Category: Horror

Gangsters, Vampires and Aliens

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I was already looking forward to Turf, a four issue mini-series by writer, Jonathan Ross and artist, Tommy Lee Edwards, before I read this interview with them over at Newsarama.  As you may recall, Turf is set in New York in 1929 and involves gangsters, vampires and aliens.    Or as Turf is described on the Image site:

A 4-issue hard-boiled noir crime thriller with girls, guns, fangs and aliens.

New York, 1929. The height of prohibition. The cops turn a blind eye while the mobs run the city, dealing in guns, girls and illegal liquor. But the arrival of the mysterious Dragonmir Family from Eastern Europe with more of a taste for blood then booze coincides with a series of brutal attacks on the gangsters themselves. As the gangs fall before the fangs, only a handful of mobsters survive. But an unlikely alliance formed between tough guy Eddie Falco and a character from a long way from New York City – a long way from Earth in fact – offers the humans a glimmer of hope. As the strong willed young reporter Susie Dale from the Gotham Herald tries to survive in the middle of the maelstrom, and an ancient prophecy unfolds, no one can guess who’s going to win the battle for this particular slice of Turf.

I’ve already put in my order for the series.  You may want to as well.

“The Walking Dead” Moves Closer

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Patrick Sauriol at Coming Attractions has posted an exclusive review of Frank Darabont’s pilot script for AMC’s “The Walking Dead”.  Darabont, who will also be directing the pilot is perhaps best known for his work as the screenwriter/director of “The Shawshank Redepmption”, “The Green Mile” and “The Mist”.

Saurol’s review is extremely positive and the following paragraph gives the best indication of why he thinks “The Walking Dead” will be a great series:

Contained in Darabont’s 60-page pilot script are all the elements to make the show a success. There’s plenty of horror that happens in those 60 pages. The director’s script covers the broad range of the zombie horror emotional spectrum, such as giving us moments of extreme gore (hey, any zombie TV show wouldn’t be a zombie show if it didn’t have folks being munched on!), moments of shock value (hey, you didn’t think that there was a zombie hiding behind that car, did you?) and the moments that I believe are the best indicator that The Walking Dead TV series has what it takes to transcend the boundaries of being simply labelled a horror show, the psychological horror scenes. Those scenes are the hammers that you’re going to remember and the ones that are going to propel this show to be viewed as something more important than just a scary show.

You can read the full piece by clicking here.

As a long-time fan of “The Walking Dead” comic series, I’m psyched as the television adaption moves closer and closer to my tv screen.

“The Invaders” Are Coming

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Tomorrow morning starting at 8am EST, the Syfy channel is running a “The Invaders” marathon.  “The Invaders” premiered January 10, 1967.  I was 8 years old and can still remember that scary, ominous music and then the opening…

The Invaders, alien beings from a dying planet.  Their destination Earth.  Their purpose?  To make it their world.  David Vincent has seen them.  For him it began one lost night on a lonely country road, looking for a short-cut… that he never found.  It began with a closed deserted diner, and a man too long without sleep to continue his journey.  It began with the landing of a craft from another galaxy…  Now, David Vincent knows that the Invaders are here… that they have taken human form.  Somehow he must convince a disbelieving world that the nightmare has already begun.

I probably haven’t seen any episodes of “The Invaders” since they originally aired, but you can bet I’ll be tuned in tomorrow.  In fact, I’ve got the DVR ready to record ’em all.  I’m hoping that the eight year old in me won’t be disappointed.

Sketch of the Dead

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Since many of the folks that drop by here are fans of zombie movies, I thought that they [and hopefully you are part of “they”] would get a kick out of this short humorous take on two guys hoping to survive a zombie outbreak.  Without further adieu I give you Sketch of the Dead.

An Epic Zombie Movie

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The Hollywood Reporter posted today that work is underway on an animated 3D CGI re-imagining of George Romero’s classic Night of the Living Dead.

Although the storyline will follow a small band of people trying to stay alive, the director, Zebediah de Soto says that this one not have the survivors taking refuge in an enclosed environment like a house or a mall.  Instead this will be the first zombie movie played on a epic scale.

Sounds cool.  I’ll post updates here as I get ’em.

The Wolfman

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When I was a kid, the wolfman was always my favorite movie monster.  While this poster is a step in the right direction, I still don’t hold high hopes for the new Wolfman movie coming out next month.  I hope I’m wrong, especially with that cast, but I have a feeling that The Wolfman is going to be a howler.

“The Goon” in Thought

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Friday night I watched my dvd extras for “The Mist” and was surprised to see Eric “The Goon” Powell on set with Frank Darabont.  I’ve been an Eric Powell fan for years. So has Frank Darabont.  In fact, Eric Powell did one of my favorite Stallone pieces [thanks again, John Higashi!].

Eric’s work on his creation, The Goon is required reading for all comic fans.  And since we’re speaking of The Goon [okay, technically we’re not speaking and I am writing, but…} did you know that Eric has created an issue of The Goon without word balloons?  The entire comic is made up of silent panels or just shots with thought balloons.  The story involves the Goon, a stolen necklace, a fem fatale and a crazy killer… oh, and no word balloons.  Sounds cool, right?  You can read more about it, here at CBR.com.

The Ghoul

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If this description doesn’t get you interested… 

The Ghoul, a monstrous investigator with a reputation for solving the world’s weirdest crimes…

…then perhaps knowing that it’s created and written by Steve “30 Days of Night” Niles with art by Bernie “Frankenstein” Wrightson will be enough to get you to pick up a copy.  Of course you may be a real hard sell and want to see CBR.com’s five page preview before you’re willing to part with your hard-earned cash.

Isle of the Dead

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It’s no secret that I’m a fan of movies and books which focus on a small band of people who find themselves up against incredible odds in a life or death struggle. That’s one of the reasons that zombie stories appeal to me. Not because of the gore, but how much more outnumbered and against it can you be then when you’re fighting a world of dead beings?  That’s why I love really good zombie stories like the original “Night of the Living Dead”, the remake of “Dawn of the Dead” and the comic series “The Walking Dead”. 

Of course the “bad guys” don’t have to be zombies.  The could be aliens [“Aliens”], nazis [“The Dirty Dozen”],  Mayans [“Apocalypto”], but there’s just something about zombies that kick things up a notch.  Maybe because they want to eat you and maybe because anyone in the group could become one.  At any rate…

Earlier this year Miguel Insignares told me about a project that he’s putting together called “The Rufnex: Isle of the Dead”.  It was such a cool concept that I wanted to start talking it up right away, especially after seeing some of the prelimiary art and names attached to the project.  Yesterday Miguel’s Isle of the Dead site went live.  If you go there, you’ll learn more about the project as well as see the names already attached.  You’ll even learn how you could become a zombie in the comic.  What could be better than that?