New Wolfman Poster is Really Something to Howl About

Sorry about the title; I just couldn't resist. This poster does a lot more to get me pumped about the new Wolfman flick than the trailer did. This image looks so awesome! Check out the official unveiling of the poster at AICN.

Regarding the Cake Boss, Army of Darkness and Shameless Self-Promotion

Before you begin reading this post, I'm going to warn you that the entire thing is really shameless self-promotion with very little (and I mean by the smallest amount) pay off.

Of the few people who read my blog, most of you probably don't know that I work as a full-time freelance writer for Discovery Channel through HowStuffWorks and TLC. I know, who cares, right? And what the hell could either HowStuffWorks or TLC have anything to do with mosters, mutants or aliens? Well, truth is, not much. But a little -- so bear with me.

Anyway, so I recently had the opportunity to interview Buddy Valastro, a.k.a. TLC's Cake Boss, for an article on Christmas cookies. I'm not going to get into why the Cake Boss was answering questions about cookies, but I do get the irony. But, honestly, it's cool, cause I'll take cookies over cakes any day. I fucking love a good cookie. Seriously.

So, to try and bring this post back to something relevant to this blog, I also love Sam Raimi's Evil Dead trilogy (as I'm sure most of you do). In fact, I think it's safe to say that I care more for Mr. Campbell and those ever-persistent deadites than even the most delicious batch of cookies, and that's really saying something.

Now, I don't know about you, but I also consider myself a bit of a film connoisseur. I love all film, from the great silent pics of the teens and 20s, to the dark noir of the 40s to the gritty, balls-out, bad ass flicks of the 70s. And in all my cinematic undertakings, I have never heard a better one-liner than that which is spoken by Mr. Campbell in Army of Darkness.

So, drum roll, please … check out the title of this page.

Yep, that's it. You just read all that to find out that I titled one of the pages of my Cake Boss interview after the greatest line in cinema history.

However, if you want more, I did also mention the Troma-classic Rabid Grannies in How Rabies Works (it's in the sidebar on the Bats vs. Dogs page).

Yep, that's all I got for ya today. That's it. Nothing else. Seriously.

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Alien Sequel "A Brand New Box of Tricks" According to Ridley Scott

Hell yes! Ridley Scott, the man who crafted one of the best Sci-Fi pictures of all time, Alien, is returning to the franchise to direct a prequel to his original film. Regarding the flick, Scott said, "It's a brand new box of tricks. We know what the road map is, and the screenplay is now being put on paper. The prequel will be a while ago. It's very difficult to put a year on Alien, but if Alien was towards the end of this century, then the prequel story will take place thirty years prior."

It's not much, but he seems excited. You can read the whole article here, but I pretty much covered everything.

If you're in the mood for some intelligent rumination on Aliens, war, and the apocalypse check out an excellent post entitled "Express Elevator to Hell: Aliens as Apocalyptic Literature" over at The Action Effect. It's good stuff.

Note: My exclamation at the beginning of this post was more in reference to Ridley Scott talking about another Alien movie. If he had just walked by, turned and looked into a camera and said "Alien," I would have undoubtedly written a very similar post with the same opening.

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Trick 'r Treat is as Good as a Pillowcase Full of Halloween Candy and Much Better for You!

So I finally watched Trick 'r Treat, the long-canned Halloween fright flick that's been garnering excellent reviews and positive press for several years now. Despite the overwhelming reactions from fans at conventions and special engagements, it never received a real theatrical release and got dumped on DVD and Blu-ray a couple of weeks ago (notice the release date in the poster above).

So did it live up to the hype? In a word, yes. Trick 'r Treat is just fucking awesome. It's an anthology pic written directed by Michael Dougherty (the dude who also wrote and directed X2 and Superman Returns), and it pumps some much-needed fresh blood into the Halloween horror genre.

It's a lot like the Creepshow series, so much so that it even uses comic book-styled opening credits. However, Trick 'r Treat eclipses those classic 80's flicks, despite the lack of the genius talent of George Romero and Stephen King. What separates it from Creepshow, or any horror film in recent memory, is Dougherty's inventiveness and disregard for audience expectations. There are 4 stories, and only one of them was at all predictable. He uses your own horror knowledge against you, and just when you think you know what's going to happen, he surprises you with something plausible but unexpected and deliciously grisly.

Don’t' get me wrong, this isn't in the running for the title of greatest horror movie ever made. It's inventive, but Night of the Living Dead or Texas Chainsaw Massacre this is not. Instead, it's a quick, surprising and immensely fun little horror flick from a Hollywood bigwig (which is perhaps the most amazing thing about the movie). So if you're even half as sick as I am of the vastly overrated Saw franchise dominating the entire month of October, stay home and pick up a copy of Trick R' Treat. You will not be disappointed.

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Roger Corman and Joe Dante Have Turned Cory Feldman into a Zombie, and We Get to Decide His Fate!

How cool is this? B-movie maestro Roger Corman is producing a series of horror Webisodes staring the one and only Cory Feldman as a vengeful, undead rock star. Genre icon Joe Dante is directing, and, best of all, WE get decide how the story plays out. According to Bloody Disgusting, "Mr. Corman, making his Internet video debut at age 83, is opening up the creative direction of the series by asking the public to vote on the fate of its characters." So it's kinda like a "Choose Your Own Adventure" horror series with Cory Feldman. Weird and very cool. In fact, I like the premise enough to overlook the use of the word "frenemies" in the press release.

So, what do ya think? Will we finally get the chance to see Feldman do in his lamer half, Cory Haim?

Check out the preview at Netflix.

I'm Dying to Visit "The House of the Devil!"

I've been hearing great things about this retro, 80s-themed horror flick, "The House of the Devil." You can check it out on Xbox Live, Amazon and VOD right now, and it's hitting a few theaters the day before Halloween. The marketing campaign is badass, and really makes me want to spend my hard-earned Xbox Live points. (Pic).

Strange Halo Appears Over Moscow! Bizarre Weather Anomaly or Alien Mothership?

No, this isn't an outtake from "Independence Day." It actually appeared in the sky directly over Moscow recently. People all over the world have been analyzing it, with some calling it a natural weather pattern and others claiming it as irrefutable proof of alien life. Now, regardless what you believe it to be (I think it's probably just a really cool and unusual weather anomaly), it's amazing to watch and consider. If it was aliens, I'm just glad they didn’t' annihilate Red Square.

Check out this article to learn more.