Horror Archives

Posted at 10:15 p.m. - Wednesday, July 29

Here's another treat from San Diego Comic-Con, my talk with local-boys-done-good Marcus Dunstan & Patrick Melton, the folks behind the new horror-thriller THE COLLECTOR, joined by the film's star, Josh Stewart:



Just after we finished recording the interview, Marcus commented that he and Patrick 'got no love' from the Chicago media in regards to THE COLLECTOR.  So I say we in Chicago show them some real love and be sure to see THE COLLECTOR this Friday!

Posted at 12:05 p.m. - Tuesday, June 23

Comic book creator and self-styled 'sketch colorist' Jeff Balke sent me the following info via the GeekToMe hotline:

"Hey Elliott,

How are you?  Whatcha been up to lately? So hey, I was wondering if there was a way we can get Zombie Con in the blog for the Red Eye?  The con is this Saturday.  I'm excited about it!  I'm really thinking its going to KICK ASS and I'm hoping its going to be bigger next year !

But anyway, I have the flier attached.  I hope you can make it there."

Well, Jeff, ask and ye shall receive!

In addition to Jeff, you'll also have a chance to meet comic artist and Hack/Slash creator, Tim Seeley!

So, if you are a fan of all things undead, check out Zombie-Con!  Maybe I'll see you there?

And as always, if you've got an event that Chicago's geek and nerd population is gonna dig, drop me a line!

Posted at 9:25 a.m. - Monday, April 20

WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES!

Info about this super-cool event came to mia via Geek Mail today:

Posted at 8:20 a.m. - Friday, March 20

Here's another interview from the Fangoria Weekend of Horrors, this time with 'horror hunk' Justin Alvarez.  Justin talks about his newest film 'Stronger Than Death' and his part in the Hot Hunks of Horror Calendar fundraiser for the Lynn Sage Foundation and breast cancer awareness.

You can learn more about Justin by visiting his web site!

Posted at 9:25 a.m. - Monday, March 16

Here's another Geek To Me TV segment from Fango Con, this one with horror movie actor/director/sfx artist Tom Savini.   Note: No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't get on Mr. Savini's good side.  :-(

You can learn more about Tom's school for aspiring movie makers at Savini.com.

Posted at 9:00 a.m. - Thursday, March 12

This past weekend saw the many personalities of the world of horror descend on Rosemont, IL for the 2009 Fangoria Weekend of Horrors.  Horror movie geeks of all kinds came to meet their fave celebs and share in their love of all things spooky and gory.  Braving the torential rains that were coming down outside, I grabbed my digital cam and managed to get a few 'Blair Witch Project' style interviews with some of the nice folks who were in attendance.  My first interview is with the 2009 Fangoria Spooksmodel, Shannon Lark:

Check back for more interviews!

Posted at 8:30 a.m. - Thursday, February 12

In a previous post I mentioned the release of a new film by the co-creator of ''The Blair Witch Project'', Daniel Myrick.  The film is called ''The Objective'' and recently had a theatrical release in New York, with another yet to come in Los Angeles.  The film is also being made available by IFC on Video On Demand.

I recently spoke with Daniel Myrick about his new film, what he brings to this sort of project and what an episode of The Office directed by him would be like:

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REDEYE: You came to prominence with a film called ''The Blair Witch Project'' and now have a film out called ''The Objective.''  Why don’t you tell us what ''The Objective'' is about?

Daniel Myrick: Basically it revolves around a group of Special Forces guys that are led by a CIA operative on this secret mission to the mountains of Afghanistan, ostensibly in search of this loose nuclear warhead that they suspect might be in the mountains.  You find out later on in the movie that the real motive behind this guys search is, you know, much bigger than that.  So that’s really what it is, a psychological thriller with the war in Afghanistan as a backdrop in this search.

REDEYE: Where did the inspiration for this story come from?

DM: Well, it’s a combination of things.  I’d been wanting to do a psychological thriller in the desert for quite a while; something that took place primarily during the day in that landscape.  I thought it would be kind of a challenge.  But as the years went by, we went to war in Iraq and Afghanistan and I started seeing all this footage uploaded by soldiers themselves; a lot of night vision firefights and things like that taking place in the desert and I thought it was pretty creepy stuff.  So kind of a scene formed in my head hat revolved around these guys shooting at something at night that they couldn’t explain.  And that kind of naturally merged with the desire to do a whole story in the desert. So those two ideas sort of came together and I wrote this narrative around that backdrop and it just kind of grew from there.

REDEYE:  Many people know you for "The Blair Witch Project", but you’ve produced and directed other films since.  So in the time since you’ve started, what do you think you bring to a project like this that is unique?

DM: Well, um, a lot of people that have seen this film go into it thinking it’s going to be a particular type of genre picture, what have you, and realize when they come out of it that it’s not what they expected. I think my approach to genre films is not any single place or single angle.  It tends to meld a bunch of genres together.  I think that’s, you know, my kind of style and I don’t go into it thinking to do a thriller or a horror movie or a sci-fi movie.  It kind of ends up being a blend of these things so in one respect, some people are disappointed because they’re expecting a single kind of movie.  But, in another respect a lot of people are really refreshed because it isn’t a narrow scope.  I don’t think that’s unique but that’s definitely my kind of approach and my style, and I’ve learned that my films kind of have that common denominator to them.

REDEYE: Is there a lot of improvisation in this film as there was in some of your earlier projects?

DM: There’s a fair amount.  You know it’s pretty well scripted out (by) myself and Mark A. Patton one of my co-writers early on, along with Wesley Clark Jr. who helped write the script.  It’s a normal script with a normal narrative but I like to kind of give the actors a little bit of flexibility when were on set. As long as they understand the point of a scene and a few key words that are needed to propel the plot forward are said, I don’t try to dictate too much how they say it or how the blocking is done.  For this kind of movie I wanted it to feel very organic, very authentic, so I didn’t want to control these guys too much and their behavior too much because most of them were former Special Operations guys themselves. So, I wanted them to maintain their own body language and their own delivery that only their experience can bring.  I didn’t want to stamp on that too much so I gave them a lot of flexibility.

REDEYE: I just came to this realization recently that ''The Blair Witch Project'' and the way it was put together, with your giving the actors all this freedom to put their scenes together, is very similar to the way they film ''The Office.''  Any calls from NBC to direct an episode?

DM: (laughs) No, no luck so far.  I would love to!  I think it’s a great show and I was a huge fan of the original UK version of the show.  Yeah, that’s a very good analogy, where it’s this kind of mock documentary, where a camera is following these guys around, kind of a day-to-day, ‘day in the life’ of this office.  It’s scripted but (uses) a lot of improv and a lot of the same techniques.  And it’s very effective on that show.

REDEYE: Ok, since you like the idea, pitch me an episode of ''The Office'' by Daniel Myrick.  What would the story concept be?

DM: (laughs) Well, uh, it could be the ‘'Office Objective.'’  Some kind of thriller ''Office'' episode by the co-creator of ''The Blair Witch Project.''

REDEYE: (laughs)

DM: The one ''Office'' episode that’s kind of a horror film.  Maybe it’s a dream and one of the guys is napping in the break room and it’s his really bad dream.  There you go, that’s my pitch!

REDEYE: (laughs) Joss Whedon did an episode of ''The Office'', I want to say last season, or maybe it was the season before, and he managed to fold the whole vampire theme in there.  It was pretty hilarious.

DM: (laughs) That’s great!

REDEYE: Ok, where "The Blair Witch Project" was unique in the way it was produced and marketed, "The Objective'' is now being marketed in a unique way: by video-on-demand.  Can you tell me a little bit about that?

DM: Well, IFC picked the movie up and actually it’s got a theatrical screening in New York today, or tonight I should say, and screens theatrically in LA on March 13^th.  It’s (available for) direct download and VOD (video-on-demand) this week.  I think it’s an interesting, kind of new distribution platform.  I think a lot of these distributors and studios are concerned about piracy and the increasing migration of people to getting their content via direct download and/or video on demand.  So, I think it’s a technology where people are moving to get their content on these small budget films like "The Objective" that don’t have a huge theatrical marketing campaign.  You can still reach a wide audience through this platform and it’s very exciting to know that you have access to fifty million people though VOD and there’s a very high potential there for wide exposure.  We’re excited that we’ll have a lot of success with what IFC is doing.

REDEYE: I had a conversation with Robert Kurtzman a while back about zombies and horror films, and asked him what he thought resonated with people in that genre.  What is it about your films that resonate with people?

DM:  Well, I think a common assessment of my films seems to be (that there is) a high level of ‘creep factor.’ People that have seen the last couple of thriller films that I’ve done have mentioned that they kind of get under their skin and it builds on that.  I like when films do that, when you can’t quite point to why it’s making you uneasy or why you feel off-balance. Because, you know each little beat, each little scare, in and of itself is not that big, but collectively within context of the story they resonate more.  So I like to think that "The Objective" does that to people.  I’ve heard a lot of people say that there aren’t any big old scares but that it gets under their skin and it’s creepy and I like when films do that, because to me, that’s just my style.  I like the old-fashioned zombie movies, things that jump out at you and make you jump out of your seat.  I just get more satisfaction kind of working out of people’s heads and seeing where that takes me.

REDEYE: You say you gravitate towards the ghost story, the ‘creepy entities.’  We’ve also had Zombies, Werewolves and Frankenstein, and they’ve been done to death.  What do you think is the next horror movie archetype, the next new thing on the horizon that’s going to be creeping people out in movie theaters?

DM: That’s a good question.  You know, if I knew I’d probably have a multimillion dollar script ready to go. (laughs) But I do think it might have something to do with technology.  It might have something to do with kind of a ‘ghost in the machine’ where we’re so now connected to each other.  We’re so now, um, interdependent through technology, the internet and kind of living these virtual existences (with) virtual friends that we never meet.  I’m thinking maybe something along those lines that transcends, literally, kind of our physical space.  Not necessarily something supernatural but something along the lines that involves technology.  Artificial intelligence of some sort, you know might be kind of cool or interesting here.  It could be something as overt as a wacked-out robot, who knows? That might be kind of interesting to explore.

REDEYE: I’ve got it!  Dwight is afraid that the Dunder-Mifflin sales computer is taking over the office and he has to battle it!  How does that sound for an episode?

DM: (laughs) I love it man!  That’s it! (laughs) Now write it up and go ahead and pitch it.

REDEYE: (laughs) Tell you what, you use it but I just want a story credit! (laughs)

DM: (laughs)It’s the fax machine!  (laughs)

REDEYE: (laughs) Awesome.  Thanks for taking the time to talk to me.  Just for the record, I am a fan and the Blair Witch Project still creeps me out!  I have to watch it in the middle of the day, with the lights on.  It creeps me out to this day.

DM: (laughs)

REDEYE: Only two films do that to me: Blair Witch and A Nightmare on Elm Street.  Those are the two films that still creep me out.

DM: Oh, that’s good company.

****************************************************************
You can learn more about The Objective by visiting the film's web site.

Posted at 1:30 p.m. - Wednesday, January 7

The 'internets' are just chock full of free content from aspiring writers and artists trying to get themselves noticed.  Most are talented folk who have yet to catch that 'big break' to make it into publishing.  And others are established professionals who just have a project that they're passionate about and want to share it in any way they can.

This is one of those 'others.'

Dan Jolley is an established professional writer who has worked for just about every major comic book company and is currently making a name for himself in the YA market.  He's written Batman, Superman, characters from the X-Men universe and numerous others, but today he brings us something...different.

REDEEMER'S LAW is, as Dan puts it, 'a contemporary pulp action sci-fi horror superhero story.'  That's a mouthfull indeed!  And better yet, you get to read Mr. Jolley's entire novel, chapter by chapter, for free and even get to comment on how the narrative is progressing!

That's an opportunity that doesn't present itself every day, y'know.

So I encourage all you superhero/sc-fi/horror/pulp fiction fans to check out Redeemer's Law...

And tell Mr. Jolley that you heard about it on the Geek To Me Blog!

CHECK IT OUT!

Posted at 10:35 p.m. - Tuesday, November 25

Robert Kurztman has been working in the horror movie genre since his college days, starting off as an effects artist on Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead series before going on to building an impressive resume on a number of different genre features, including The Rage, a movie he directed and co-wrote with John Bisson.  The Rage will be shown as part of the MonstersHD Thanksgiving Day of the Dead Marathon.  Kurtzman spoke with me about the marathon, his experiences in film and what it’s like to work in Bollywood.

Geek To Me: Where did the idea of having a monster movie marathon on Thanksgiving come up?

 

Robert Kurtzman: I would guess,[it's like] when I was growing up there was the ‘monster movie weekend,’ you had the late night horror host on Friday night, Saturday horror host – afternoon super host – and then your afternoon movie which was always a genre movie.  Most of the time King Kong played on the holiday weekend, y’know on Thanksgiving.   So when I was a kid I was looking forward every year as I got to watch King Kong.

 

So I would suppose that they [Monsters HD producers] had a similar thing when they were growing up, so they’re thinking ‘hey, Thanksgiving weekend marathon! Plus, it’s a zombie marathon and you eat a lot!’

 

G2M: What are some of the projects you’ve worked on that you look back on with the most fondness?

 

RK: Probably working on the Evil Dead movies, Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness.  I’m most fond of the ‘hey day’ movies when creature effects was kind of the burgeoning industry, y’know in the eighties, that’s when I got into it.  Movies like that, Bride of Re-Animator and films like that, I really enjoyed working on.

 

Army of Darkness is probably the best time I’ve ever had working on a film.  You’re a big kid out there, you get to play with skeleton puppets, and guys on horseback with swordplay.  That’s great.

 

The second one (Evil Dead 2) was a blast to work on too.  We were kids, I was probably about twenty, and they stuck us in this ‘Texas Chainsaw’ type house, the effects guys were all in this house out in the country, a scary barn with the pillars out front.  We all stayed in the house while making a movie, being shot in an abandoned middle school, which is were they built all the stuff for Evil Dead, all the cabin sets and interiors.  It was three months in North Carolina, with Sam Raimi who’s a big kid, having a blast with a bunch of rubber monsters.

 

G2M: And beating the crap out of Bruce Campbell.

 

RK: Yeah, that’s the other thing.  Sam’s whole thing is ‘the innocent must suffer.’  Which is great because that’s the great things about the Die Hard films too, John McClane gets his ass kicked.

 

Then there’s other movies like Dances With Wolves and Misery, films like that, more main stream, aren’t so much genre movies, but I enjoyed them as well.

 

G2M: What is it about zombies that you think really strike a chord with people?

 

RK: Probably just the primal fear of having your flesh eaten by another human being and being eaten alive.  And the taboo of eating human flesh, it all plays into the thing, the phobia.  [It] continues to resonate over the years, as do vampires and werewolves for various reasons.

 

G2M: There are those that say that the zombie genre is played out, that there's nothing new you can do with them.  What are some of the challenges that you find as a creator to make these types of archetypes, like zombies, effective and resonate with people?

 

RK: There are two kinds of [approaches]: the very realistic approach to them, [recreating] what they would really look like decaying which is what you always try to make using the technology and make-up effects, creature effects and advances and that. You just try to make them more realistic and more anatomically correct.

 

And then you have the fantasy element, which [are] the goofier movies that are [created] really to be more fun than anything. 

The genre is never dead because someone eventually puts a twist on it and revives it somehow and comes up with a new idea.  Same with vampires and whatever, they get into that rut where it kind of overused and everything’s kind of similar, and then, you know, it dies out for a few years, and then – bam – somebody comes up with something real interesting.

 

I don’t think it ever truly dead.

 

G2M: Have you seen any of the current work in comic books being done with Zombies, like Robert Kirkman’s Walking Dead or Garth Ennis’ Crossed?

 

RK: I don’t really follow [them].  I’d been dabbling with the comics with The Rage release, but I really don’t collect them anymore.  Stopped doing that when I was in my teens, unfortunately.  Couldn’t afford it.

 

G2M : Speaking about The Rage, what do you felt worked best about that project?

 

RK: We set out to make a really fun kind of b-movie, roller coaster ride.  It has a lot of things, elements from films I grew up on, everything from Re-Animator to the old 40’s and 50’s (Bela) Legosi movies; mad doctor films and mix it in with some mutant animals, some living dead mutants; kind of a mix of everything where we just have fun with it.

 

It’s totally kind of a fun throwback movie.  We made it on a shoestring budget.  We kind of did it to experiment.  Me and John [Bisson] kind of wanted to experience the process that they did on Evil Dead when they went out and raised money and shot a movie outside the system kind of on their own in the back yard.  So we put a film crew together, in our home town, on my studio and everything and we made the movie.  Even though we’d made other films over the years, we went ‘hey, let’s go back and make a movie like we were making our first film.’  We basically did everything ourselves.  I was the DP (Director of Photography), John was production designer, and he was also writing and storyboarding the film.  We were doing a little of everything, built our own sets and it was that kind of guerilla movie.

 

G2M: Do you think you would want to re-visit The Rage like Sam Raimi did the Evil Dead movies?

 

RK: If there’s an opportunity, we already have ideas for spinning it off. It just depends on what’s going on at the time, what the market is and raising the financing again.

 

G2M: What do you think is going to be the next thing in horror that is going to strike a chord with fans of the genre?

 

RK: I think it’s going to be somebody coming up with an original concept that doesn’t use any of those creatures like vampires, werewolves and things.  They have been so overused. I think coming up with a new mythology for something, or experimenting with other cultures’ mythology. I just finished a film called ‘Hiss’ which is an Indian production, its all wrapped around their Snake Woman legend.  So there’s things that we’re not familiar with over here that might be a new inspiration for films over here like a golem-type film.

 

[‘Hiss’] is an all Hindi movie which definitely a different thing, working with an Indian crew and translators was an experience.  It was really cool.

 

G2M: Do scary movies go over in India?

 

RK: Yeah, they actually have a lot of horror films that come out, even our [American] films come out.  They had their 'Hammer Films' period over there too.  They made fifty of these snake movies, but they never had any with real transformations and snakes or special make-up.  They’ve been making these types of movies for a long time: supernatural movies and movies with witches.

G2M: Robert, thanks so much for taking this time to speak with me.

RK: Thank you.

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Visit MonstersHD.com for more info on their Thanksgiving Day of the Dead!

Posted at 9:45 p.m. - Wednesday, November 19

A couple weeks ago, I spent an afternoon on the set of WCIU's Svengoolie show to research a feature for the REDYE.  I interviewed Rich Koz aka 'Sven' took some video and even administered the GNAT to Koz.

While the feature won't see print for another week or two, the folks over at WCIU have posted a video documenting my visit.

CHECK IT OUT!

Posted at 12:5o p.m. - Wednesday, October 29

With All Hallow's Eve approaching, local film maker Joe Avella sent me a link to his 'horror movie trailer'...

I must say, it's a take on werewolves that I have never seen before, and it simply sent chills down my spine!  Move over John Carpenter!  There's a new horror movie sheriff in town!

Posted at 3:25 p.m. - Friday, September 12

Cassie Hack is like any other girl you may know, provided they made it a pastime to hunt down the serial killers & monsters of different horror movie genres.  Oh yeah, and let's not forget hanging out with a large, lumbering behemoth named Vlad (who could be one of those horror movie monsters himself if he weren't such an innocent soul.)  You'll get to know Cassie and Vlad a-plenty when you read Hack/Slash, the horror/action/comedy comic book from Chicago-based comic-book company Devil's Due Publishing (DDP).

First published in 2004, Hack/Slash quickly developed a loyal fan base that has made the book one of the company's top sellers and has earned the title 'flagship' status.  The characters themselves were created by local comic book artist/writer Tim Seeley and will soon be seeing their debut on the silver screen as a film adaptation by Rogue Pictures.

"Because of the loyal readers of Hack/Slash, we've become the little book that could," said Tim Seeley via e-mail. "We're still here, and we're giving more and more readers their monthly dose of twisted horror and laughs."

DDP has recently released a Hack/Slash Omnibus that collects most of the current run.  The trade has been reported as sold out by the publisher, and the Hack/Slash Annual, which contains the Suicide Girls web comic, is also in high demand.

Now comes word that the book has been nominated for a Spike TV Scream Award.  Fans of the book are being encouraged to vote for the book.  The book faces some stiff competition though, as its up against Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men, Brian K. Vaughan's Y: The Last Man, Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead, Gerard Way's Umbrella Academy and Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier.  Whew!  That may be Cassie's toughest battle yet!

I've been reading the book myself since it first debuted, and I think its a terrific, highly enjoyable romp through horror movies with a style of writing that has fun with the trappings of the genre.  With thrills, chills and a few laughs, HACK/SLASH entertains with earnest.  It's wry, self-awareness will charm readers, especially if they're fans of other similar titles like Buffy the Vampire Slayer or the like.  (Unlike BTVS, H/S ventures into some controversial territories that a more main-stream character would never dare, like say, dealing with pedophile priests.)  The heroine, Cassie Hack, is tough, no-nonsense and a welcome addition to the growing pantheon of kick-ass female protagonists.

The book is intended for mature readers (the Annual especially since the Suicide Girls story contains some nudity), but is a good, smart read nonetheless.  Ask for it at your local comic shop!