I’m very happy to introduce a new series here on the ol’ Midnight Corey blog: Monsters of Misfitboy. If you recall, Misfitboy did a fantastic run of reviews of George Romero’s zombie movies, and their sequels and remakes, on the Midnight Podcast. Now he’s back, and I’m proud to have my friend on the blog.

Days of the Drive-Ins

The drive in days are long gone (well most of them anyway). I used to love going on the weekend to see some of my favorite horror films. Unfortunately not many were shown at the nearest one by me. I always wondered how great it would be to raise some money & show a “movie madness” night. Imagine going to see Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead at the drive-in! Or even older horror films from the 50’s. well, those are the films I will be talking about. We’re going back in time when CGI had no definition. Special effects consisted of wires, puppets, and of course cheap makeup. But to me, those were the best.

I’m so nostalgic a person (I know this sounds dumb) I would take a drive-in DVD I have with a bunch of promos that they would show in the good old days, and I would splice it together with some of my favorite b-movies, take my equipment outside and watch some movies under the stars with my favorite beer. Sounds like a waste of time but it still gave me that feeling of being there. Anyway, I asked some people in the ages of 50-65 what their favorite horror films were at the drive-ins. NOTLD always came up, and everyone and their mother have reviewed it already. But I have found some good ones and some not so good ones that still have a place in my heart.

So with that, here are some of the films that were mentioned to me that I will re-watch and review.

THE GIANT CLAW
TARANTULA
THE DEADLY MANTIS
CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (in 3-D)
THE GIANT BEHEMOTH
GODZILLA

And possibly some others. As always a special thanks goes out to Corey for allowing me to do this. See you at the driveiins!!

misfitboy

I watched this movie yesterday, planning on doing an in-depth review.

But I really had no idea what I would be subjecting myself to. This movie was so bad that I couldn’t finish it, despite the fact that we get 2 kills in the first 5 minutes. I’ll give this a very generous 1/10.

To preface my comments, I have some homework for you. Read this article: FreeDUMB of Speech? . . . which is in response to this article: An Open Letter To Gorezone Magazine. Please take the time to read the article and its comments, and you’ll understand why I and a lot of others are so upset.

Thank you to @thedarkhours on Twitter, who reportedly scored this article from @MikeCadaverLab.

To summarize, Dangerous Jamie wrote an open letter to Gorezone Magazine, respectfully criticizing their lack of proofreading and their continuous exploitation of women. Since then, Gorezone has threatened the author with legal action (calling the article “slander”) and has sent scores of its “faithful” readers to comment. The comments attack Dangerous Jamie personally, and are threatening. Gorezone readers have promised to spam the site until it crashes. The editor himself has commented (various spelling/grammar errors blemish his post), and he behaves just as ridiculously.

He posted his email address, so if you feel like you want to respond to Gorezone’s unacceptable actions, feel free to email him (I have): b.hammond@gorezone.co.uk

I’m not surprised. This has been my experience with so much of the “horror community” since I’ve become more and more involved in it in the past three years or so. “Horror fans” (many of whom often consider themselves to be the be-all-end-all of horror) who write, publish, blog, podcast, or whatever, tend to be hyper sensitive when it comes to criticisms about their own product, taking anything other than “Great job!” as a personal attack. And “horror fans” who religiously cling to some figure in horror — whether it’s an actor, director, magazine, podcast, blog, or whatever — also take criticism toward their beloved figure as a direct, personal attack (under the guise of being “loyal” or “faithful”). These people are no different than the terrorists who carry out actions because of their loyalty to Al Qaeda. That’s right.

I hold some pretty unpopular opinions. There have been times when I’ve expressed them — respectfully, thoughtfully, and without namecalling/attacking/etc. — and I am mobbed by angry Internet people who hold a different opinion, and don’t think that I am entitled to mine. It’s happened time and time again — I’ve experienced it directly.

It’s sad. Diversity of opinions is a wonderful, healthy thing to have. Yes, some people are right and some are wrong, but when respectful debate rots away to attacks, namecalling and threats, it’s out of hand.

The “horror community” already has enough negative stigma attached to it — everyone knows that. And things like this do nothing to clean up that image.

I just wanted to post this to remind you to go over to James Melzer’s web site and listen to episode 12 of UNLEASHED, featuring great discussion about new media/free content, an interview with writer Peter Clines, and a review of Candyman (1992) by yours truly.

And while you’re there, check out all the other great stuff Melzer has to offer. It’s well worth your time.

http://jamesmelzer.net/2010/02/unleashed-ep-12-peter-clines/

Here is something very cool: a review of the Star Wars zombie book Death Troopers by my friend Misfitboy. I appreciate that he took the time to write this up! Enjoy.

A LONG, LONG, TIME AGO… IN A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY . . . George A. Romero and George Lucas intertwined like a bastardized Siamese twin. (Well, not really but if they did) the result would be STAR WARS – DEATH TROOPERS.

First off, I am a fan of the original Star Wars films but I have to admit, I was not a big enough fan to read all the books that followed the first 3 films. I first heard about this book on the Midnight Podcast and to be honest it didn’t really peak my interest much (big mistake on my part.) I read some reviews and a lot of people were saying “Oh, it’s not Star Wars, it’s too violent and gory for this type of book. Now that peaked my interest. So I was fortunate to stumble across the audio book. I was NOT disappointed! Zombies and Star Wars? I’m on board!

No Luke Skywalker or jedis in this book — as a matter of fact the only original characters in this book are Han Solo and his faithful sidekick Chewbacca. There are references to Darth Vader from time to time but that’s about it. My thoughts on that: “Who cares?” This book is a classic horror novel that peaks your interest around chapter 8, grips your ears and does not let go until the end! Anyway, the story.

2 teenage brothers, a female doctor, 2 smugglers and a sadistic imperial guard are on board the “Purge,” a prison vessel carrying the scum of the galaxy. It has thruster problems and is in need of desperate repairs. Out in space not far away is an abandoned star destroyer. A group is formed to board the vessel for much-needed parts for immediate repairs. There is no sign of life on board. While searching the vessel one soldier sees something on board but never gets the chance to tell anyone about it. Eventually on their return to the Purge it becomes clear that there was something on board, a deadly virus that the empire had been working on for some time that wiped out the entire crew of the destroyer. On their return to the purge, some of the men start coughing and become ill. Within hours the virus spreads throughout the ship infecting all species on board. Now, there is a slow build of characters at the beginning but that’s to be expected. Only a few are immune to the virus, and soon guards and prisoners start dying off quickly. The 2 teenage brothers are in a cell and are released by a guard who feels sorry for them due to their age. He dies shortly after. Dead bodies litter the ship, and it’s described in gruesome fashion at times. Eventually the bodies disappear. But not for long. The brothers make it to solitary confinement where they meet Han and Chewie. At this point death is just the beginning. The dead soldiers and prisoners come back to life hungry for flesh. And the battle for survival begins.

Now I don’t want to give too much away and ruin such a well-written story. But I will say the zombies in the book are like the ones in Land of the Dead. Eventually they start to learn, as in using weapons, climbing, etc. Don’t let this turn you off in any way! It really works for the book. Now my only problem with it is the end is a little weak, but when the dead eat people, it is described if full gory detail.

I really enjoyed this book. If you can find the audio book, it’s packed with great sound effects, ships soaring through space, blasters, etc. I would recommend the audio book with high ratings. It helps to picture a film inside your head and almost makes you feel like you’re on board with the survivors! So if I were to rate this from 1 to 10 I would have to give it a high 8. Thanks to Corey goes out (as always) for letting me ramble about one more little gem I came across. This is misfit boy and I’m out!

In the past couple weeks, I’ve been watching everything but zombie movies — with one exception. Most of these are ones I’m planning on reviewing at some point for various podcasts.

Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer (2007)
I probably wouldn’t have given this one a chance if it weren’t for the bubbly exciting review given by my friends on the Horror Etc. podcast.

White Zombie (1932)
I’ve seen this one many times. It’s the only zombie movie I’ve watched lately, and it’s one of the best.

Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus (2009)
Well, I watched most of this. However, the antics of confused, irate podcasters interrupted my viewing of this fine film. But I’m pretty sure I got the gist of what this one has to offer. To be fair, I’ll probably give it another shot.

Phantasm (1979)
Love this movie. Quite possibly the best plot ever. People call this a zombie movie, but I disagree — despite the fact that zombies are in it. Just because zombies appear in the movie, it doesn’t mean that it’s a zombie movie.

Drag Me To Hell (2009)
I finally saw this one. To be honest, I saw the TV trailers before it came out, and although I was excited that it was Sam Raimi, I wasn’t excited about what I saw. To me, it was just a lot of CG. However, I followed the rave reviews I’ve heard about it, and just bought the DVD. I’m glad I did.

Let the Right One In (2008)
One of my favorite vampire movies ever. I bought this DVD at the same time I bought Drag Me To Hell, at the recommendation of KruegerDude.

Them! (1954)
It was on Netflix Instant Watch, so I watched it. I love movies about giant creatures from this era, and these giant ants are classic.

I spent the entire day yesterday at Horror Realm in Pittsburgh. Ideally, I would have spent the whole weekend there, but alas, the demands of everyday life limited my stay to Saturday.

I was there nearly 12 hours, and still didn’t do everything and talk to everybody that I wanted to. At least I did a lot better than I did at Zombie Fest last year — I only had a couple hours to spend there, and only talked to a handful of people.

The high point of the day for me was the panel with Ken Foree. That man can talk! And it was fantastic. The hour had flown by, and Ken was only warming up. As we were all sitting around bullshitting later that night, we all agreed that Ken Foree is PIMP. I’ll be replaying his highly entertaining panel on the Midnight Podcast soon.

Ken Foree is PIMP

Other big names in the horror industry that I got to talk to were Tony Todd, Bill Moseley, and Leslie Easterbrook, who all were kind enough to talk for the Midnight Podcast. Ken Foree was incredibly interesting and creative as usual; Tony Todd was thrilled to hear I’m from Erie (he has lots of ties there); Bill Moseley revealed to me that he’s done several CD’s with Buckethead; and Leslie Easterbrook was sweet and beautiful.

Bill Moseley

It was great to meet a lot of the people that I’ve come to know in the horror community online. This includes the legendary Dr. Pus, who held the absolute coolest podcasting session ever. He recorded a spontaneous segment for Library of the Living Dead, harrassing various guests such as David Dunwoody, Rob Fox and yours truly. The whole corner was going nuts!

Dr. Pus and The Dunwoody

Podcasting with Dr. Pus

Everybody was extremely cool. I hung around most with author Eric S. Brown, who is just as cool in person as he is over the phone. I also hung with author/podcaster James Melzer, who treated me to a satisfying Canadian beer. Stephen A. North is a teddy bear, and a true gentleman. Rhiannon Frater, Rob Fox, Scott Johnson, ZA Recht, JL Bourne, SG Browne, Robert R. Best (along with his wonderful wife Laura), and David Dunwoody were other fantastic people I got to meet and talk to.

Stephen A. North and David Dunwoody

Of course, a lot of zombies and characters from Dawn of the Dead (1978) were around, and they were buckets of fun to talk to. The most common thing that I heard from them is how much they’re amazed that after over 30 years, they are still known for Dawn, and have incredible fans. Frank Serrao (gray suit zombie), Nick Tallo (biker raider), Joe Shelby (biker raider/Martinez), Shanon Ceccatti (nurse zombie), Leonard Lies (machete zombie), Jim Krut (helicopter zombie), and, of course, Ken Foree.

Sharon Ceccatti (nurse zombie)

Frank Serrao (gray suit zombie)

Nick Tallo

And then there were us podcasters. Along with Library of the Living Dead and James Melzer’s Unleashed, I met up with members of Don’t Look in the Podcast, the Funky Werepig and Gutmunchers. All wonderful!

And I was just as happy to see Midnight Podcast listeners Florida Possum and Zombie Farmer! They made an obscenely long journey to the Zombie Capital of the World. Florida Possum was every bit as awesome as I thought, and Zombie Farmer was sweet and entertaining (to say the least). She certainly entertained Ken Foree during his panel discussion as she developed a case of loud hiccups. Ken totally called her out on it.

The whole thing was fantastic. My only regrets: 1) not being able to be there for Friday or Sunday (reliable sources tell me Tom Savini showed up Friday night, talking to fans and browsing the laserdiscs), and 2) having not talked to the likes of Jonathan Maberry, Travis Adkins, Kim Paffenroth, and Tiffany Shepis (although she was certainly noticed).

Funny story about Ms. Shepis: a whole group of us were outside talking and drinking beers, and Tiffany strolls up to us. “You look like a big group of alcoholics,” she said. “Where is the stairway to the liquor store?” She was under the impression that the hotel had some kind of hidden stairway to the liquor store. WTF?

UPDATE: Nick Tallo sent me a VERY angry comment on this blog, calling me names like “idiot” and “dickhead” because I got his name mixed up with Joe Shelby. I apologized for this, but I no longer am a fan of Mr. Tallo because of his outburst toward me. A simple, “Hey, you got your names mixed up . . .” and an explanation would have been wonderful, but he resorted to name-calling and generally making himself look like a fool. Do not support Nick Tallo — I just lost all respect for this man.

One of the podcasts I listen to – Horror Etc. – is holding a logo design contest, and the winner is based solely on listener votes. Go on over to their forum, then register and vote for my logo – Corey’s. I will love you forever.

I was excited this morning as I looked at the schedule of films for the day and saw that a zombie short was supposed to go on in the morning. So I showed up early, watched the first film (Harvest Moon, a very good vampire short), but was then confused as they skipped the zombie short and went right on to Casting Call of Cthulhu, a fun comedy short with wonderfully-crafted CG work. Alas, no zombie film.

But then I was treated to Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown, a fantastic documentary about HP Lovecraft featuring interviews with Guillermo Del Toro, John Carpenter, Neil Gaiman, and a ton of other well-know horror people. I haven’t read Lovecraft for a long, long time, and now I want to go out and read a whole bunch of it.

The other highlight of the day was meeting and talking with Kane Hodder, the actor to best portray Jason Vorhees. He is one huge fella, and very personable. He even was so kind as to do an interview for the Midnight Podcast, in which he expressed what I have been hoping to verify all along: that Jason is in fact a zombie. The interview, along with all the others, will be featured on episode 106 of the Midnight Podcast next week.

Of course, I had to meet and hang out with Chainsaw Sally. Her husband, who is also the director of Chainsaw Sally, was there with her, and snapped the picture you see here. Very nice people.

I may stop by the festival once more tomorrow to stop and say hello to the Rue Morgue magazine people. Their table was very crowded today as I passed by it, and I was getting hungry, so I didn’t have the patience to wait around.

I’ve just come off two days at the Eerie Horror Film Festival at the Warner Theater. I haven’t actually watched any films — yet. That’s for the weekend. As for yesterday and today, I’ve spent my time there talking to people. Namely the famous ones (but also some of the not-so-famous ones).

First off, I’m really happy that I finally scored a copy of The Video Dead, a movie that I’ve been attempting to track down for a long time now. One of the DVD vendors had it, and explained that it’s out of print and only exists on VHS and VHS-to-DVD transfers. He also had Porn of the Dead, and while I usually jump at the chance of watching any zombie movie I find, I passed on this one. The vendor was a really cool guy, and we talked zombies for quite a while before I moved along to the celebrity section.

Sid Haig was the first celebrity I talked to. He was very nice, but seemed tired. I did an interview with him for the Midnight Podcast in which he was a little less than enthusiastic, but cool nonetheless. I found out he’s seriously running for president. If I were a voter, I’d vote for him, no doubt. After that, I strolled around a while longer then left.

This afternoon, I went back and talked to Gunnar Hansen. He’s an intimidating man — large in stature and doesn’t smile much. But he’s very cool too. His interview for the podcast was definitely fun.

But the man I enjoyed talking with was Ed Neal. This guy is a character. He’s a lot of fun, constantly cracking jokes and very animated. I had a blast doing the interview — we could have gone on and on, but a crowd was gathering to talk to him, so I cut the interview short and let him carry on with his thing.

Hopefully some of the other guys I want to talk to show up this weekend — namely Kane Hodder and Tony Moran, who were nowhere to be seen so far. I also wouldn’t mind talking to Chainsaw Sally and Rodrigo from Rue Morge magazine. We’ll see.