NOTE: Yes, this is a re-print of an article originally published in May of 2012. Due to missing over a week of postings in late May THIS year (got kicked in the ass by pneumonia and the unexpected death of a good friend) things got pretty sparse here as everything else went out the window at the time …so I’m filling them in (and back-dating them for the days we were on the disabled list) in with cool stuff and postings you may have missed the first time they were printed, because I hadn’t fully understood how to publicize properly back then… Enjoy.
I have no memory from the first viewing of Texas Chainsaw Massacre whatsoever of the newscaster voice-over describing this “top news story”. Missed the entire speech …though I definitely remember John Larroquette’s voice-over along with the crawl.
I get the feeling I’m going to be preaching to the converted here. Probably even some of the people who (generously) read Horror Boom and aren’t horror fans have seen this trailer, and I’m willing to bet some have even seen the movie. The trailer captures everything that made the movie a classic. If for some really bizarre reason you’re reading this and have NOT seen the original– OK, let me get something off my chest, goddamnit.
As I was composing that last sentence, it pissed me off that I have to even type that: the original. I’d say that I’ve seen worse horror remakes, but horror fans know that’s not saying…
This is one of the BETTER reviews we’ve read! Much as we’d like to see every TCM kill in 3D, we decided it’s not worth it. Maybe on DVD, perhaps if we got free passes, a ride, and free drinks… well, that’s not saying much, we’d do that for a lot of mediocre movies.
I’ve read the entire spoiler for this movie and old-school horror fans like us (hey, we saw TCM2 in the theater! Opening weekend! Midnight showings only! How’s that for horror street cred?*) are mainly going to be pissed off (in our opinion) on the fact they fuck up the mythology. BIG TIME. This includes changing the back-story. GODDAMNIT!
We feel sort of torn attacking Texas Chainsaw 3D as huge Bill Moseley fans loyal enough to see any genre movie… OK, almost any genre movie… that he appears in. Every time we’ve met him, including attending Q&A after TCM2 at a convention, he’s been friendly and gracious. He’s also more attractive in person, to the point where he’s unrecognizable as the actor who played Chop Top and REALLY unrecognizable as Otis from Rob Zombie‘s The Devil’s Rejects and House of 1000 Corpses**, or any of his roles where he’s so heavily made-up or made to look revolting and dangerous.
Anyway, the recent issue of Fangoria with Django Unchained on the cover (#319) has an interview with Moseley, and a piece he wrote (highly recommended). He would have rather played Chop-Top again (he doesn’t even look that much visibly older, not to mention they let him keep parts of his costume and a few props) and we would have rather seen him as Chop-Top than Drayton Sawyer, but the studio didn’t have the rights to Tobe Hooper‘s TCM2. After reading the reviews, then the entire detailed summary of the Texas Chainsaw 3D movie, however, we’re really glad Chop-Top got left out of the whole Gawd-awful thing. Don’t blame him, he had nothing to do with this! Anyone else predicting a drop-off in the second-weekend box-office?
Fangoria Logo Copyright Fangoria Enterprises- All Rights Reserved
*NC-17 hadn’t been invented yet, so instead, no-one under 18 was allowed to buy a ticket– Mrs. Horror Boom just barely squeaked by, and didn’t have to bribe her big sister to take her at the time.
Damn, not only is my ‘hit count’ improving drastically, but as of this writing, I’m at exactly 666 hits, which is a first! That’s pretty awesome, and– wait, did you guys hear that noise? Why did it get so hot in this room all of a sudden?
Yes, sadly Halloween has come and gone, but the scary goodies will be continuing, hopefully at the same pace they have been. Right now lots of horror fans are pretty excited about American Horror Story Asylum, so I’m adding more news and spoilers as I hear them (with spoiler warnings, of course). Hopefully I’ll get a news round-up with links to any new interviews at least once a week. I’ve noticed lately that the specific search terms that show up the most for the show* are variations on “American Horror Story who is the Pinhead.” I’m surprised a fan page for Naomi Grossman as Pepper hasn’t sprung up–wait, actually, I bet if I searched, there’d be a couple at this point.
I upgraded and added the option for adding sound and video files to my posts. I’ll keep slapping up the You Tube videos, of course, but now there’s other forms of media. I’m trying to use the “Press This” option (AKA re-blogging), too, so that you get some variety; I’m the only one writing this site, hearing fresh voices is probably nice. There’s room for every horror writer/blogger on here! Everyone has been super-cool and supportive lately, and I appreciate it. It was just a few months ago when I was averaging about 30 hits on a good day, which really was a drag.
If you want to check out Horror Boom on You Tube, I don’t have anything really spectacular right now, but I’m putting together playlists, especially of hard-to-find movies that are worth a watch.
Oh yeah- here’s a poll (below) that’s be cool if you could give your opinion on. Basically, what would you like to see more of here? If you have a favorite feature and just want it to keep going, that’s worth a vote. You can vote for up to five things you think would be groovy to see on Horror Boom, plus write in something if it’s not listed. Plus, I promise to actually pay attention and respond to what you’d be amped up to see on here. Thanks in advance for voting …and hopefully it’ll take your mind off the “Election 2012” 24/7 media jamboree that you’re really, really fucking sick of hearing about (and thinking about) by now. ENOUGH. We already sent in our ballots and are mostly watching horror DVDs when the TV is on, until Election Night. At this point I think many of us just want it to be OVER. Anyway, the feedback from y’all fellow horror fans would be great.
Image-wise, I just added ten more photos of Kayako to the recent Ju-On Gallery. They’re all PR photos (or very close– if they weren’t ones taken in a closed session with Takako Fuji posing and making her scariest facial expressions, they used shots on set as official PR photos) and I’m pretty sure, unless you have a weird Ju-On obsession like I do that includes buying the novel, tie-in Manga, and a copy of the Ju-On “Haunted House Simulator” game for Nintendo Wii even though I knew I’d probably be too much of a pussy to sit down and play, there’s several you haven’t seen yet. At least half of them were staged photo shoots, because if they were in a Ju-On movie scene, you would definitely remember the image/shot. Check out the latest growing Kayako gallery here. The first series of Grudge/Ju-On images I posted, let me think, right over here, and here’s the “Chills to Beat the Summer Heat” gallery I did second. More Ju-On goodies–OK, I don’t know if that sounds appropriate when referring to one of the Top Five most frightening females in horror history, let alone J-horror history. Uhhh, try that again. I mean more Ju-on/Grudge (relatively) rare footage, trivia, and of course, plenty of new photos are coming soon. Also I would again to state I am well aware I do not own the copyrights to any of the images, they’re here to entertain you; if anyone who DOES own the copyright wants me to take it down, I will. Just contact me …I’m not looking for any copyright trouble!
Meanwhile, genius that I am when I’m not getting enough sleep, I go rifling through Kayako content on the night we set our clocks back, after I spent several hours (before and after sundown) watching a bunch of J-Horror shorts back-to-back Friday and Saturday to build up a decent backlog of “Scariest Short Horror Film of The Week” entries like a moron. Hell, I’m watching a featurette right now onThe Grudge 2 (American sequel) boxed collector’s tin/set AFTER I sat through the last half of the movie; I think back and find no real justification whatsoever for this. Something tells me an Onyro might be making a surprise cameo in one of my dreams soon. Ooooh goodie!
While I’m on the subject, I’m still puzzled and sort of concerned over the amount of males who make comments on You Tube, and/or have websites, where they rhapsodize about how hot and sexy Kayako is. Not Takako Fuji, the actress who plays her, mind you, or even Fuji-San as Kayako before she was murdered, but Kayako in full-out terrifying, crawling or limping un-naturally right at you, dead white, eyes wide as saucers, bloody running down her face, croaking out the classic Grudge/Ju-On Death Rattle mode. Attraction is subjective, and I know she’s a beautiful actress, but I just don’t get it. One said the “kind of lustful, hungry look” she has on her face is “soooo HOT!” Fine, to each their own, but I do hope it’s not because the think only women who look very dead, have broken necks, with blood-smeared faces and a white dress so soaked with her own blood it actually could be mistaken for a red dress are sexually attractive. I’m not even close to a judgemental person, yet I am not altogether comfortable with that piece of information…
Anyway, thanks for reading, and Happy November. Don’t forget to set your clocks back this weekend, and even if you hate less daylight (I do), look on the bright side– hey, that’s time for an extra episode of American Horror Story, time for watching/re-watching a Masters of Horror episode (may I recommend Dance of the Dead, Imprint , or The Damned Thing ?) or two back-to-back Tales From The Crypt episodes you can enjoy.
Hey, it beats more election coverage…
Stay Scared, Mrs. Horror Boom
*after variations on “Evan Peters naked”, “Evan Peters getting spanked”, and “Evan Peters butt,” that is.
The Masters of Horror series doesn’t get near the amount of recognition it deserves. And yes, the best episodes truly are the stuff of nightmares.
Now would be an appropriate time for me to repeat I do NOT own the copyrights for any of the images here, nor own them in any way–I put them here for entertainment purposes only!
Well, if you’re anywhere near as big a fan of the Mick Garris-produced Showtime series Masters of Horror, you’ll be in luck this week. Those shows (OK, most of them, they got pretty hit-or-miss in the final season) were very, very memorable. Just the opening credits (the frames above, and directly below) were a disturbing work of art. Actually, I’m not sure why I’m using the past tense …they still creep me out.
Yep, that’s someone burying an axe is someone else’s head.
So, if you can name these episodes, there’s a pretty good chance you’ll win a DVD. I’m working on a list of the top ten episodes of Masters of Horror, but I’m having serious trouble narrowing it down. Hell, I own more than ten of them. I might just have to spotlight the best ones and forget lists. By the way, I definitely count the unaired Takashi Miike-directed “Imprint” as an official episode. So much sick shit went down on the series that I still wonder if it was a publicity stunt Showtime pulled, or something.. I’ll have to look into that. There’s a torture scene in that episode that makes the notorious one towards the end of Miike’s Audition look tame. I still have to cover my eyes with my fingers for most of the “Imprint” scene, it’s that hard to watch.
But I digress. The photos below are all from different episodes… feel free to comment if you just want to know which episodes they are! The Masters of Horror series doesn’t get near the amount of recognition it deserves. And yes, the best episodes truly are the stuff of nightmares.
I believe the above frame took place during the opening credits of the episode…
And below, what the last thing you’d want to see written on a wall when you woke up at the bottom of a pit?
and finally, thanks to the genius of Greg Nicotero’s make-up and FX work… what a shot.
That’s it (for this game) until next week. Don’t forget, American Horror Story Season One comes out on DVD and Blu- ray Tuesday. Expect at least one piece on it this week!
Imprint (Masters of Horror) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
HORROR BOOM 