Okay, now the makers of the AHS Season 6 teasers seem to be having a contest to see if they can make each other soil themselves with terror. Number 26 was just released, and this writer actually had a nightmare caused by the imagery. All of them have been scary (and very impressive in their creativity), but starting with, oh, number 20 or so, the creative team has been pulling out all the stops. Take, for example, the below, titled “Bathing Beauty”:
But with teaser #26, titled “Bite Me”… well, just watch it. Ararchnophobics, you have been warned.
Because apparently it’s not enough to have a scary, spindly spider scuttling towards you rapidly, they decided to show us one that screams in our fucking faces. As well-crafted and artistic as the Season 6 teasers have been, part of us hopes this is the last one. Or the last openly terrifying one, anyway.
By the way, TMZ has released leaked set photos from the season. We haven’t reported on them yet because Horror Boom prefers not to be linked in any way with TMZ, but we’ll give you a hint: it looks like there might be a Murder House tie-in. Does the word “Croatoan” ring any bells? Also, it looks like AHS will be continuing with their tradition of having every other season be a period piece. AHS Hotel was set in the present, and this time the set photos harken back to what appears to be a colonial era.
If you haven’t seen the entire season, still plan to, and want to go in clean, skip this and wait to vote until after you watch ’em!
Well, the budget here at Horror Boom is oh, let’s say we round it off, and ….we’re gonna go with zero at this point. That means we have to pay an extra $80 if you want to present more than ten options for any kind of poll. So, we can only list ten episodes, and had to cut out three- which has hard to do, but we went with Episode One- “Welcome To Briarcliffe”, Episode Two – “Tricks and Treats”, and episode 12 – “Continuum”. It’s not that they wer’nt good episodes; we just did some thinking and were pretty sure than they weren’t going to be in the running for best or favorite episode. There was just SO much more going on in the other ten, starting in “Nor’eastr” (Episode 3) – we saw the Raspers, for the first time, Sister Mary Eunice’s possession started to pick up speed, Sister Jude got hammered right before movie night, and we got the first (and only) actual look at the alien other than seeing flashes of long , freaky, insectile arms legs appendages later in the season. Plus, Shelley’s true descent into Hell began in the final scene of the episode with the first truly shocking, disturbing reveal of the season …the first of many, MANY more to come.
After that, American Horror Story Asylum just put the goddamned pedal to the metal and kept it floored, not easing off for a moment. Meanwhile, we viewers quickly realized were being treated to a pitch dark roller-coaster of a ride where you couldn’t see something coming at you until right before when it was already WAY too late to stop in time. They had carefully planned the route, but didn’t warn us before the really dangerous stuff)–sharp turns and dangerous driving that made our hearts pound and buckle up our seat belts instantly and hastily, trying not to panic about the fact that a head-on collision could occur at any moment. They then smoothly and wisely began backing down to the speed limit and thinking about the best route to the exit ramp on the penultimate episode, “Continuum”, where story lines took time jumps (in the case of Jude, a real nightmare of one), the finish line was in sight, we got closure on a couple of things, only to wrap up on the season finale (I keep wanting to call it ‘series finale’, since each season is self-contained and considered a novel of its own). All our questions were answered, we got closure (including the end of one character’s life that had Mrs. Horror Boom here so emotional she burst into tears and had to pause the episode for a goof ten minutes before fast-forwarding through the commercial break and onto the next act), and some great slow-burn pay-offs. Didn’t realize this till it got written down here just now, but there wasn’t much, if any, gore. in the finale. So what, though? It WORKED, and that’s all that matters!
As usual, you can vote on up to three (even we have trouble even narrowing it down to that) of what you personally thought were the best, most memorable episodes of American Horror Story Asylum. Also, there’s room for write-in votes as usual (all anonymous; we don’t even bother to block repeat votes, so there’s no cookies or IP addresses tracked) in case your favorite episode wasn’t included in the top ten. We included a link right here to the IMDB episode guide for the entire season right here, in case you’re not sure which episode title which major event happens in. Here’s the poll- vote away, and we’ll present the winners and runners-up in early February. Now, please exercise your right to vote below!
For the record, we voted for “I am Frank Part 2”, “Origins of Monstrosity”, and “Dark Cousins” tying with the finale, “Madness Ends”, and there wasn’t a dull or predictable moment in “The Name Game” either, and.… damn, this is just too hard!
Uhhh… holy shit! It’s going to take me a while to process everything. Boy, that last person standing better not be “Cardinal” Timothy. I will say that I was pretty sure that they were NOT going to do, well, pretty much anything that I expected… about the only thing I was right about was that they were going for a Jackie Susann look with Lana and her novel, er, memoir.
The TV spots for one of the most-anticipated fright flicks of 2013, Mama (opening on January 18, there’s even a “countdown” box at the bottom of our homepage, along with another counting down the days till the next episode of American Horror Story Asylum), probably already has your attention. Mama (the movie, not the creature itself) also started its own You Tube channel, which helpfully groups them all together on a playlist. Everything else You Tube has on Mama is already up on Horror Boom, including the first sleep-with-the-lights-on trailer, the original short film (no sleep whether the lights are on OR off, we’re heard expressed) the second freaky trailer with alternate footage, and the new re-cut version of the short film that Guillermo Del Toro introduces. The original short film Mamá (which is always on our stats as one of the top ten ‘most viewed’ pretty much every day) is the version we found most nightmarish, for what it’s worth. There’s some new footage in these spots as well. Check out the playlist for the TV spots below, after dark if you’re feeling brave…
Speaking of feeling brave, we’re adding new ‘screen grabs’ from the TV spots tomorrow (as well as more links), because we are already up very late and would like to get some sleep tonight. They’ll show soon. Just need to wait till we wake up and the sun is still up… till then, here’s a couple familiar ones.
If I walked into a deserted cabin and laid eyes on the sight depicted in the below still, I’d just back quietly out of the room, out of the house, briskly go home, and call 911 (even though you should never walk backwards in a horror movie, would YOU turn your back to these feral creatures?
Usually, the above is a warm, comforting phrase. Mama’s home. Mama is here. Shhhh, my baby, all is well, you’re safe now, Mamá won’t let anyone hurt her babies. Not in this case; in the context of this short scary-ass film (and the feature-length movie of the same name coming in late January 2013) it is NOT good news.
Not at all.
Well, according to Horror Boom’s year-end stats from WordPress, not only did this three-minute short feature get more hits than every other short horror film we featured combined, it even crept into the top five posts of 2012. So, we were psyched to see a HD version with a brand spankin’ new intro from Guillermo Del Toro. He explains how badly it frightened him and why he saw potential for a full-length movie …that would also scare the hell out of everyone. Since this writer first saw the trailer in Fall of 2012, I’m now able to watch trailers for the feature-length Mama(opening January 18, 2013)after dark …as long as I’m not feeling jittery in the first place.
Am I brave enough, though, to watch this short film after dark? Not really. No. This second version does have alternate footage, but it’s no less scary for the switch. Daytime, lights on, had to turn the sound down just to give to short film a watch and ensure it was the real thing before we posted this new version. You think something can’t be scary that is only three minutes long, with no blood and gore? Watch this, because you will find yourself mistaken.
Even if the movie is mediocre –which we seriously doubt; as a rule, these Spanish film-makers* know how to inspire nightmares above and beyond that of what most US film-makers are capable of– this short, written and directed by Andy Muschietti, is still actively terrifying. We’re now working up an entire piece on it, since as of this writing it may very well be the most anticipated horror film of Winter/Spring 2013. Right now, though, we just want to get the film with the new intro up. MUCH more coverage is coming soon, keep your eyeballs out for it right here on Horror Boom.
Well, I went and shot my mouth (or laptop) off and said as soon as I got any news and/or spoilers for American Horror Story Asylum, I’d pass it on ASAP, so now I get to keep my word. About the only time I wouldn’t post any cool, juicy, exciting AHSA news right after I read it is if I’m asleep or unconscious.
I’ll put the most spoiler-ish stuff at the end, and fix it so you need to highlight to read, even though I want to blurt it out right now. So many people have different definitions and tolerance for spoilers, I should start rating them on a scale of one to ten. But I digress. Here’s the next four episode titles, and they’re getting more interesting!
This probably isn’t major news to most fans, but the upcoming episode, airing November 23rd at 10:00 PM on FX is called “The Origins of Monstrosity”. The official description released by the network is:
A mysterious little girl is abandoned at Briarcliff. The Monsignor makes a Faustian pact with Dr. Arden. The origin of Bloody Face is revealed.
Ryan Murphy gave out several teasers for the episode (without giving away any secrets). He has gone on the record and said that:
This is “the darkest episode yet, maybe the darkest of the entire series [ including Season One, aired in 2011] we’ve done”
We’ll find out not only the ‘origin story’ for Dr. T/Bloody Face, but pasts of other monstrous characters, including Dr. Arden-Gruper and get this, Monsignor Timothy (more on that last one in the spoiler section at the end)
Sister Jude will be starting a ‘downward spiral’, continuing with her recent vices that she fell into by the end of “I Am Anne Frank, Part 2”) Side note: I think I included in my last recap (the review that I call “Ten Things We Learned From…” ongoing series of weekly pieces that I’ve done after each episode, that at no point did it show evidence of her drinking, even at the bar. I think she mainly went to bar to cruise and get laid (and smoke), rather than guzzle booze and get hammered. I did notice, on a viewing after I’d already posted that and it was too late, that when she woke up in that flophouse with “Stranger” (as he was billed) there was a half-full bottle of booze on the bedside table, though it was on his side of the bed, among his other belongings. So, maybe alcohol was involved on her part …but still, you never saw her drinking–or acting drunk in either scene. I guess we’ll find out soon.
That we’ll find out if the Monsignor is really cahoots with Dr. Arden, and if so, why…
That Mark Margolis (the guy we Breaking Bad fans know and of and refer openly to as “Uncle Ring-a-Ding)” will be in the episode (but my gut feeling is he’s going to come to a ghastly end by the end of the episode next week)
That Lana and Dr. T were in the same room at one time, and perhaps that’ s why he “picked her to be the one to tell [his] story”
That poor mutant-Shelley will be back and show up in the episode (wonder if that’s what makes Sister Jude let out a horrified scream in the preview for the show)
That things get even more ugly with Lana and Dr. Oliver Bloody Face
And Sister Mary Eunice-demon will have more screen time.
Sounds like a great episode to me!
Upcoming Episode titles (after “The Origins of Monstrosity):
S2 EP7 Dark Cousin
(airdate Nov. 28, 10:00 PM EST)
And now, some spoilers (highlight to read, and by the way: SPOILER ALERT)
The Monseigneur is being blackmailed by Dr. Nazi. His secret he’s a sex addict
99% sure this is Shelley’s last appearance (unless she shows up around finale time in a flashback). She said in EW.com that she ‘wrapped after the 6th episode’. Hmmm.
Four of us from work got together and went inside the hospital to test our courage. I got separated from the rest of them… …I think I saw something red… –Anonymous source
I swear, I’ve been sitting through WAY too many J-horror shorts lately to make sure I have enough ‘scariest short horror film of the week’ entries for the next couple of months. At this point, I’ve got almost a dozen stand-out scary ones. Now would be a smart time for me to stop watching the creepiest ones I can find, and quit while I’m ahead!
Right off the bat, this one begins with more of a statement than a warning: The images that follow have reportedly driven many viewers to insanity or suicide. Since it’s a very cleverly put-together found footage ‘mockumentary’, we don’t have to worry about that*, but when you’re watching dozens of these after dark, in a fairly jittery mood (presidential elections do that to me, though this isn’t as bad as 2004) it slows you down just a tad. I wasn’t scared, but it sure as hell got my attention fast. At the very least, they’ve got balls to start with it right out of the gate. BAM!
Spirit photographs are creepy enough (especially if you’ve seen the original Shutter ). When you’re watching “Haunted Hospital” and you get to a card that says THIS:
…and even the tiniest part of your brain speaks up in a polite, cautious voice, asking uh, do you really want to watch this? Unless there’s a warning about animal violence, if I’m watching horror deliberately (which is 99.9% of the time, I don’t watch horror accidentally) this usually never slows me down for a second. Now that’s what makes an impression on us horror fans. Not too shabby!
*though many comments on You Tube from younger (well, I hope they’re younger) viewers of this piece swear it’s real – from reading the comments, they’re not trying to start anything troll-ish , they really seem convinced. Though I suppose if you watch past the part warning that people who have seen these images have gone insane and/or blind, some doubt exists (that or they’re really, really bored and decide to take their chances). If I thought it was real (on really scary short movies, the majority of people on You Tube, including me, scan the comments to make sure we’re not wasting our valuable minutes) from reading comments that repeatedly said so, seeing a message that The images that follow have reportedly driven many viewers to insanity or suicide would make my brain call Whup! Time out. How about you sleep on that and maybe check back in the daytime? Actually, Brain, that’s a good idea. Thanks.
Another great piece on a great series by Joshua Hoffine. This time he doesn’t take on Jack the Ripper – he takes on Lovecraft‘s Pickman’s Model, and knocks it out of the fucking North End park. Don’t miss this! By the way, if you haven’t read Pickman’s Model, the H.P. Lovecraft story can be found online to read here – it creeps me out to this day, and I highly recommend it. I also love the Hammer Horror look Mr. Hoffine achieved with this flawless, atmospheric series. If you want to see more on his Jack the Ripper series, I reblogged it here. I also can’t recommend looking at Joshua Hoffine’s online portfolio enough – but not if you plan on getting a good night’s sleep! If you’d like to see an example to decide whether or not you should perhaps peruse his online portfolio in the daytime, or when you’re not the only one awake in the house, here’s a link to one of his scariest, titled Refrigerator, from the After Dark, My Sweet Series. I personally find this series deeply frightening, in fact the most frightening of any of his work (and that’s really saying something) probably because it preys on childhood fears, the monster hiding just around the corner or in the dark under the stairs. You haven’t seen it yet, you sense your worst nightmare is within grabbing reach of you, you’re too terrified to turn around and look directly at it …but it has seen you.
This is a recent project I photographed for Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine called PICKMAN’S MASTERPIECE.
This sequence of images is based on a 1927 short story by H.P. Lovecraft called Pickman’s Model. I was attracted to this project because of the character of Pickman – who in Lovecraft’s mythology is a brilliant but marginalized artist notorious for his horrifying artwork. Due to the graphic and disturbing nature of his work, he is shunned by his fellow artists.
Pickman is my patron saint.
I focused on the moment in the story when Pickman brings his last willing patron into his underground studio to show him his Masterpiece – his greatest and worst work – the one that can never be shown in public.
What he reveals is too much for the human mind to bear.
Instead of creating one heroic image, I wanted to create a sequence of images…
Hey! I’m pretty sure you’ll all be busy tonight. Whether you’re waiting for your friends to come over and watch some scary 80s classics and get tipsy, taking your kids out to trick or treat, going to a party, or to pass out candy yourself, or to watch Trick ‘R Treat and wait for American Horror Story to come on like we are, you may have some time to kill. Here’s some last-minute suggestions.
1. Remind yourself of the four Halloween Rules with this twisted, fun list Fearnet.com put together to promote their Trick ‘R Treat marathon last year. You can tell they had a pure blast creating them. Check them out below!
3. Want to see one last really great Grim Grinning Ghosts video (until the 2012 Halloween season, that is), this time that someone who knew their old-skool Disney put together? Depending on your age, it may very well take you right back to your childhood. Being forty-COUGH COUGH…ahem (clearing throat) years old, I didn’t think this was still actually possible for me. If you remember watching Disney’s Sleepy Hollow on TV when they used to run it the Sunday before Halloween and getting the hell scared out of you by the Headless Horseman chasing Ichabod Crane over the covered bridge, this will warm (or chill) you right up. Those skeletons really know how to kick up their heel-bones and dance, too.
4. Have you heard of perhaps the scariest goddamned flash horror games on the internet, The House and The House 2? Well, if you haven’t seen them, hold off since I’ve been working on a piece for both. However, this truly frightening, interactive Halloween greeting-game from the same studios that created the aforementioned soil-yourself frightening games. When I played the flash games, I got the suspicion they were created by a team in South Korea, Japan, or Thailand, because they had a serious Asian Horror vibe. At the time (in between my high, girly screams and yelps caused by jump scares), I also remember thinking, There is NO WAY anyone in the US could have come up with something this fucking terrifying. Well, after I finished playing this one, a card hops up from the team that created it, and wouldn’t you know, the studio that created all three was Sinthai studios in Thailand. Patted myself on the back for that call!
Before I give you the link to “The Halloween”, some hints: at least three things will be swooping down or rushing past you onscreen. Just start moving your cursor around and clicking on everything it indicates you can click on. It’s not a first-person shooter game, it takes place all in one room, (unlike, say, House or House 2) and not really a puzzle game. The closet it comes to being a puzzle game is you have to click on everything multiple times, in various orders, sometimes many times, for the sudden scares. Light switch, the corner of a piece of paper sticking out of a grate, a pumpkin, if you can click it, keep trying.Turning the lights on and off a bunch of times will give you something …but at some point when you click them on and the room is light again, something blood-curdling may be there this time. You’ll see something when the lights are off, too.
It could take you up to fifteen minutes to get to the grand finale that wraps up the game (and the biggest scare), depending on whether you’re new to this style of point and click game, maybe less if you play these kinds of horror flash games on a regular basis. If you need hints, comment or drop me a line. If all else fails, I’ll post a walk-through, but since there’s not much exploring to do, you’ll probably get it. You’ll discover just how brave you are, based on knowing you have to click the same item a dozen or more times before it activates the next big scare. Oh, and don’t bother scanning the code with your smart phone, it just takes you to the Sinthai company’s URL–nothing much to see there. Well, you CAN get the URL, I’m just saying it’s not a missing puzzle piece or extra to the game. I believe at the end some kind of thank-you note from the creators pops up with a friendly message and Halloween wishes. I’m sure as hell not going to play the game NOW to find out.
“…You’ve heard the rumors, right? It gave me such chills when I heard about it…”
When it comes to frightening Japanese horror shorts, there’ s a lot of contenders. I’ve seen a ton of J-horror short this year, several so disturbing and creepy they left me badly shaken. Then there’s Keita Amemiya‘s Rattle Rattle (2006), which is the first segment of an arguably uneven J-horror anthology called Unholy Women (Kowai Onna). It’s the scariest J-Horror short I’ve seen all year (let alone all month), and that’s why I saved this for Halloween!
My advice is to watch Rattle Rattle on You Tube streaming, if you have the technology for that, and if you’re feeling especially brave, turn off all the lights. Seriously, I dare you. The first time I discovered and watched this–it was recommended to me by a trusted source– was after dark, on my lap top. I kept turning the sound down lower and lower as I got more and more creeped out, and by the last ten minutes it was down all the way. I didn’t have the nerve to watch it again until almost six months later, and since it was a sunny, cheerful afternoon, I got the nerve to watch it via streaming on our flat screen. It was still scary as hell (and also filled in a couple blanks in the plot; the first time I was too busy being freaked the hell out before to focus on every pesky little detail).
I’ve talked to other horror fans, especially those who love Asian Horror, and they agree with me that this segment embodies everything about J-horror that scares the shit out of us. Elements like not knowing quite what you’re looking at, which makes it all the more creepy and unsettling, things that aren’t supposed to be there, or move the way they do, never being safe from whatever scary entity is after you, no matter where you go, what you do, or how long you wait, finding out a horrible truth, then finding out another horrible truth on top of it. Most of the time you don’t even have to do anything wrong, or anything stupid, all you have to do is show up, and you’re fucked . It never forgives …it never forgets, as one of the taglines for The Grudge correctly assures us.
At first the story in Rattle Rattle seems like the familiar–but always creepy on varying levels– theme of an innocent, frightened young woman being pursued ruthlessly and horribly by an onyro (a vengeful female ghost such as Kayako Saeki or Sadako from Ringu; here’s a great, thorough article I highly recommend if you want to learn a little more). As I said, it’s hardly a new theme if you’ve seen a couple J-horror movies; I hear a lot of people say thery’re sick of seeing the pale, skinny ghostly girl with long black hair hanging over her face bla-bla. However, in nine out of ten cases, I’ve noticed those same people continuing to see Asian horror and admitting they’re scary when done right.
“Someone did jump from here recently…”
Anyway, that’s what I thought this short movie would completely consist of. Don’t get me wrong, I was already terrified and my heart rate was up. Then, though I didn’t think it possible and already was regretting my decision to watch the movie after dark as I knew I’d have to really apply myself to relax enough to sleep, I got even more frightened when I turned out to be wrong… and wrong a second time…
OK, I don’t want to talk this little-known gem up too much, so I’ll just tell you if you want a real scare for Halloween (or any time), invest half an hour and watch one of the most frightening J-horror shorts you’ll ever see. That’s why I saved this for Halloween. Watch this till the very end—there’s a moment when it looks like it’s over, but isn’t. You’ll know it when it’s over, trust me… Happy Halloween!
HORROR BOOM 