Subaru

Great White North

Owen Sound Drive In
Originally uploaded by St Paul Paul

From our neighbors up North. The Owen Sound Drive-In in Ontario, Canada.

Fosgitt

Featuring the artwork of the talented Jay Fosgitt - whose work can be seen on the often talked about TRANSYLVANIA TELEVISION website. With an upcoming appearance in Rue Morgue magazine, Mr. Fosgitt is someone to keep an undead eye on...



jayfosgitt.blogspot.com

Prometheus

You can add Ridley Scott's PROMETHEUS the list of upcoming genre flicks I'm dying to see. A return to his roots - this is looking to be an intense sci-fi epic (not another lame ALIEN VS. PREDATOR). In case you haven't heard about it, here's the official synopsis:

Visionary filmmaker Ridley Scott returns to the genre he helped define, creating an original science fiction epic set in the most dangerous corners of the universe. The film takes a team of scientists and explorers on a thrilling journey that will test their physical and mental limits and strand them on a distant world, where they will discover the answers to our most profound questions and to life's ultimate mystery.

PROMETHEUS launches on June 8, 2012.

Sneak Preview

Ladies and gentleman of all ages! Step right up for a sneak preview from the legendary musical duo: Midnight Syndicate! Straight from their upcoming album: CARNIVAL ARCANE...here is an exclusive selection for your listening pleasure entitled: 'Freakshow!'

Edward Douglas had this to say: "We had a difficult time picking a Carnival Arcane "preview" track as it's hard to single out any one track as being indicative of the CD. There's a lot of things going on in this one. The song we chose is Freakshow as we think it bridges some familiar elements with a taste of some of what's in store... Inspired by research, this track incorporates some of the more tragic elements of carnie life and the original freak shows as well as the macabre. We hope people enjoy it."

The newest album from Midnight Syndicate will be available for purchase on August 2nd! Pre-order your copy from their official website today!

www.midnightsyndicate.com

Halloween in July

How about a little Halloween in July? Well, I have it on good authority that today's the big day! Sometime today our friends over at Transylvania Television will be unleashing their REAL MEANIN' OF HALLOWEEN SPECIAL SHOW on the unsuspecting masses over at their website.

This is the real deal, folks. A great product that's worth adding to your Halloween collection, I can't recommend this DVD enough. Full of laughs and zany puppet antics, the TVTV gang should be proud of what they've accomplished. Check it out!

http://www.transylvania-tv.com/tvtv-on-dvd/

Twofer

Two great pieces of news this morning! #1: Joss Whedon's THE CABIN IN THE WOODS has finally got a release date - it's a long way out, but it's out there! How does Friday, April 13th, 2012 sound to you? I was personally hoping for the October release date that was rumored, but man, either way I can't wait for this one - this is the flick that has sat on Lionsgate's shelf for eons, but now it's finally getting it's chance to go crazy in the woods on our sick and twisted minds. Yeeehaaah! It's about d@mn time, Lionsgate!

The other great piece of news is that the remake of John Carpenter's ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK has been deep-sixed by New Line Cinema and Warner Brothers! This is great news for us fans of the original Snake Plissken movies who only want to see Kurt Russell in the role of the one-eyed anti-hero. Keep in mind though that the rights have lapsed from these two studios, but that doesn't mean another studio won't snatch it up and try to make it happen. Let's keep our fingers crossed that short of an original Snack flick (ESCAPE FROM PLANET EARTH, maybe? John Carpenter - are you listening?) we don't need or want another remake of a beloved classic!

Fantastic Fest

Hello from Austin, Texas.

The first wave of movies that will be shown at Fantastic Fest has been announced. This is one of the greatest experiences a movie lover can participate in. I am already anxious about seeing these movies and it is only July. I need a time machine to jump ahead two months!

A few that jump out as fun are the restored Fulci's Zombie and House by the Cemetery. Versus, also stands out and is a fun zombie film that most people have not viewed! Check out website to see all the movies that have been listed, so far.

Zombie (1979)- Blue Underground PresentsTheatrical Premiere of the 2K digitally restored versionDirector: Lucio Fulci, Italy, 92 minutesLucio Fulci’s extreme masterpiece of post-Romero corpse mania is back in a gorgeous digital restoration.

House by the Cemetery (1981)- Blue Underground PresentsTheatrical Premiere of the 2K digitally restored versionDirector: Lucio Fulci, Italy, 87 minutesLucio Fulci’s classic Italian gore rollercoaster, now presented in a digital restoration from Blue Underground.


Versus (2001)US PremiereStar Tak Sakaguchi and writer Yudai Yamaguchi live in personDirector: Ryuhei Kitamura, Japan, 119 minutesThe 10th anniversary screening of the yakuza vs. zombies action classic that cracked open Japan’s indie film business like a can of cheap beer.

Wapello Monolith

Drive-In in Wapello, IA
Originally uploaded by bliss627

"How obvious—how necessary—was that mathematical ratio of its sides, the quadratic sequence 1:4:9! And how naive to have imagined that the series ended at this point, in only three dimensions!"

-Arthur C. Clarke

Plug Pulled

Word is coming out that the Ron Howard directed, Brian Grazer produced THE DARK TOWER movie/TV project has had its plug pulled by Universal. According to Deadline, the studio is passing on the Stephen King penned project for good - a huge setback for Howard and Grazer (and maybe what it takes to get them off the project...one can hope, no?) Said to be as huge in scope as THE LORD OF THE RINGS series, THE DARK TOWER was set to be a gi-normous multimedia endeavor unlike anything seen before.

The last news we had heard was that Javier Bardem had committed to the role (obviously a talented, award-winning actor - but not right for Roland in my eyes), but based on Akiva Goldsman's script and a steadily inflating budget, Universal hesitated on the massive scope of the project, cutting costs and only committing to one TV series and a single film.

As a die-hard fan of Roland and his ka-tet, THE DARK TOWER has a special place in my heart and the Howard/Grazer combination just never felt right to me. I would much rather a small, independent take on the books done with passion than a soulless, bloated, Hollywood movie that has forgotten the face of its father.

Unfiltered

Just received an e-mail from Unfiltered Entertainment's Chad Haufschild, producer of their upcoming film: BLOOD RITES, that included a little bloody morsel of cool news about their first film: WAKE THE WITCH. He said that BLOOD RITES is still in the post production phase and that visual effects are being finished up - with the hope of a final audio mix being done sometime in August. A quote:

"It always takes longer than you hope. I’m going to cut a trailer before I start the audio mix down. This flick will be done in September or it will be the death of me! And FYI – Wake the Witch finally made iTunes last week. We’re now available in Australia and New Zealand! Pretty sweet!"

Congratulations to Unfiltered Entertainment for their iTunes debut and expanding their distribution of WAKE THE WITCH to other countries! We were mucho impressed with the professionalism and production values of WAKE THE WITCH and are definitely looking forward to what the gang at UE comes up with next!

http://unfiltered-ent.com/

81

The incomparable Stephen King is set to road-trip to Crazyville with a new eBook from Simon and Schuster called MILE 81, which will be available to download on September 1st.

The Plot: At Mile 81 on the Maine Turnpike is a boarded up rest stop, a place where high school kids drink and get into the kind of trouble high school kids have always gotten into. It’s the place where Pete Simmons goes when his older brother, who’s supposed to be looking out for him, heads off to the gravel pit to play “paratroopers over the side.”

Pete, armed only with the magnifying glass he got for his tenth birthday, finds a discarded bottle of vodka in the boarded up burger shack and drinks enough to pass out. Not much later, a mud-covered station wagon (which is strange because there hadn’t been any rain in New England for over a week) veers into the Mile 81 rest area, ignoring the sign that says “closed, no services.” The driver’s door opens but nobody gets out.

Doug Clayton, an insurance man from Bangor, is driving his Prius to a conference in Portland. On the backseat are his briefcase and suitcase and in the passenger bucket is a King James Bible, what Doug calls “the ultimate insurance manual,” but it isn’t going to save Doug when he decides to be the Good Samaritan and help the guy in the broken down wagon. He pulls up behind it, puts on his four-ways, and then notices that the wagon has no plates.

Ten minutes later, Julianne Vernon, pulling a horse trailer, spots the Prius and the wagon, and pulls over. Julianne finds Doug Clayton’s cracked cell phone near the wagon door – and gets too close herself. By the time Pete Simmons wakes up from his vodka nap, there are a half a dozen cars at the Mile 81 rest stop. Two kids – Rachel and Blake Lussier –and one horse named Deedee are the only living left. Unless you maybe count the wagon.

You'll be able to pre-order the eBook directly from Simon & Schuster soon for only $2.99. It will also contain an excerpt from King's upcoming novel 11/22/63.

It's Coming...

Midnight Syndicate to release new Carnival Arcane CD August 2nd.

July 14, 2011 (Cleveland, OH) Gothic horror soundtrack musicians MIDNIGHT SYNDICATE will be releasing their fourteenth studio album, entitled CARNIVAL ARCANE, on August 2nd. "The theme of the new disc surrounds the Lancaster-Rigby Carnival, a shadowy, turn-of-the-century traveling circus with more than a few skeletons in its closet," said Edward Douglas. "The Victorian and Edwardian eras are a big source of inspiration for us. They also marked the beginning of the heyday for traveling carnivals, so that's the time period we chose to set the disc in. We spent a lot of time researching early-20th century circuses and carnivals to ensure that the sounds and music work together to really immerse you in this world and the time period. There's also a big tip of the top hat to Mr. Bradbury whose work inspired many of the more horrific elements that appear in the latter half of the disc." CARNIVAL ARCANE also features the vocal talents of Jason Carter (LORD OF THE RINGS: BATTLE FOR MIDDLE EARTH, BABYLON 5, THE DEAD MATTER) and fellow THE DEAD MATTER cast members Brian Van Camp, and Dennis Carter, Jr.

The CD will be available through the Midnight Syndicate website, Amazon, iTunes, as well as at Halloween retailers nationwide. It will also be available at select Hot Topic stores starting August 8th. Preview tracks will be made available on the band's Facebook page and website shortly.

From the CD insert:The train smoke drifting through the pale moon light signals the arrival of the Lancaster-Rigby Carnival. In a forest clearing, these mesonoxian visitors await your arrival. Stroll along the midway and behold wonders both fantastic and macabre from every corner of the globe. And be sure to ride their one of a kind carousel for an experience you'll never, ever forget.

Visit www.MidnightSyndicate.com or
Midnight Syndicate on Facebook - www.Facebook.com/MidnightSyndicate

Montauk

Not sure about all the reenactments this film builds its story around (I think I would have preferred a straight documentary), but it definitely looks interesting. You can't deny that the park where this is located is a fascinating location with secrets hidden all over the place - some in plain sight...

H:III Redux

Saw this on Pumpkinrot's blog awhile back and couldn't get it out of my head. Still one of the very best themes that John Carpenter and Alan Howarth ever produced. Here's what Howarth had to say about the process:

"The music style of John Carpenter and myself has further evolved in this film soundtrack by working exclusively with synthesizers to produce our music. This has led to a certain procedural routine. The film is first transferred to a time coded video tape and synchronized to a 24 track master audio recorder; then while watching the film we compose the music to these visual images. The entire process goes quite rapidly and has "instant gratification," allowing us to evaluate the score in synch to the picture. This is quite an invaluable asset."

Thriller

While I'm not a huge fan of Michael Jackson, it's hard to deny how big of an impact this video had on me as an impressionable 12-year-old...

Now Playing

The amazing music of Destini Beard.

http://destinibeard.com/

Saucer Tale

At an Independence Day party over vacation I happened to overhear an elderly lady say something along the lines of: "...that's pretty scary, but not as scary as that UFO we saw!" Naturally I was at her side in seconds, plying her for information and details of her alleged encounter - and what a story she had to tell! Unfortunately, I didn't get her permission to share the story, so I will just hit the high points and say that it had your classic lit-up saucer (it happened at night), multiple witnesses, burn marks in a pasture, and mysterious agents who showed up the next day and harassed her and her family for days afterward.

Without giving the exact location, this happened in southern Missouri sometime in 1969. The incredible story was written up in the local newspaper (although the woman wasn't sure how that could be as no one from the paper talked to her about it and the story was factually incorrect - making it all seem like she fell asleep at the wheel and dreamed the encounter - it was treated like a joke). The most intriguing part of the story was the woman's physical demeanor as she told the tale. Even all these years later she was still visibly shaken by this event, trembling and with tears in her eyes as she recounted the sighting.

The truth is out there - and this lady got a lot closer to it than most...

Back

behind the silver screen
Originally uploaded by t knouff

After a much-needed vacation I'm back at the blog. Sorry for the lack of updates in the past week...I pretty much avoided all technology for the past seven days. But now we're back on the horror gravy train - and I'll start out July by saying that you should be looking for some cool news and updates in the weeks ahead!