed.  Guess what?

The Monroeville Mall in Pittsburgh, Pennsylania just got 1000% times more in touch with it’s creepshow roots. A large copper bust of indie horror director (and grandfather of the genre) George A. Romero was finally installed… in the very shopping center that served as the location for much of his ‘birth of the modern zombie’ classic, 1978’s Dawn of the Dead.

Source: SyFy Wire.

The 25 Best Horror Movies of All Time

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David Houghton and GamesRadar present The 25 Best Horror Movies of All Time.  Using just his list here are my top three choices…

4. The Thing (1982)

The movie: A shapeshifting alien stalks the inhabitants of an Antarctic research station, masquerading as one of them until it gets an opportunity to attack. John Carpenter’s remake of the 1950s sci-fi The Thing From Another World ramps up the gore and the paranoia, and ends on a note of resignation, not triumph.

Why it’s scary: That paranoid atmosphere, for one thing. The Thing’s oppressive, one-second-from-doom vibe never lets up for a moment, amplified by brilliant, tightly-wound performances throughout. And it’s impossible to over-value The Thing’s ground-breaking (and award-winning) special effects work, which unleash increasingly bizarre, hybrid nightmare creatures that will stick with you for life.

 

3. Alien (1979)

The movie: Arguably one of the greatest science fiction movies ever made is also one of the greatest horror movies, as director Ridley Scott sends the crew of the Nostromo off to investigate a distress call from an abandoned alien spaceship as innocently as any gang of hormonal teenagers headed off to a remote cabin in the woods.

Why it’s scary: There’s nowhere more horribly isolated than a spaceship light years away from home. And Giger’s alien is as terrifying a monster as you could wish for. The dread goes much deeper than teeth and claws. The creature represents a multilayered, bottomless pit of psychosexual horror, its very form praying on a raft of primal terrors. And the visual ambiguity of Scott’s direction during the final act – during which the high-tech environments almost merge with the monster’s biomechanical countenance – are a masterclass in ‘What’s that in the shadows?’ tension.

 

1. The Exorcist (1973)

The movie: After messing with a Ouija board, Regan (Linda Blair) starts acting weirdly. And not just acting weirdly in a normal teenage kind of way: she talks backwards, scuttles around the house like a crab, and does unspeakable things with crucifixes. Her mother calls in a couple of Catholic priests to cast out Regan’s demons, but it won’t be easy.

Why it’s scary: It quite simply has the most evil-soaked atmosphere of any film ever made. The Exorcist is relentless in its determination to creep you out, but ignore the scares for a moment and you’re still left with an exceptionally smart and sophisticated film that demands your unreserved attention and has kept people talking to this day. A bona fide cinematic masterpiece that just so happens to be an edge-of-your-seat scare-fest too.

A few movies that didn’t make Houghton’s list that I’d have included are: 28 days later, Them! and World War Z.

U.S. Government Has Plan If Zombie Outbreak Comes!

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Did you know in 2011, the U.S. Department of Defense prepared and released the Counter-Zombie Dominance Plan, or “CONPLAN 8888-11″ which outlined the steps our military should take in the event of a zombie outbreak?  It did.

CONPLANN 8888-11 laid out a 31-page strategy in three parts. First, create and uphold a defensive plan to protect humankind from mind-munching predators. Second, establish procedures to eradicate any threat of zombies. Third, restore law and order to a war-ridden economy.

Want to know more?  You can get all the gory details at History.com.

Stephan Franck Interview – “Silver” Conclusion and More!

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Stephan Franck is the genius (writer & artist) behind Silver which he describes as…

… an original universe built around Bram Stoker’s original Dracula, and it begins 40 years after the events of the novel, into the noir/pulp era of the 1930s. You meet James Finnigan, who is the most notorious conman/gentleman-thief of his day, as he teams up with Rosalynd “Sledge” Van Helsing (granddaughter of the original Van Helsing, and altogether the last of the Van Helsings), to steal a mystical treasure hidden in Dracula’s castle. Finn, of course, brings his known associates—a fun assortment of conmen and grifters of all kinds—as well as the kind of amoral attitude that puts him immediately at odds with Sledge. Lastly, the team enlists Tao Leu (or more accurately, he enlists himself), who is a 10-year-old boy with the gift of second sight and who might be the biggest scoundrel of them all.

With the fourth and final volume now on Kickstarter, Franck sat for an interview with Johhny Hughes at Comic Crusaders.

30 “Alien” Franchise Movie Facts That Will Blow Your Mind

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Gem Seddon and GamesRadar present 30 Alien Facts That Will Blow Your Mind.  Here are three of my favorites…

11. Blow its bloody head off!

In Aliens, the Marines scatter when the xenomorphs peel away from the walls, retreating to the safety of the APC. One pesky creature manages to get its sharp talons wedged into the doors; and then gets its head blown off by Hicks.

After endless takes where actor Michael Biehn struggled to get the barrel into the alien’s jaws, the crew came up with a way. They simply started with the gun in its mouth, pulled it out, and reversed the shot. Proof that sometimes the coolest tricks don’t require CGI.

5. Terminator connection

Preliminary Aliens drafts had Bishop mention that he was created by Cyberdyne Systems – the technology corporation responsible for creating Skynet in the Terminator saga. It was later switched to Hyperdyne.

One element that does remain happens aboard the drop ship. In the special edition, Hudson’s “ultimate badass” rant about the Marines’ arsenal of weapons, makes reference to a “phased plasma pulse rifle.” The weapons the Marines use are in fact, M41A pulse rifles. This line is a cheeky connect between James Cameron’s previous film, in which the T-800 asks a gun store clerk for a “phased plasma rifle.”

Bill Paxton, who plays Hudson, also appeared in The Terminator as one of the street punks at the observatory.

1. Kane’s last supper

Ridley Scott deliberately kept the actors off the Alien set while production designers and the effects crew dressed the scene for Kane’s last meal. Despite having read the script, none of the principal leads knew what was going to happen. So when the chestburster emerges from John Hurt and a stream of fake blood blasts a stunned Veronica Cartwright, her shocked reaction and scream? Completely authentic.

“Everyone was wearing raincoats,” Weaver later recalled. “We should have been a little suspicious.”

The article contains so many more interesting facts.  It’s definitely worth a read!