Movies

Halloween is almost upon us! Now is the time to get serious about finally carving that pumpkin, finishing up that costume (if you didn’t already have a party this past weekend), hitting that haunted house you keep putting off, and of course - seeing some scary movies!

Many of you have probably already seen SAW V (the box office #’s would seem to say so). For those who haven’t - skip it. If your a big SAW-franchise fan, by all means, go for it, but for those simply looking to catch a horror movie or two, there are much better ways you could spend your time.

A drastically more interesting choice would be LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, QUARANTINE and/or the Clive Barker double feature at the New Bev. [click to continue...]

One of my favorite time wasting websites is Hulu.com, which allows you to stream an increasingly more and more impressive array of TV shows and movies - for free! I don’t have TiVo, so this is how I keep up on a majority of the shows I watch.

October is Huluween over at Hulu, where they have selected a fun array of horror movies, like The Blob, Christine, Toxic Avenger, and Horror Express, and Halloween related episodes of shows like The Simpsons, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Addams Family, Girls Next Door, and Scare Tactics, all for your free consumption. And those are just a few examples of what’s available.

The playlists are broken up into the weeks of the month. We’re currently in week three, but the previous two weeks’ material is still available for viewing. And more material will of course be coming next week.

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...]

For me, part of the fun of the Halloween season is having horror movie marathons. Over the years I’ve been forced to come to terms with the fact that most of my friends aren’t hardcore enough to watch more than two movies back-to-back (even that seems pushing it sometimes). I think four is a solid number, so trust me when I say that the New Beverly’s upcoming horror movie uberathon is hardcore.

October 18 All Night Horror Show!

Yup, that’s right - all night. The screening will run from 7:30pm on Saturday to 7:30am on Sunday.

8 movies will be screened, including - Dario Argento’s rarely screened Creepers (the US theatrical cut of Phenomena), The House on Sorority Row, Lucio Fulci’s Zombie, Piranha II: The Spawning, Teenage Mother, The Power, and RAW FORCE.

Tickets are $20. All proceeds go towards New Bev upgrades & repairs (which it desperately needs).

To buy tickets and check out trailers for each of the movies head over to their myspace page. I was forced to sign in to read it, so I’m not sure what to tell ya if you don’t have a myspace account. Tickets can also be purchased at the New Bev’s box office.

photo courtesy of Matt Sell

This review is a little pointless, I’ll admit, since it’s for a movie that is not currently playing nor soon to be released. In fact, according to the writer/director, it has no scheduled release date at all. So in a sense, it doesn’t exist. Which I guess is why I feel compelled to tell you about it.

TRICK R TREAT, is the film. It’s written and directed by Michael Dougherty, a protege of Bryan Singer (who produced the film), and as the title should imply, it is about Halloween. The film was shot years ago with a planned Oct 2007 release date. They even made posters and merchandise. Then, as will happen in this town, the movie was unceremoniously shelved.

The reasons behind this shelving sent the Internet a’buzz with speculation - did the movie suck? Was it a conspiracy; Warner Bros mad at Singer over SUPERMAN RETURNS? Well, a horror movie sucking has never stopped anyone from releasing it and making a buttload of money, so that theory always seemed suspect to me, but either way, I can tell you right now - the movie does not suck. In fact, it’s pretty great.

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The DVD case for the 10th Anniversary Edition of HALLOWEEN: THE HAPPY HAUNTING OF AMERICA proudly proclaims “A Must-See For All Halloween Fans,” and I think I’d have to agree. Though by extension I’d also have to say that it’s probably only for true Halloween fans.

I’m not sure exactly how to categorize HAPPY HAUNTING. It’s technically a documentary I suppose, but it feels more like an episode of a cable infotainment series - kind of a Wild On: Halloween, sans the boozing and bikinis of course.

Our genial host is actor and horror aficionado Daniel Roebuck - who I’ll always remember from RIVER’S EDGE, but many readers might recall as the doomed-to-explode Arzt from TV’s “LOST” - who takes us on a journey across America to visit various popular haunted attractions.

These walk-through segments are buffered with some talking-head bits from Halloween experts and also some horror icons like Robert Englund, Alice Cooper and Tom Savini. This is actually the area of the movie I was most surprised by, as I’d cynically expected it to just be a lame gimmick to get some familiar names on the slipcase. But all involved actually relate some really fun personal Halloween stories, with Englund even divulging the origins of the jack-o-lantern.

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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...]

Have you always wanted to own one of the original puppets from Puppet Masters or the titular bubbler from Evil Bong? How about one of the ghoulies from Ghoulies? Maybe some of Elisha Cuthbert’s clothes from Captivity (stalkers rejoice)?

Well, what are you doing this weekend?

Cause this Saturday the 11th, Fangoria, Dreadcentral.com and ShockTillYouDrop.com are sponsoring a live horror-themed charity auction at Premiere Props in El Segundo.

There will be a preview from 9am – 11am, with the auction begining at 11am. As a special treat, bidders who come down to Premiere Props’ warehouse will have the opportunity to meet Charles Band, producer of such horror classics as Subspecies, The Puppet Master series, Ghoulies, Evil Bong, Trancers and founder of Full Moon Entertainment, the king of early 90’s straight-to-video horror.  

The charity in question is the Entertainment Industry Foundation.

For directions and more indepth specifics, join me after the jump…

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Wanna attend SpikeTV’s Scream 2008 awards ceremony? It isn’t a free ride, but it’s close enough. Make sure to read this whole thing if you’re seriously considering. (I love that they specifically ask you not to show up drunk. At least they know their audience.)

Feast!

SPIKE SCREAM AWARDS IS CASTING SEATFILLERS, AUDIENCE & HOOKING OUR FANS UP WITH FREE TICKETS!

THIS IS AN INVITE ONLY EVENT, NOT A CONFIRMATION
YOU MUST BE IN LA/SoCal AREA ON 10/18 OR DO NOT REPLY
PLEASE READ THE ENTIRE EMAIL BELOW TO LEARN HOW TO BE BOOKED AS AN OFFICIAL INVITED GUEST/AUDIENCE

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Scream 2008, Spike TV’s third annual awards show dedicatd soley to horror, sci-fi and fantasy, won’t air until October 21st (on Spike, of course), but leading up til then you can flex your mighty opinion by voting for your favs, if you are so inclined.

While I can’t say the nominee choices are great (30 Days of Night for Best Horror Movie? Are you f’ing kidding?) the award categories themselves are a solid and logical batch - Best Director, Best Villain, Best TV Show, etc - with some uniquely fun ones scattered in too, like “Most Memorable Mutilation” or “Holy S@#$! Scene of the Year.”

For an idea of what to expect from this year’s ceremony check out the highlight montage of Scream 2007 after the jump. [click to continue...]

So Friday was the opening night of the Queen Mary’s Annual Halloween “Terror Fest,” Shipwreck. I attended, of course.

If you’re just lookin’ for a quickie review: I’d give the haunted mazes a B, and I’d give the attraction overall a B+.

All the basic info you could want can be found here.

If you need a bit more perspective before you decide to slog all the way down to Long Beach, read onwards for all the gory details (get it? get it?)!

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In this newest of DirectTV’s ads utilizing footage from classic films, Craig T. Nelson reprises his role from “Poltergeist” telling the audience, “Forgetting to switch to DirectTV? Yeah, that’s gonna haunt me,” as Heather O’Rourke stands at the foot of his bed. O’Rourke died at the age of 12 a few months after wrapping work on “Poltergeist 3.”

On a related note of trivia, did you know that both O’Rourke and Dominique Dunne, who played her older sister in “Poltergeist,” are both interred at Pierce Brothers Westwood Memorial Park?

[h/t Hunter Stephenson at Slashfilm]

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...]

The STARZ movie channel has posted their Halloween schedule. That’s not particularly interesting or exciting - nor is the schedule itself - but a hop over to the site will also lead you to the Starz Bunnies, a collection of 30-second movie parodies starring, you guessed it, Bunnies.

The silly shorts cover all genres, but I recommend checking out the HORROR Bunnies. Each short attempts to synopsize the entire plot of the movie it’s lampooning, so what’s really funny is how easily a piece of crap like 30 DAYS OF NIGHT can be summed up in 30 seconds. [click to continue...]