September 2007

For the month of October, CreepyLA has mashed together with Film Radar’s Horror Fan mailing list to bring subscribers a weekly email treat of horror film listings, haunted house openings, other events to help feed your Halloween needs.

Join now and be entered into a drawing to win a copy of Jeff Dwyer’s “Ghost Hunter’s Guide to Los Angeles”. (you can read my Metroblogging interview with Jeff here.)

To join the mailing list, enter your name below and click “go” and confirm your subscription.

Entry deadline for the current giveaway: Monday, October 1st at 11:59pm… additional prizes will be given out throughout the month.

Dead Rock West’s debut CD, Honey & Salt, was released in February on Populuxe Records. Fresh from a summer-long US tour with legendary LA Rock heart-throb John Doe, they talked to me about pig’s blood and their spiritual connection with a stuffed rooster.

This summer you did a 55-city tour with John Doe. On the road, was anything scarier than the food?

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Fans of Horror and Sci-Fi books, as well as Comics, Fantasy and Star Trek Manga, will have an opportunity to attend panels, check out exhibitors and meet writers, graphic artists and more at the West Hollywood Book Fair, now in its sixth year.

One notable feature will be the panel, Horror in Short Bursts. Del Howison, co-owner of the world famous horror emporium Dark Delicacies in Burbank, will moderate a panel of writers and editors, including Gary Brandner, creator of The Howling and Cameron’s Closet, followed by a signing at the Dark Delicacies booth.

It happens this Sunday, September 30 from 10 AM to 6 PM at West Hollywood Park. (San Vicente between Melrose and Santa Monica.) Admission is free.

Check their website for a schedule of events.

You can almost hear them pitching this one. Moonlight is a new one-hour drama series from CBS that premieres tonight at 9 PM. It’s about the vampire community in Los Angeles and how they’re, well, like a lot of Angelenos: they obsess over their looks, yell at people over their cellphones, surf the internet and suck blood from the innocent.

Mary McNamara’s review in today’s LA Times is not good but still…

“Let’s do lunch. “

photo from Wikipedia/public domain

In an interview with CreepyLA this morning, Zelda Rubinstein, who infamously (albeit prematurely) declared “this house is clean” in “Poltergeist”, was unable to explain what it was like working with Tobe Hooper, the film’s credited director.

“I don’t think I can, because during the six days I worked Steven Spielberg primarily took over that helm in my scenes. I don’t know what happened the other days.”

She acknowledges that Hooper was on set the full time and that he would set up every shot, but each time Spielberg would step in and make changes. “What he wants to show and say is what gets up there (on screen) the way he wants it. There’s no deviation from that.”

Now celebrating its 25th anniversary with a special edition DVD and one night rerelease in theatres, “Poltergeist” changed Ms. Rubinstein’s life.

“Shortly after the movie came about a lady in market where I shop came up to me and said, ‘please, please, come to my house! Something’s wrong with it!’”

Amused, Ms. Rubinstein had to explain she wasn’t the character in the movie. She doesn’t even believe the rumors of a “Poltergeist curse”. However, she does feel that while she’s not “psychic”, she’s “sensitive”, and shares one experience involving a car accident she was in while she was filming “Poltergeist.” [click to continue...]

The Miss Horrorfest auditions, originally scheduled for this afternoon, have been moved to Monday, October 1st from 5-7pm in Valley Village.

To promote the second season of the “serial killer as hero” series Dexter, Showtime erected a tempory fountain of blood in front of the Kodak Theatre.

LAist’s Tony Pierce swung by for a swim, but was thought twice upon arrival: “It sorta smelled gross and it splattered on you as you photographed it.”

On a side note, while Dexter takes place in Miami, FL, the soundstages are mere blocks away at the haunted Sunset Gower Studios.

Danzig brings their sharp-edged hybrid of metal-Goth Romanticism to the Greek Theater on Halloween night. Tickets go on sale at noon on Saturday September 29th at the Greek box office and also (if you must) Ticketmaster. Gorgeous Frankenstein is the opener.

Thumbnail from allmusic.com, photograph by Anton Corbijn

Creepy has launched a Flickr widget at the top of our home page. Anyone can post their pics from Halloweens past on it, dry runs for what you’re considering for this year’s costume or just plain creepy Halloween stuff you’re finding and photographing.

Just click on the link at the bottom of the widget. It’s free and easy to register on Flickr.com (if you have a Yahoo email account you’re already registered) and uploading your pics is a cinch. So c’mon, whip ‘em out. We’re dying to see what you’ve got…

If you can’t wait til October to get your fright on, Knott’s “Scary” Farm creaks open tonite in what I believe is the earliest themed haunt opening of the season.

(Cheap Haunt tip: if you’re planning on buying your tickets at the gate, check out a Burger King along the way for discount coupons… if anyone knows exactly what the discount is, please leave it in the comments…)

Not sure what your music tastes are, Creepy reader, but I’m always happy to force mine upon you or at the very least suggest some options. If your looking for a soundtrack befitting the approaching Halloween season you might want to check out a couple Soma FM internet radio stations I’ve been feeding on for as long as they’ve been offered on iTunes radio. (You don’t need iTunes to listen.)

Doomed calls itself “dark and scary industrial-inspired music for tortured souls,” and it’s perfect as a soundtrack for your shadow life.

And Cliqhop is like a drug for me; I need a fix of IDM everyday or I just don’t feel good. It’s creepy, sexy and soothing, all at the same time. (Now you know me a little better.)

One BIG problem: internet radio as we now know it may soon die. Learn how you can become an internet radio activist… [click to continue...]

Mother Nature taking a Medea-esque turn has a long history in film, from creepy greats like The Birds to funny crap like The Swarm.

The Last Winter, from director Larry Fessenden and starring James LeGros and Ron Perlman, is another solid entry into the former category. It adds a contemporary twist by pitting an oil company team, attempting to drill through the permafrost in Alaska in search of black gold, against unseen forces that turn deadly. You don’t want to piss off Mommie N.

It runs until Thursday at the Nuart and on Friday moves to the Fairfax .

Thumbnail from Glass Eye Pics

Politically incorrect kid costumes are in bountiful supply at the 99 Cents Stores. Apparently, the boys get to be cops, builders and doctors while the girls get to be witches and devil hookers.

I’m guessing the politburo kid costumes will be in stock next week, but just for boys.

CurbedLA answers a vampyrphobic reader’s cry for help regarding a supposed invasion of bats swarming downtown Los Angeles with a little subterfuge:

“They’re swallows, not bats!”

Yeah, right, Curbed! And I imagine you’ll also explain that the demons crawling in the walls of my apartment are really rats, the banshee howling outside my window is just a cat in heat, or that Milli Vanilli lipsynched!

Besides, even if that video you caught is of swallows, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a flock of vampires, which have been known to change into wolves, rats, mist, and, of course, bats… so why not swallows?

…by the way, did anyone find this missing pet bat yet?… above photo by Matthew Logelin, used under Creative Commons…