It Came from New York

The McCain-Palin website has provided an opportunity for making a custom campaign rally sign, which could also be used as an accessory for a politically themed Halloween costume, if needed.

Just fill in the blanks and they’ll email the sign for you to print out. I sent in my request an hour ago but the only thing I got was a very sweet request from Palin for a campaign donation. Hmm, I wonder what’s taking them so long with the sign?

Rick Castro, owner/curator of Antebellum, center, with artists Mike Caruso, left, and Tony Ward, right.

Last night saw the opening of SPLATTER at Antebellum Gallery, an exhibition of art inspired by murder.

Many attendees came in costume to hear music performances by Citizen Savant, Botoxic and Kevin Delude.

The exhibit is on view until Nov. 30th. A program of events will run throughout the month that includes a splatter film festival, a live whip demonstration, a sketch salon and more, plus a closing night Oscar Wilde Death Day Tea Party. Details are on the Antebellum website.

SPLATTER has several paintings on view by John Wayne Gacy, the serial murderer known as “The Killer Clown.”

Prom King and Rick Castro

Rick Castro on Grauman steps

Rick Castro is telling me he sees ghosts all the time.

“As far as I’m concerned, all of Hollywood is haunted or has spiritual presence. Every square mile of  old Hollywood has some kind of notoriety and infamous event from years gone by. If you allow yourself to be still you can feel the energy of souls from the past,”  says Castro, the owner and curator of Antebellum Gallery in Hollywood.

A couple months ago, when I told him that Creepy LA would be gearing up for another Halloween season, he suggested he give me a tour of his haunted world.

As he took a break from preparing for SPLATTER, his next exhibition of art at Antebellum, inspired by the horror film genre, I met him at the gallery, which he said was the first stop on the haunted tour.

“I believe Antebellum Gallery still has the presence of the former tenet, Red Stodolsky, the owner of Baroque Books, which was in this space before the gallery.

“Charles Bukowski was his good friend and  drinking buddy. He would create handwritten books on the premises and they would have impromptu book-signings whenever they felt in the mood.

“Red’s spiritual presence is a very positive force. I can always tell when Red approves or disapproves of the goings on at Antebellum. If he is displeased, he slams the door shut. If he is content, the people are drawn in and linger for a very long time. They also buy more.

“Sometimes Red rings the door chimes.  He doesn’t like a lot of light in the office area. Overhead track lighting never works back there.

“I was told by a former neighbor that Red’s  last wishes were to have his ashes scattered on the front sidewalk of Baroque Books.”

Vogue Theater, Hollywood Blvd.

Next on Castro’s list was the Vogue Theater on Hollywood Blvd., not too far from his gallery on Las Palmas.

“It was built on the former site of an elementary school that burnt down in 1901. Twenty-five students were killed along with their teacher,” he told me. “After the theater was built and when it was still open for business, ghosts of children were often seen playing in the aisles. People also have seen ghosts of a projectionist and another guy who worked there.”

His favorite site is nearby, also in Hollywood, but it’s not in clear view. [click to continue...]

With November 4th just two weeks away, you don’t want to be unprepared should zombies prevail. These fine forged steel blades were designed with one purpose in mind: Killing zombies. We here at CreepyLA suggest you don’t mess around and order one today.

Even with the economy in its current state, now is not the time to cut corners. Zombie Tools snottily explains their rationale:

It’s been estimate that around 600,000 people were killed with agricultural-grade machetes during the Rwandan genocidal war in the ’90s. We’ve seen the machetes used in Africa. They’re thin, cheap, Asian-made tools designed to chop vegetation. So we’re fairly confident that our blades, which are twice as thick, made from quality steel, much sharper and designed to cleave, will have no problem with a decomposing walking corpse.

Jonathan Sharp walked into a friend’s house recently weighed down with bags of food and started unpacking them.

“This is a Moroccan stew that I made last night. And I brought a cornish game hen. I thought we could have this too since I already made it.” He had been invited to dinner and had earlier asked his host if he should bring anything. He was told that nothing was needed. “Do you like key lime pie? I had one from Trader Joe’s in my freezer so I brought it  just in case.”

Welcome to The Jonathan Sharp Show.

Sharp moved from NYC five years ago in search of new horizons. After working on the Broadway stage for 12 years, acting in lead  and featured roles as well as in the ensembles of plays and musicals, he needed something new– a new city even, perhaps.

Also in his past was a 6 month stint on the daytime soap Another World and a veritable roller coaster ride in the former Soviet Union as a singing and dancing member of, as he calls it, “The Back Street Boys of Russia.” Don’t ask; he’ll tell you anyway.

Born in Mississippi and trained from the age of 9 in classical dance, he had moved to New York with the dream of dancing for a major ballet company.

Training at the School of American Ballet, the official school of the New York City Ballet, he went on to dance professionally with the Pennsylvania Ballet and the Boston Ballet. From there he moved on to join the original casts of five Broadway Shows; The Red Shoes, Carousel (for which he won a glowing review from NY Times theater critic Frank Rich and subsequently was drawn by Al Hirschfield,) The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Dance of the Vampires and Fiddler on the Roof.

These days, Sharp has been performing regularly with LA Opera as a dancer, as well as teaching at USC. He still finds time for acting, appearing on Gilmore Girls and Law & Order: SVU, among others.

What do you love about Halloween in Los Angeles?

Well, actually, if I think about my favorite Halloween since I moved here, it would have to be winning LACMA’s  Most Glamorous Costume contest  two years ago. I was dressed as Frank N. Furter from Rocky Horror. I made the costume with Kirsten Solberg. She was on the costume crew for the Hairspray tour last summer.

What was your costume like? [click to continue...]

Love Manor has made creepy labels for you to print and decorate with. Free!

All Hallows Steve presents his annual “Make Your Own Halloween Special.”

Elvis has left the casket and is now Twittering: @Dead_Elvis.

Monster Brains, the creepy devil art blog, reminds us that the late Senator Jesse Helms, defying expectations and suspicions, revealed that he had no cadavers hidden in his house. Plus photographer Joel Peter Witkin explains his photo, The Raft of George W. Bush, with a refresher course in the monsters who have served in his administration.

Gothtober, the online Halloween “advent” calendar is back with all new goodies for 2008.

The Whittier, CA house where Shia LeBouf snooped on the killer next door (and the hot chick also next door) in “Disturbia” is for sale for $1.25 million.

Neatorama has compiled some spooky trivia about three classic horror films. Did you know “Night of the Living Dead” was originally a horror comedy about “teenage aliens who make friends with Earthling teenagers?” Or that one of the girls being babysat in “Halloween” is Paris Hilton’s aunt? Or that some theatres gave out barf bags during screenings of “The Exorcist?”

Popular Science Magazine, 1934

Let’s see. If you crossed Extreme Pumpkins, the über-pumpkin carving book by Tom Nardone, with Extreme Makeover and… nip/tuck… Oh, nevermind.

h/t> my house is cuter than yours.

Clockwise from upper left: Chimera, Goliath, Cindy McCain and TVirus.

Sublety is usually not a successful element of Halloween costumes. But these special effects lenses from Coastal Contacts sure are tempting, with dozens more available on their site.

Another successful year for the horror film festival, plus a list of this year’s Shriekfest Awards winners.

Shriekfest percolated through the past weekend with large audiences lining up to see the latest in indie horror, sci-fi and fantasy films. Raleigh Studios’ Chaplin Theater was the focal point, with most of the movies screening there. Denise Gossett and Todd Beeson, the festival directors were in high gear, meeting, greeting and catching up with filmmakers and festival attendees.

Gossett, who in addition to presenting Shriekfest is a steadily working actor, was aglow over her latest project, her and husband Todd’s new baby daughter, Riley. When asked if she was going to take a breather after Shriekfest said, “I start shooting a western film next week. It’s called A Chestful of Blood. I get to shoot a lot of guns so I’ve been training for that.”

I caught a program of shorts on Sunday that spanned the gamut, from a good natured, gently scary film even young children could enjoy (How My Dad Killed Dracula) to blood-splattered, limb-severing, Grand Guignol-esque, lunatics-have-taken-over-the- asylum horror (Kirksdale.)

Sunday evening, after the last film screened, brought the Shriekfest 2008 Awards ceremony. (List of winners  after the jump.) [click to continue...]

Red carpet zombies at the Eyegore Horror Awards.

The star-studded 6th annual Eyegore Horror Awards kicks off Universal Studios Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights.

How can you not love an event that has a live jazz combo playing splashy lounge versions of horror film theme music from, say, The Exorcist or Nightmare on Elm Street while four huge video screens surrounding the room show a montage of the most memorably terrifying scenes from the very same movies?

How about if it also includes an awards ceremony for the 6th annual Eyegore Horror Awards at Universal Studios Hollywood theme park honoring actors, directors and writers for major achievements in the horror film genre? 

Still not impressed? Okay, okay– how about a batallion of servers swarming the room with trays piled with toothsome hors’d'ouvres and an open bar?

This year’s Eyegore Award honorees included Julie Benz, the actor from Showtime’s Dexter and the upcoming Saw V, and Tobe Hooper, director of Poltergeist and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Also honored with awards were actors Bill Moseley, the famous “Choptop” from Texas Chainsaw Massacre II and star of Rob Zombie’s House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects, George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead and the upcoming Repo! The Genetic Opera, in which he stars opposite Paris Hilton; and Gunnar Hansen, who created the Leatherface character in Texas Chainsaw Massacre and stars in the upcoming Escape of the Living Dead.

Warning: Disturbing photo after the jump; NOT for the squeamish!

[click to continue...]

Photo by Choppercabra666 (he made the skull himself), from the CreepyLA Flickr group.

See the CGI sequel Resident Evil: Degeneration for free in Los Angeles on November 18th. Details at Dread Central.

Remember those plastic Jack-O-Lantern Happy Meal pails? Ah, McDonalds memories…

Frazgo spotted the first home in Monrovia to decorate for Halloween… unsure if that McCain/Palin yard sign is part of the decor.

Simpsons writer Matt Selman is asking for help coming up with his “Treehouse of Terror” name. Mystery prize involved. My suggestions: Matt Invisible Selman. Matt Wolf Selman. Matt Bat Selman. Notice a trend?

Print and build your own mini Disney Haunted Mansions.

Hate Halloween? Learn how to help abolish and replace it in your neighborhood with a more wholesome, more Christian friendly “Light the Night” festivity.

Also, Landover Baptist Church, the most upstanding church in the U.S. of A., where only the worthwhile are welcomed to worship, has tips for Christians on how to ruin Satan’s birthday on October 31st. While their full-fledged Holy War on Halloween has yet to surface on their site, they already have some early pointers for witch hunting, how to effectively impress upon children that Jesus will most definitely sling them into Hell if they even so much as think about trick-or-treating and other wholesome family fun. They even have some nifty bumper stickers for God’s favorite presidential candidate.

An odd evaluator on the fortunes of contemporary but, alas, shelf-life-expired politicos can be ascertained in fire sale prices for these (not just for) Halloween masks.

Then there are those that are too new to even be in production yet. One site is teasing by displaying the clay model of their forthcoming Sarah Palin mask. At first, I thought they were selling it in that dinge-y gray color so each wearer could customize it with their own heavily applied make-up and sassy honey highlights. Either way, tic-tock.

Left, Junk Food at Anonymous Venice. Right, same.

Left, Stuart Colebrook for Threadless (long sleeve version after jump.) Right, Ames Bros. at Anonymous Venice.

[click to continue...]

Raleigh Studios hosts the 8th annual horror film festival that started it all. And Denise Gossett wants to scare you!

Denise Gossett is the mastermind behind Shriekfest. Nine years ago she starred in a horror film called Chain of Souls. When she asked the producers and director what their plans were for releasing the film, she was shocked to hear it was going straight to video. She suggested submitting it to film festivals.

To her surprise, the filmmakers told her there were no film festivals dedicated to the horror genre.

I thought, ‘How can that be?’ There are so many horror fans. I did some research and found what they said was true for the US. There were a few in other countries but really nothing notable or well known. So I came up with the idea for this festival. [click to continue...]