Hansel and Gretal: Witch Hunters review

With Kount Kreepy on vacation at some nice island somewhere I guess it's up to me to keep with hearth fire burning on this here blog.

Hansel and Gretel With Hunters is brought to us from the same guy who did Dead Snow ,Thomas Wirkola, (and upcoming Dead Snow:War of the Dead) as the writer and director.

 This movie kicks ass, has great gore and effects, some good laughs and generally rocks!

 The film starts off with the Hansel (Jeremy Renner)and Gretel (Gemma Arterton) we all know from fairy tales but gets a bit Tarantino after that. Fast forward 15 years later with Hansel and Gretal hunting down witches until they get hired by a town to find out what's happened to the town's children that have gone missing and eventually unravel a plot involving a Grand Evil Witch (Famke  Jennsen )and her coven seeking..... see the movie I won't spoil it.

There's quite a big nod to the "Steampunk" genre here as well through some really cool gadgets and gizmo's in the witch hunters arsenal and it works with the atmosphere of the movie. There is also a sequel in the works and I for one am looking forward to it! Rotten Tomatoes hated it so fuck them. Chances are if you read this blog on a regular basis then you know this will be a fun movie. If your looking for deep meanings and superb acting and some lah dee dah crap this aint your movie. If your looking for some action/adventure and kicking some supernatural ass, this will satisfy! -Evil von Scarry

Evil Dead 2013 review

Finished watching Evil Dead the new one 2013. The Kount and I were both pretty pissed off we weren't the first Monster Kids in line for it but family, work,etc sometimes get in the way.

Well worth the watch, now of course not as good as the original (are they ever really?).
But this had the atmosphere that creeps people out and had some nods to the original but
still able to pull it off as it's own dog. Having said that though there's some parts in this new one that I will never forget!

It was pretty fucked up and had some really over the top moments. The effects were very well done

and has plenty for fans of the original. Being a huge fan myself (yeah I even got the t-shirt) of the original I was pleased to be able to pick out some "Easter eggs" from the original but also surprised that the film was able to do it's own ideas as well instead of just being a clone of the original film.

The beginning of the film actually gave something the original did not, some visual backgrounder. The original gave the backgrounder through an audio tape. This one actually SHOWS YOU what happened, which I thought was pretty cool. 

Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell ('hail to the King baby!') are producers of this film so for anyone out there who are worried Sam and Bruce weren't going to put up with anyone fucking with this film. And to all those pussies in movie theatres world wide who got up and walked out, what the fuck did you expect from a film entitled EVIL DEAD. LMAO for fuck sakes it's not a fucking Disney film!
To fans of the Evil Dead franchise if you've been holding back, don't. Go and see it. It will be worth your while. Cheers, Evil von Scarry.

Horror Movie Line up 2013 and beyond! Bonus Frankenstein's Army Redband trailer!

Here is a list of Horror movies coming to theatres and DVD for 2013 and beyond! While not comprehensive it shows some of the high lights of a great and spooky year to come!

Warm Bodies

Tue, June 4, 2013 (DVD)

Sadako 3D

Tue, June 4, 2013 (DVD)

V/H/S/ 2

Thu, June 6, 2013 (VOD)

The Purge

Fri, June 7, 2013

Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters

Tue, June 11, 2013 (DVD)

Berberian Sound Studio

Fri, June 14, 2013 (VOD)(Limited)

Hatchet III

Fri, June 14, 2013 (Limited)

Apartment 1303 3D

Mon, June 17, 2013 (VOD)

Detention of the Dead

Tue, June 18, 2013 (VOD)

The Last Exorcism Part II

Tue, June 18, 2013 (DVD)

Stoker

Tue, June 18, 2013 (DVD)

American Mary

Tue, June 18, 2013 (DVD)

Come Out and Play

Tue, June 18, 2013 (DVD)

World War Z

Fri, June 21, 2013

Maniac

Fri, June 21, 2013 (VOD)(Limited)

Hansel & Gretel Get Baked

Tue, June 25, 2013 (DVD)

Crawlspace

Tue, June 25, 2013 (DVD)

Dead Souls

Tue, June 25, 2013 (DVD)

The Call

Tue, June 25, 2013 (DVD)

100 Bloody Acres

Fri, June 28, 2013 (VOD)(Limited)

Byzantium

Fri, June 28, 2013

6 Souls

Tue, July 2, 2013 (DVD)

Would You Rather

Tue, July 9, 2013 (DVD)

The Expelled

Tue, July 9, 2013 (DVD)

Pacific Rim

Fri, July 12, 2013

Evil Dead

Tue, July 16, 2013 (DVD)

R.I.P.D.

Fri, July 19, 2013

Grabbers

Fri, July 19, 2013 (VOD)(Limited)

The Conjuring

Fri, July 19, 2013

Frankenstein's Army

Fri, July 26, 2013 (Limited)     *NEW REDBAND TRAILER!*

Under the Bed

Tue, July 30, 2013 (DVD)

Cockneys vs Zombies

Fri, August 2, 2013 (Limited)

Gallowwalkers

Tue, August 6, 2013 (DVD)

Inbred

Thu, August 22, 2013 (VOD)

The World's End

Fri, August 23, 2013

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

Fri, August 23, 2013

You're Next

Fri, August 23, 2013

Riddick

Fri, September 6, 2013

Insidious: Chapter 2

Fri, September 13, 2013

Where the Devil Hides

Fri, October 11, 2013

The Seventh Son

Fri, October 18, 2013

Carrie

Fri, October 18, 2013

Paranormal Activity 5

Fri, October 25, 2013
Hellraiser reboot
2013?

The Amityville Horror: The Lost Tapes

Fri, January 3, 2014

Ghosts

Fri, January 10, 2014

I, Frankenstein

Fri, January 24, 2014

The Quiet Ones

Fri, April 25, 2014

Godzilla

Fri, May 16, 2014

Dracula

Fri, August 8, 2014

Resident Evil 6

Fri, September 12, 2014

Beware the Night

Fri, January 16, 2015

Honorable Mentions: 

Darkchylde 

Resolution 

Return to Nuke 'em High

Rondo Hatton Awards results

A quick overview of the Rondo Hatton (Horror) Awards 2012 winners
for full article please visit the RHA website here :

We vote annually in these awards and feel it's one of the best real markers of horror fans. The Rondo's cut out the politics of the film industry and goes right to the people who appreciate horror films and their various genres.

"   The Rondo awards, named after Rondo Hatton, an obscure B-movie villain of the 1940s, recognize the best in classic horror research, creativity and film preservation. This year's e-mail vote, conducted by the Classic Horror Film Board, an 18-year old online community, drew a record of more than 3,400 votes as fans chose among 35 categories"

Best Horror Movie 2012 -A Cabin in the Woods- a homage to 80's teen thrillers took 1st place. Not my pick... but hey congrats.

Monster Kid of the Year- Simon Rowson:
"the award program's highest honor -- for his work discovering snippets of footage in Japan that had 'Dracula' with Christopher Lee in 1958 (Retitled 'Horror of Dracula' in the U.S.). As a result of his efforts, a new restored version of the film has been released in Britain."

been cut from the original release of Hammer's

Best Horror Magazine of the Year- Rue Morgue 
no surprise there, Rue Morgue the Canadian horror mag is one of the best! Rue Morgue also sponsors the Festival of Fear in Toronto, Canada every year!

Best TV Presentation- The Walking Dead- no surprise there either. This is one of the best things to happen to television in a loooooonnnnngggg time. About time we got something besides "reality tv". Excellent series and well written. Its really a drama with a horrifying zombie apocolypse as the background and continuous source of tension that drives the characters.

The RHA site has lots of other categories that are just as important but were not here to steal the thunder. -EvS

CatchMeKillMe Productions Indie Spotlight

Hello fellow creeps! This will be this first installment of spotlights on independent horror, and hopefully followed by many more. Independent horror has always been dear to my blackened heart and I feel it needs any exposure I can offer. So without furthure ado here we go:

CATCHMEKILLME PRODUCTIONS

From the creepy canyons of Sierra Vista Arizona, a new horror emerges!! CatchMeKillMeFilms is an independent film production company founded by Ian Messenger and several of his fiends. On a shoe string budget they've managed pull together and create some fantastic horror films and shorts. Ian's first film "The Hog: A return to Fear" has even caught the eye of none other than the Master of Cheese Horror Lloyd Kaufman! Saying "The Hog is the best attempt at a short film I've ever seen"Sic. After watching all of their gruesome vids on Youtube, not only am I a fan but I love seeing the evolution in quality! The story tie ins are also a great touch. With support of fans and horror aficionados I hope to see these guys rise to great things! Here are some of my favourites, in all their juicy bloody glory:

The Bad Man

Keeper

The Hog: a Return to Fear

If you haven't discovered the demented fun of CatchMeKillMe I suggest you do! So PLEASE support indie horror and watch their stuff, comment, and refer! Without indie horror there would be no mainstream/cult horror!

~ K.K.

https://twitter.com/CatchMeKillMe

http://www.youtube.com/CatchMeKillMeFilms

The Pact

The Pact
a U.S. 2012 horror/thriller directed by Nicholas McCarthy
This film stars,  Caity Lotz,Casper Van Dien,Agnes Bruckner,Haley Hudson (who I refer to as Sheldon's sister lol),Kathleen Rose Perkins ,
Samuel Ball and Mark Steger

Watched this on IFC. First impression I was a bit hesitant, as all the actors were too good looking, but within the 10-20 minute mark one gets sucked into the story pretty easily.

Film Description (from IFC)
" After their mother passes away, sisters Nicole and Annie Annie begins experiencing a series of intense and disturbing dreams – visions that lead her to uncover something terrible about her mother’s past that is finally revealing itself.

reluctantly return to their childhood home to pay their last respects.  While staying overnight in the house, the sisters sense a mysterious presence in their midst: noises startling them in the night, objects moving about, a fallen picture of an unknown woman posed next to their mother. "

Starts off as a supernatural thriller/haunted house film and soon gets  into a mystery thriller,with a time pressure, imminent threat of death and possibly someone eating your soul. Low budget enough to have that grittier indy film appeal but enough money involved that it retains quality.

Camera work is done well and adds to the effect and feel of the film. The acting is done well and the main protagonist (Annie played by Caity Lotz) has acting ability and doesn't rely on her looks to sell the film like bigger budget films.

Worth the watch and one of those films best enjoyed at home on the couch with the lights turned off! Will give you some good scares, make you think and not insult your intelligence. See this film!-EvS

Cthulhu Lives in the gut of a termite! (and more!)

Found this article in Popsci and had to re-post it! (with some better art) And as an added bonus I threw in some other goodies!

Cthulhu Lives In The Gut Of A Termite

As well as in the malevolent deeps

By Martha HarbisonPosted 04.04.2013 at 3:32 pm2 Comments

The Dread Cthulhu Wikipedia

Scientists have been naming species after famous people for a long time. For example, Thomas Jefferson has an extinct giant ground sloth named after him. Mark Knopfler rates a dinosaur. Frank Zappa has multiple animals sharing his namesake, including a spider, a jellyfish and a mudskipper.

Now joining those hallowed ranks is one of the Great Old Ones. Scientists at the University of British Columbia and the University of Florida bequeathed two new genera of symbiotic protists their own dread names: Cthulhu and Cthylla.

The protists, not surprisingly, have a lot of tentacles. (Or, well, they have tentacle-like appendages. In fact, if they didn't have tentacle-like appendages, I would have been writing this column berating the researchers for their oversight). But, as the researchers say in the abstract to their paper, published in PLOS One: "Both genera have […] an anterior bundle flagella (and likely a single posterior flagellum) that emerge slightly subanteriorly and have a distinctive beat pattern. Cthulhu is relatively large and has a distinctive bundle of over 20 flagella whereas Cthyllais smaller, has only 5 anterior flagella."

The critters live inside termite guts and help the termites digest the cellulose in wood. I had no idea that R'lyeh was situated in the body cavity of an insect, rather than at the bottom of the South Pacific.

The Lovecraftian purists out there are probably looking at the second genus and muttering "bullsh*t" to themselves--Cthylla (apparently Cthulhu's youngest progeny) was not created by H.P. Lovecraft. She was invented in 1975 by writer Brian Lumley. I'm not going to get into a nerd-rage fueled throwdown over the nomenclature and rightness of using a latter-day addition to the mythos in the same paper as the hallowed original. I'm just going to use this as an excuse to bust out my copy of At The Mountains of Madness and call in sick tomorrow for work.

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!

Cthulhu based Movies: 

Dagon(2001) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0264508/ 

The Last Lovecraft(2009) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1522262/

Cthulhu based books: 

That which should not be by Brett J Talley http://www.amazon.com/That-Which-Should-Not-Be/dp/1936564149/ref=pd_sim_b_4

Synopsis 

Miskatonic University has a long-whispered reputation of being strongly connected to all things occult and supernatural. From the faculty to the students, the fascination with other-worldly legends and objects runs rampant. So, when Carter Weston's professor Dr. Thayerson asks him to search a nearby village for a book that is believed to control the inhuman forces that rule the Earth, Incendium Maleficarum, The Inferno of the Witch, the student doesn't hesitate to begin the quest. 

Weston's journey takes an unexpected turn, however, when he ventures into a tavern in the small town of Anchorhead. Rather than passing the evening as a solitary patron, Weston joins four men who regale him with stories of their personal experiences with forces both preternatural and damned. Two stories hit close to home as they tie the tellers directly to Weston's current mission. 

His unanticipated role as passive listener proves fortuitous, and Weston fulfills his goal. Bringing the book back to Miskatonic, though, proves to be a grave mistake. Quickly, Weston realizes he has played a role in potentially opening the gate between the netherworld and the world of Man. Reversing the course of events means forgetting all he thought he knew about Miskatonic and his professor and embracing an unknown beyond his wildest imagination.

Tales of Cthulhu Mythos by HP Lovecraft http://www.amazon.com/Tales-Cthulhu-Mythos-H-Lovecraft/dp/034542204X

Short stories

Cool Cthulhu links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_of_Cthulhu_(role-playing_game)

http://www.yog-sothoth.com/wiki/index.php/Cthulhu

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/29568/munchkin-cthulhu-2-call-of-cowthulhu

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Arkham-Horror-Board-Game-Cthulhu/dp/1589942108

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/585106

http://www.amazon.com/Necronomicon-Simon/dp/0380751925

"Lord of Tears" an upcoming horror thriller

Thrills, chills,tension and the spilling of blood. This film will have it all!

Plotline-
Set in the Scottish highlands a man named James Findlay (played by Euan Douglas) must confront his fears and the demons of his past including a menacing presence known only as "The Owl Man" by returning to his childhood home after the death of his mother.

Reviewing the story and trailer, the"Lord of Tears" has that kind of Lovecraft feel to it by way of the protagonist questioning and fighting for sanity. A bit of Fall of the House of Usher with an ancient stalker creature that we only know as " The Owl Man"makes for a great story and film formula. The creators of Lord of Tears share that it is based on ancient legends ( Celtic -the Slender Man and others). Some other research shows that there actually is (allegedly) an "Owl Man" in more modern legend. This just adds to the Lord of Tears creepiness. The film has the mystique that only British horror can have. Often imitated by American horror but never quite hitting that classy scare the hell out of you as opposed the exploitation style of modern U.S. horror cinema.
 
On seeing pictures of the Owl Man (ie Moloch an ancient evil entity of mythology) it brings to mind the creepiness of Nosferatu with those scary long arms and claws. On top of that add the cold supernatural nature (and stare!) of owls, the creature of the night/silent hunter. There was serious  research done and the director even dared travel through the haunt of the alleged Owl Man. Interestingly the film is actually shot where witnesses claim to have seen the creature. Lucky this didn't turn into a Blair Witch Ala The Owl Man real life encounter for the cast and crew! Otherwise this would be a murder investigation instead of a film review!

The film is complete and ready to rock and has a kickstarter to secure release. For anyone that doesn't know, movies cost money to promote and release. Unlike most kickstarters the film is done but they still need the help and funding for final release and will add some extras. You can also check out the Facebook site and show some support for a great film. I for one can't wait to see the final product. Its been awhile since I've seen anything that's got me this excited for quite awhile. -EvS

Some of the folks in Lord of Tears
 Lawrie  Brewster - Director
Sarah Daly -Writer 
David Schofield (Gladiator, Pirates of the Caribbean)
Lexy Hulme (500 Days of Summer)
Euan Douglas

Trailer

Lord of Tears IMDB
Lawrie Brewster IMDB
Lord of Tears Kickstarter
Lord of Tears on Facebook
Lord of Tears on Tumblr


Some exclusive kreepy treats to wet your bloody appetite:

 I, for one, am extremely excited for this one, and proud to support this film in any way I can! Let's get it out there!  ~ Kount Kreepy

Frankenstein’s Army

(update: August 3rd 2013) the film review can be found here. If you came here first read through article then link back to review here- EvS)

Here is a film I have been eagerly following since 2006 (sort of) with the teaser trailer that was released in its early incarnation "Worst Case Scenario", directed by Richard Raaphorst. Due to financial issues the plug was pulled, and the idea shelved......

.....But recently it has resurrected in the form or "Frankenstein's Army"and is coming to Rotterdam International Film Festival on January 26th 2013. The film stars Karel Roden who some will recognize from Hellboy or The Borne Supremacy. The Synopsis from IMDB is this:

Toward the end of World War II, Russian soldiers pushing into eastern Germany stumble across a secret Nazi lab, one that has unearthed and begun experimenting with the journal of one Dr. Victor Frankenstein. The scientists have used the legendary Frankenstein's work to assemble an army of super-soldiers stitched together from the body parts of their fallen comrades -- a desperate Hitler's last ghastly ploy to escape defeat.

 So you can bet that we creeps in North America and our fiend friends around the globe will be seeing it soon. In the mean time here is some stills and trailers.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1925435/
http://www.frankensteinsarmy.com/