Quote of the Day

“The monster was the best friend I ever had.”

--Boris Karloff

Dead vs. Daleks

Those were the days...

App of the Dead

Zombifying Your Friends and Family!

George A. Romero, a master of horror cinema (“Night of the Living Dead”, “Dawn of the Dead”, “Creepshow”), has announced that APP OF THE DEAD is available now for Apple iPhone and iPod Touch for $1.99.

“Given the amount of zombies I’ve brought to life, I figured everyone should be able to do the same,” said George A. Romero.

Developed in coordination with Romero’s latest feature, George A. Romero’s Survival of the Dead, which hit theaters back on May 28th, APP OF THE DEAD casts iPhone and iPod Touch owners as the director, allowing you to turn your friends and family into horrific zombies with over 20 zombie features, including galleries of open wounds, deformed eyes and mouths. Take pictures or import photos from existing galleries and bring them to undead glory with grisly scars and bloody injuries!

Don’t forget to aim for the head when you use APP OF THE DEAD’s custom-built engine to cap your newly created zombies, first-person shooter style. Save the photos, email them to friends, make them part of your own undead slideshow or upload to Facebook and other social networking sites.

APP OF THE DEAD is available now for Apple iPhone and iPod Touch.

http://toptechdog.com/news/app-of-the-dead/

Star Wars Geek

Some images from what used to be our 'Star Wars Room.'
We had to pack everything up and store it all away so that our daughter could have that space as her bedroom.It now resides inside our garage - row upon row of Rubbermaids deep in the crawlspace, like a smuggler embedded in carbonite, in perfect hibernation. One day it will all be set up again in all of its midichlorian glory...

Hex

This is the JONAH HEX that I grew up with. I had tons of Hex comic books when I was a kid and spent hours reading about his adventures and looking at his scarred mug. So it was with great anticipation when I learned about a feature film starring ex-Goonie Josh Brolin and Transformers star Megan Fox.

And then I read the reviews.

Ouch.

From Entertainment Weekly (who is notorious for giving better-than-average reviews): "...But the star [Brolin] is done in by the deathless mediocrity of the production, an assemblage of random camera shots, messy editing, redundant scenes, and witless dialogue as haphazardly stitched together as the flesh on Jonah Hex’s face. D+

And that's not even talking about co-star Fox. Her performance was panned as so painfully dreadful she's almost a shoe-in for a Raspberry trophy.

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20394882,00.html

Solstice

Stonehenge's origins remain a mystery, but theories suggest the grounds were part of a huge astronomical calendar. Others say an ancient sun worshipping culture aligned the structure with the midsummer sunrise and the midwinter sunset. The site was used as a cremation cemetery since its inception, archaeologists say, but it is unclear if that was its main function.

"The truthful answer is we don't know exactly what it was for," said Amanda Chadburn, an archaeologist with English Heritage, which manages the site.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100621/ap_on_re_eu/eu_britain_solstice

Remember This?

I wonder if anyone actually sent away for this? Wish I would have...

Groovy Quote of the Day

"All right you Primitive Screwheads, listen up! You see this? This is my boomstick! The twelve-gauge double-barreled Remington. S-Mart's top of the line. You can find this in the sporting goods department. That's right, this sweet baby was made in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Retails for about a hundred and nine, ninety five. It's got a walnut stock, cobalt blue steel, and a hair trigger. That's right. Shop smart. Shop S-Mart. You got that?"

--Ash (Army of Darkness)

Play Ball!

Picked up this small pocket-book at Target the other day (which I would recommend - $10 compared to $16 at Barnes & Noble.) Haven't given it a read yet, but the synopsis sounds promising:

Even the most diehard baseball fans don't know the true story of William "Blockade Billy" Blakely.

He may have been the greatest player the game has ever seen, but today no one remembers his name. He was the first — and only — player to have his existence completely removed from the record books. Even his team is long forgotten, barely a footnote in the game's history.

Every effort was made to erase any evidence that William Blakely played professional baseball, and with good reason. Blockade Billy had a secret darker than any pill or injection that might cause a scandal in sports today. His secret was much, much worse... and only Stephen King, the most gifted storyteller of our age, can reveal the truth to the world, once and for all.

How long do you have?

Created by Oatmeal

Those Were The Days...

Poe Was Here

Another great plaque of my man Poe - this one from the city of Boston courtesy of my lovely neice, Ashley. From my understanding Poe held little love for the city - the place of his birth and home of his cherished mother - and yet he did return in an attempt to reconcile the city with his troubled soul.

Thanks for the great pic, Ash!

Revenge of the Grindhouse

Outta Room...

Truffle Shuffle Redux

Came across this tantalizing morsel of Baby Ruth buried at the end of an article concerning the 25th anniversary of 'THE GOONIES.'

[Director Richard] Donner says a long-rumored sequel to the film is a definite thing and will involve as much of the old cast as possible. "It will happen," he assures fans. "We've been trying for a number of years."

And if a sequel isn't enough to satisfy you, you may be able to check out a musical adaptation on Broadway in a few years. "It'll be pure Goonies," Donner says, adding that he would love to see the actors who played the movie's criminal Fratelli brothers involved. "They sing beautifully," he insists. It sounds like Donner really is taking the Goonies mantra "never say die" to heart when it comes to the cult classic.

Wow. Not sure what to think about that - do we really need a sequel at this point? Still, it's The Goonies - and as we know, Goonies NEVER say die...

For the full article, click below:

http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/movie-talk-secrets-and-celebrations-from-the-goonies-reunion.html

Lost: Giant Shark

Looks like Bruce has been found - at least his cousin, anyway. The giant shark from the movie 'JAWS' was located by a journalist in an LA junkyard. One of four sharks cast from the same mold, all others were apparently destroyed (no Planet Hollywood back then, I guess...) The fourth creature was made as a prop display at Universal Studios Theme Park, where it hung by its tail as a photo-op.

I totally remember going to the park for our honeymoon and having our picture taken with 'Bruce.' I'm going to sort through our photos and try to find the elusive beast. My only question with this story is the date - as it's reported the shark was taken down in 1990. My wife and I were married in 1996, and we both clearly remember having our picture taken with an upside-down shark in 'Amity' at Universal Studios. Was this the same shark - or yet another creature entirely?

The other disturbing news in this story is word of a JAWS 3D remake starring... Tracy Morgan?

Zombie Walk

Man I would freak OUT if I came across a random, spontaneous 'Zombie Walk.' The area in which I reside has a conservative streak a mile wide, so I doubt it would ever happen. But how cool would it be to see apparently random 'strangers' eaten by zombies and turned into the living dead themselves? From wiki:

A zombie walk (also known as a zombie mob, zombie march, zombie horde, zombie lurch, zombie shamble, zombie shuffle or zombie crawl) is an organized public gathering of people who dress up in zombie costumes. Usually taking place in an urban centre, the participants make their way around the city streets and through shopping malls to a public space (or a series of taverns in the case of a zombie pub crawl) in a somewhat orderly fashion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie_walk

Meat Tooth

Hot Topic

I have a great interest in today's post as I'm a long-time fan of horror maestros: Midnight Syndicate. They have provided many a soundtrack to my Halloween haunts in years past, and now they are gearing up for their first feature film release: 'THE DEAD MATTER.'

The angle that I find most interesting is that first-time director, Edward Douglas, has opted to distribute the movie himself with help from popular goth/teen retail chain Hot Topic. A novel approach that may pay off huge for the film in the long run. Here's the official synopsis of the film:

THE DEAD MATTER tells the story of a relic with occult powers that falls into the hands of a grief-stricken young woman, whose desire to reconnect with her dead brother draws her into the supernatural world of vampirism and the living dead.

Midnight Syndicate's film stars horror legend Tom Savini, as well as Andrew Divoff, Jason Carter and C.B. Spencer. Below is the link for the official trailer - check it out and see what you think. THE DEAD MATTER is slated for a June 30th release date...check back here for more info on the release of this intriguing independent film as the big day approaches!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liAifLs_8zk

http://www.thedeadmatter.com/

Quote of the Day

"Blondes make the best victims. They're like virgin snow that shows up the bloody footprints."

--Alfred Hitchcock

Bummer

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

In case you haven't heard, Guillermo del Toro announced yesterday that studio delays at troubled MGM (the same studio responsible for holding up Daniel Craig's third outing as James Bond) have forced him to quit J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Hobbit,' the planned two-part prequel to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. His quote:

"In light of ongoing delays in the setting of a start date for filming The Hobbit, I am faced with the hardest decision of my life. After nearly two years of living, breathing and designing a world as rich as Tolkien's Middle Earth, I must, with great regret, take leave from helming these wonderful pictures. There cannot be any start dates until the MGM situation gets resolved. They do hold a considerable portion of the rights."

I guess the obvious question at this point is: does this mean Peter Jackson is back in the director's chair for 'The Hobbitt?'