Watch This REALLY Cool Sleepy Hollow (1999) Clip To Celebrate Johnny Depp’s Birthday

9 June 2014

We were lucky to see this in the theater opening night. One of us (me) was a little too drunk to fully appreciate it, but not too drunk to scream at the top of my lungs a couple of times (once during the scene with the witch in her cave–I think that actually sobered me up some, I jumped so high). You don’t need to be a big Johnny Depp fan to appreciate this clip… just of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow–especially the Disney version, which Tim Burton said this dream sequence was a specific homage to. I sure as hell appreciate the movie now!

The word ‘iconic’ has been almost sickeningly over-used in the last few years, especially in reference to TV and movie scenes (especially irritating to me as a writer and a movie geek when it’s something recent and not really earned iconic status yet). As in, Yes, here we have a tribute to the iconic scene in The Devil Inside where she pulls down her lower lip to reveal the upside-down cross carved into her— SHUT UP! STOP THAT! However, Ichabod Crane, the covered bridge, the flaming pumpkin… that one of the coolest fucking images I’ve carried in my memory since I watched the movie on Halloween in grade school, when they still aired it on Halloween. Scared the crap out of me and any of my friends I was watching with. Sometimes we cringed and peeked through our fingers, because we all knew it was coming…

OK, back to Johnny Depp. I recall when I read the screenplay online in 1999, knowing Depp was cast, thinking there were better choices to play Ichabod Crane, but oh well. However, he totally won me over. Below is a montage someone made of the comic relief moments in this rather dark (but really entertaining;, basically, Depp’s version of Crane fainting, being scared of spiders… actually, he makes him seem like a pussy but honestly, I wouldn’t even be brave enough to stay in town after the first creepy thing he saw. Would you want to stick around Sleepy Hollow?

Check it out below, it’ll brighten your Monday:

Though I wish she’d left in the horror-movie version of the witch going ‘Large Marge’ on Depp, after the big jump scare, it was hilarious. As I recall, they showed his terrified reaction, then cut to the outside of the cave and him briskly walking out of the cave, announcing, “We are leaving!” “What?” “We are leaving now!” I do recall that moment got the biggest laugh of the movie when we saw it.

WE ARE LEAVING.

Read EW.com’s ‘Bates Motel’ Season Finale Postmortem: What’s Next for Dylan …and the New Part of Norman ‘Psycho’ Fans Will Dig – SPOILERS!

6 May 2014

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Norma Bates: [voiceover in police custody, as Norman is thinking] It’s sad, when a mother has to speak the words that condemn her own son… in the end he intended to tell them I killed those girls and that man… as if I could do anything but just sit and stare, like one of his stuffed birds… Let them see what kind of a person I am. I’m not even going to swat that fly. I hope they are watching… they’ll see. They’ll see and they’ll know, and they’ll say, “Why, she wouldn’t even harm a fly…”

(From Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, 1960)

Don’t read this until after you’ve watched the Season Two finale of “Bates Motel,” unless you want SPOILERS!

That final shot of this season of Bates Motel, an intentional homage to the last shot of Perkins sitting in a room at a different police station in the film Psycho, almost gave me a chill… like watching that scene in the movie does every time. Creepy, and a great season finale. If you were really into this season of Bates Motel, don’t forget to watch the after-show, “After Hours at the Bates Motel” (or it might be the other way around, but you get the idea). There are lots of cool interviews (Highmore is not the only British cast member), trivia (the actor who portrays Dylan, Max Thieriot , was unwise enough to challenge Kenny Johnson, the actor who played his father Caleb and longtime arm-wrestling champion ranked #3 in the entire US, to arm-wrestling*), and even the fairly entertaining gag reel from this season. A&E is re-running the finale and the after-show on Tuesday, I believe-check your local listings, or Comcast on Demand.

Here’s another piece from EW.com-– this one more of a “reaction piece”. Seems a lot of people were horrified by that kiss, among other things. It was a little uncomfortable, but they didn’t get that passionate (thank God) and only would have really creeped me out if it had gone on another second or so… or there was tongue. Bleh. Some fans seem more upset about that kiss than the fact that Dylan’s father is also his uncle.

*I did have a good laugh in the episode this season where Norman, who looks like he weighs maybe a buck-fifty soaking wet, tried to overpower Kenny Johnson’s character Caleb and stab him. If Norman had somehow managed to best him in combat, I’m not sure if I could ever have taken the show seriously again.

Why “Tales From Beyond The Pale” Season Two Boxed Set Is A Must-Listen For Old-School Horror Fans

2 May 2014

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Note: I’m not getting any free copies, perks, nor am I selling copies of this incredibly cool item. At times this piece might sound like I’m getting a cut of every sale, but that’s not the case. I’m just REALLY REALLY enthusiastic about it and I know horror fans in my age demographic (and up) will want to know about it.

Well, hell, even if you were born after the 80s, and just love all things horror, I’m pretty sure you’ll want to know about it. I’ve found plenty of “millennial” age horror fans who I figured had no interest in anything before the Scream trilogy (and only saw the remakes of horror classics), but who turned about to be just as devoted, knowledgable (for example, knowing who Lucio Fulci was), and (almost) as rabid as I am (“THEY’D BETTER NOT FUCKING EVEN THINK OF DOING A REMAKE OF RE-ANIMATOR!” another horror geek –probably technically young enough to be my kid– who I ran into at a horror convention said loudly and simultaneously with me within five minutes of starting up a conversation)* Real horror fans of any age, and you know who you are (especially if you’re reading this) and proud of it, will probably look into this.

Here’s the official description that Tales From Beyond the Pale gives to promote themselves, their work, and this product, and it’s fairly comprehensive:

Conceived during a fog-drenched car ride with nothing beyond the windshield but a horizon-less void, Larry Fessenden and Glenn McQuaid created the acclaimed Tales from Beyond the Pale, audio theater inspired by the vintage radio shows of Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles. Having previously released 10 studio-recorded Tales for Season One, Fessenden and McQuaid decided to up the ante and stage a second season of Tales before a live audience at the performance venue Dixon Place in downtown New York City. Tales Season Two delves even further beyond the pale with eight explosive tales to tickle your fancy and curdle your blood.

The fierce independent production house GLASS EYE PIX is pleased to present this box set of 4 CDs, a DVD and twelve-page booklet. Tales Season Two offers 8 new spooky audio dramas recorded LIVE before an audience: “Ram King” by Joe Maggio, “Like Father, Like Son” by Clay McLeod Chapman, “Stranger” by Jeff Buhler, “Dead Man’s Shoes” by Ashley Thorpe, “Sarah Minds the Dog” by Kim Newman, “The Crush” by Glenn McQuaid, “Dead Air” by Simon Barrett, and “Caper” by Larry Fessenden. The Tales are chillingly brought to life by the regular stable of performers and special guests Sean Young, Vincent D’Onofrio, Mark Margolis, [ed. note: AKA Hector “Uncle Ring-a-ding” from Breaking Bad] James Le Gros, Michael Cerveris, Kate Lyn Sheil, Jonny Orsini and others, and narrated by your host, horror maverick Larry Fessenden.

The box set includes a very special bonus DVD with a half-hour documentary film entitled Behind The Curtain, which chronicles the history of the project and the staging of the live shows. Also included on the DVD are various video clips generated for the series, collected for the first time in Dispatches From Season 1. The beautiful box set is designed by celebrated graphic artist Gary Pullin.

The series is produced by filmmakers Larry Fessenden & Glenn McQuaid; Associate producers Lisa Wisely, Jenn Wexler.

Plot (from the official website): “A struggling novelist with writer’s block takes on some translation work for a housebound elderly aristocrat who wants ‘to put his affairs in order’ before his death. The events that unfold will require every ounce of the novelist’s creativity he’s got to keep them both alive!”

Normally at this point, we would embed the trailer, but it’s an EW.com exclusive. They did let us post it in separately, though, so take a look at the post below for it (or click here).

The TFBTP S2 boxed set is only on Amazon via third-party sellers, and the least expensive copy is marked up to $30.00. If you want it right from the source, you can buy it on the TFBTP site’s official store for $25.00, which you can find right here. Oh, and the tales themselves are R-rated, another big plus. These are definitely not safe for work (unless you’re wearing ear buds, I guess) or for children!

Speaking of the official website, it’s just packed with goodies. Each “tale” not only has a description of the episode (just enough to rev you up, but not enough to spoil anything), there are Director-Writer notes for each episode. On some of then, they reveal that the story, even though there wasn’t a visual, was storyboarded (I didn’t see the actual storyboards on the site, but they could be there somewhere or included as extras for when you purchase the physical sets). That’s pretty painstaking, but it gives you an idea of just how much of a labor of love the episodes are. They also have really cool art for each tale; see the cool examples below to whet your appetite (note: I do not own these, the copyright does NOT belong to me, and I’m posting them for entertainment. If anyone at TFBTP has a problem with me using them, fine, just contact me and I’ll take them down).

I also added the story description for each one. When my review goes up, I’ll be sure to point out a few good ones to start with (especially if you can only afford to download a couple of them before committing to buying the set).

Well-mannered, well-brought-up young “Englishwoman, Sarah gets herself into a bit of a pickle when left in charge of the much-loved Rottweiler of a Russian mob boss.”

“Loretta (Sean Young) will stop at nothing to own her very own vineyard, but when the wine finally flows, it comes at a price.”

“A scientist loses his five-year old son in a car accident after losing control of the wheel. Wracked with grief, he refuses to let his boy go-choosing to bury himself in his work instead: Reanimating human tissue. On the brink of a major breakthrough, he’s determined to have a family reunion, no matter how many body parts it takes.”

“Four burglars are trapped in a phantasmagoric nightmare when they discover the abandoned mansion they break into is shapeshifting.” (Looks like Mark Margolis pops up in this one)

Season One doesn’t look too shabby either, and I’ve got some serious catching-up to do. For instance, an episode titled, “The Grandfather,” features Angus Scrimm in the title role.

If you go to the official website referenced above (hell, I’ll just give you the link again) you can hear excerpts from some of the stories. Co-creator and producer Fessenden also introduces/hosts the tales, and not only does the book-ends but steps in during a break mid-story (each of the Tales run approximately 30 minutes) with a E.C. horror-esque comment along the lines of “Well! [character name] seems to be in way over his head! But things certainly couldn’t get any worse, could they?” The breaks add to the ambiance instead of taking you out of the story.

If you don’t want to commit to the full boxed set without a taste, you can buy episodes on the iTunes store for $2.95 a pair (Season One) and individually (Season Two) for $1.95. Here’s a few more reviews to check out:

Arrow In the Head (Season One) Review

Comicsgrinder.com

Horror-punks.com

‘True Detective’ Finale Review: Truth, Justice, and the Satisfying Surprise of a Happy Ending

13 March 2014

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Errol Childress: Come and die with me, little priest.

Oh, SPOILER ALERT if you haven’t seen True Detective and plan to. Here’s an excellent review by Jess Jenson for EW.com on the True Detective finale, “Form and Void”, that aired Sunday night and crashed HBO GO due to the amount of people trying to watch. I was really expecting one of the characters I cared about (or worse yet, all of them) to die horribly. Instead, though the finale was dark as hell and didn’t disappoint. Aside from all the obvious, memorable nightmarish imagery–and there was plenty; Errol’s…wife? (half-sister? Sister? Like Marty, we don’t want to know the DNA results) scared the hell out of us, especially her responses to Marty’s questions when he first tries to communicate with her, as follows:

Marty (Getting nervous): Uh– hey, where is he?
Woman: All around us… before you were born… and after you die.

The line delivery by the actress was so goddamned creepy that I shivered; her intermittent screaming at what looked to be their vicious German Shepherd dog purchased specifically to scare the shit out of/attack any trespassers, then going back to her normal calm yet clearly disturbed self, creeped me the hell out too.*.

Side note: I’m not 100%–OK, to be honest, 50% clear–who the fly blown, almost naked older man was in the guest house) or whatever building housed him) tied to a bed frame. He looked like (EEK) his lips were sewn shut, and when they only showed, say, a vague shot of his feet in that first scene he appeared in where Errol talks about ‘hosin’ him down’, I figured it was A. some poor girl or woman who had been their victim for a long time that Childress did horrible, horrible things to on a regular basis or B. what would be revealed later as a horribly rotten, long-dead corpse or C. a combination of the two. Still not 100%, but I’m pretty sure he was breathing. Please chime in below in ‘Comments” if you have an answer, by the way, because now it’s bugging me.

Anyway, here was as much of an ‘upbeat’ ending as this season of True Detective can have**. Anyway, Mr. Jenson says it much better than I could (you may have noticed that I’ve been a little frazzled the last month or so–complicated workload– but I’m improving), and if you were a fan of this first season, the review/analysis is well worth checking out.

*If I’d been in Marty’s shoes at the time, I don’t care how macho/alpha-male his character is (also considering the fact they’d mentioned their cell phones couldn’t pick up a signal; we horror fans know what happens when you’re out in the middle of nowhere and someone says they can’t get a signal, so hey, must be outside of the service area) I would have just said, “Welp, think I got about all the information I need, ma’am! I won’t be bothering you no more, I’m leaving now!” as I was hastily backing away, then found Rusty (though I wouldn’t go poking around too much, given the toxic, evil and just plain WRONG vibes that swamp property and the fucked-up owners gave out) and said, “OK, I’m out. Either we come back here with a dozen cops for back-up, or just bring in the next guy who can deal with this, I’m done. You getting in the car, Rust? No? Tell you what, I’ll just wait in the car for a few minutes with the motor running and the doors locked, then after five minutes, you’re on your own.”

**Raise your hand if, upon your first watching, you were POSITIVE Rusty was going to get killed off by the end of the episode. I thought when Marty asked about him, the detectives would look glum and tell Marty they were very sorry to tell him that Rust hadn’t made it through surgery alive.

TV Review: ‘Those Who Kill,’ ‘Bates Motel’ on A&E (Variety.com)

4 March 2014

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OK, so we’ll be skipping “Those Who Kill,” and watching Season Two of “Bates Motel” to see Vera Farmiga’s performance, which was the most entertaining thing about Season One. Seeing Kenny Johnson (who, as longtime super-fans of Shawn Ryan’s “The Shield, we’ll always remember as Curtis “Lemonhead” Lemansky, we’ll watch in anything*) as a new addition to the cast won’t hurt either, and there’s no possible way this can be as painful to sit through as the few episodes of the final season of Dexter that he played a federal agent in. We still worry about Bates Motel fucking up the mythology of Norman and Norma Bates, though. It wouldn’t have killed them to make it a period piece; so far nothing crucial to the plot or characters that required the show being set in the present. Norma still encounters plenty of sexist bullshit while trying to run a hotel while being female, so it wouldn’t be THAT big of a difference.

*Okay, my husband will watch Kenny Johnson in anything good, I’m the one who’ll watch him in anything because I’ve had a crush on him since 2006. Uh, have you seen that smile and those ARMS? Also, the last season and the last few episodes of Dexter were so bad that if I could go back and do it again, I’d just sit the whole thing out. It wasn’t worth the waste of my time no matter how sexy any guest star was. Make that the last two seasons. Sheesh.

Toronto Film Review: ‘Horns’

20 January 2014

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Eric: Well, I’ll be goddamned.
Ig: You and me both. *

We consider the fact that the movie adaptation of Horns (2013) sticks closely to the source material a good thing, since it may likely contains the above dialogue from the novel. We searched, but as of this writing/posting, still can’t find an official U.S. release date, which is really too goddamned (har) bad. On the very bright side: the makers of the film wisely recast the role of Ig with Daniel Radcliffe, since Shia LaBouf (who we do not respect enough to even consider checking the correct spelling of his name) was originally signed to play the lead. We were not exactly thrilled about the ~~mis~~ casting of Juno Temple as Merrin, then we read the news about what a close call they had with casting Ig and that put things in perspective pretty fast. We highly recommend that if you haven’t already, pick up and read the Joe Hill novel to pass the time while we all wait for a release date… but if you tear through it as fast as we did, it won’t kill much time. It’s an average-length novel, but a very fucking fast–and highly addictive– blast to read. When we hear about a US (or even a UK) release date–theatrical or otherwise, but let’s cross our fingers for a theatrical release instead of VOD–we’ll post it here (and we happily welcome anyone who does have that info to please enlighten us, by email or by posting in the comments).

Here’s a link to an informative piece from CinemaBlend, giving the news that at least the movie HAS been picked up for distribution, and talks some more about the adaptations. It’s also one of the few articles that show more than one publicity photo.

‘The Simpsons’: Guillermo del Toro on creating the epic opening to ‘Treehouse of Horror XXIV’

4 October 2013

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If you’re getting the sense that del Toro is a big fan of The Simpsons, you’re right. Not only did he slip a few homages to The Simpsons in Hellboy (“Mmmm, nachos” “Why you little…!”), he has a room in his house that’s brimming with Simpsons memorabilia. “My favorite is a 30-inch tall Mr. Burns as Dracula that they only make in Germany,” he says. “It’s a really good sculpture. It’s going to run away eventually, but I think that’s very appropriate.”

-from the EW.com article by Dan Snierson

Don’t miss this! It is almost impossible to count the homages and references here. The classic Universal Studios monsters, artist Charles Burns, Brian DePalma‘s Phantom of Paradise, Lovecraft, Bong June Ho’s The Host, Ray Bradbury‘s The Illustrated Man (short story collection and the movie), Todd Browning’s Freaks (watch for the pinhead from the movie; I’d say it was an American Horror Story Asylum reference but it’s in a shot with a bunch of really old-school monsters and aliens, including the Ray Harryhausen skeletons)… they have to be into the triple-digits. Mrs. Horror Boom was going to be all clever and try and list them all, but that’s pretty time-consuming even without a nasty headache. Of course, special attention is paid to Guillermo Del Toro‘s movies (even ones that most moviegoers aren’t familiar with), especially Pan’s Labyrinth. Just check out the screen caps in the gallery link right here, and see how many you can spot… and enjoy this year’s Treehouse of Horror, which airs this Sunday, October 6th!

Guillermo del Toro Working on The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror XXIV! (geektyrant.com)
Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (2011) (mrmovietimes.com)
Guillermo del Toro Directing ‘The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror XXIV’ (animationfascination.wordpress.com)
This Horror Movie Villain Made Del Toro Pee His Pants (buzzfeed.com)

Film Review: ‘Haunter’

4 September 2013

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The earliest release date for Haunter we can find is October 18, 2013 –limited theatrical release. Since IFC Midnight acquired the fright flick (they snapped it up after this year’s SXSW), it may show up on VOD earlier, or on the same date.

IFC Midnight Acquires STD Horror ‘Contracted’ (m.deadline.com)
Trailer and Poster for Vincenzo Natali’s HAUNTER Starring Abigail Breslin (collider.com)
Trailer for Abigail Breslin’s Horror Thriller HAUNTER (geektyrant.com)
Haunter: Trailer for New Vincenzo Natali Horror Flick (grizzlybomb.com)

‘A Field In England,’ ‘Witching & Bitching,’ and organ trafficking doc to screen at Fantastic Fest

22 August 2013

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Here’s some notable and recent additions to Fantastic Fest 2013. We weren’t sure we could describe A Field In England (by the director of Kill List and Sightseers,Ben Wheatley) as horror (or even what sub-category under our ‘Cross-Genre’ category to put it under, we settled for a few); watch the trailer and you’ll see what we mean. The poster art is pretty damn cool though, we’ll give it that. Of all three, the David Cronenberg -narrated documentary Tales From the Organ Trade should be the most horrifying and disturbing …and we’re pretty sure we’re not alone in our opinion. Alex de la Iglesia‘s Witching and Bitching sounds like the most entertaining of these (and that title helps it hit the ground running); check the Related Articles below for the trailer.

The WITCHING & BITCHING Trailer Is Bitchin’ And Bewitching (badassdigest.com)
Fantastic Fest 2013 Reveals Second Wave of Films Featuring Ben Wheatley, Elijah Wood, John Cusack and David Cronenberg (slashfilm.com)
Fantastic Fest’s Intergalactic Fantastic Filmmaking Frenzy Bumper Contest 3013 A.D.!!! (badassdigest.com)
‘Machete Kills’ World Premiere To Open Fantastic Fest 2013 (deadline.com)

Ten F*cked-Up Things That Happen On Hemlock Grove (Semi-Spoiler-y)

9 May 2013

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So, we’ve watched all the Hemlock Groves episodes; in fact we were done by Saturday.* It wasn’t memorable enough to want to write about immediately, so we’ve been making a list of ten “pros and cons” about the Netflix series (and it’ll show up) to help you decide if it’s worth watching if you’re on the fence.

These aren’t necessarily dirty due to sexual content (like the 10F-UTTH on Spartacus or the Sons of Anarchy list), but it is sort of… well… fucked-up. I left a few very nasty things out for spoiler-ish reasons and hey, if you do decide to watch it, you’ve got some twists and shockers to look forward to.

So here they are in no particular order and remember: hey, don’t look at us, we’re just documenting this!

1. A character has their neck broken, and most of the upper body, including their entire chest area is skinless (we don’t see any farther down than that). They were flayed alive. We’re not sure if the neck-breaking (indicating they can’t feel anything from the neck down, meaning feeling no pain) happened before, after, or during the flaying. We do hear some SERIOUS agonized screaming coming from off camera when the attack starts, however.

2. Someone is buried alive (accidentally… at least that’s how it’s presented in the reveal).**

(Note: The following combo is in the transformation clip a ton of viewers have watched, and was shown at WonderCon, AND used heavily for PR by the show, so I’m not considering it a huge spoiler).

How the hell does he transform back afterwards?

Two parter here: 3. During a grisly, painful-looking transformation into a wolf, a young man’s human eyes are pushed out from inside his skull and land on the (dirty) ground; his human teeth soon join the eyeballs.

4.-after the transformation is complete, the rags and scraps of discarded flesh left over of the young man (since he was torn apart from the inside out by the wolf literally tearing/pushing out of various areas of the body) lay steaming on the ground; the wolf happily eats them up.

5. Early on in the series, a teenage girl (named “Brooke Bluebell”) who was viciously attacked by a wolf is discovered ripped in half. Only her nude top half is found, and she’s a shredded-up mess from midpoint-down, then everything else is missing.

6. The girl who finds her body kisses her corpse on the mouth (she says she figured the whole thing was a prank and the bullies who are trying to scare her were hiding and watching. You’ll have to watch to find out more on that).

7. A body (just the upper half) is exhumed to further investigate cause of death (other than being separated from the lower half). This gets really really, ugly and messy –trust me, at least one person ends up vomiting all over. KNB EFX is involved (doing the gore, not in the actual scene).

Oh sure, it starts OUT innocently enough…

8. A gypsy girl (during a ritual) eats a rotting piece of flesh, then minutes later pukes her guts out (the flesh she ate, not her own actual guts, though that wouldn’t have surprised me by then). The camera shows that the vomit on the floor contains a live maggot.

9. During another tasteful gypsy ritual scene, a dead body is hung upside down from a tree by one leg, then decapitated (I’d have to watch the episode a second time to ascertain what exactly motivated this ritual, and if it actually achieved its purpose).

10. A young girl is revealed to have a sort of thick vestigial tail. Things get nasty when she decides on impulse to do some self-surgery to remove it.

*Partially binge-watch, partially ‘try to get my mind off the fact that Spartacus had its series finale and there’s no new episode this Friday, and there won’t be any again’

**if you have watched Hemlock Grove (the entire series) and missed this moment, go to the Horror Boom Spoiler-A-Rama page and I’ll point out A. when it is and B. who–it’s not in-your-face ASAP or anything, almost missed it myself.