The Spook Season has Cometh!!!!!

Well, I can officially attest to it being the Halloween season again! Whooopie! It might not quite be October yet but, the pumpkins are starting to pop up, the Halloween swag is out in the stores, the local Haunted Attractions will be starting up next weekend and the change in the color of the trees is quite noticeable already. I even saw a gaggle of geese flying out of town, trying to escape the coming of the living dead. Animals can sense that crazy kind of stuff, ya know.

And speaking of the living dead, they'll be plenty of it here in my Blog of Geekdom for sure as there will be Haunted House reviews and Horror movie reviews also. I've been catching up with a lot of Horror flicks I've wanted to see through that movie club I belong to. So get ready for the season of the undead!


As some may have noticed, there's been hardly any action on my podcasts since May. This is due to a few reasons. First of all, we decided that rather than having shows where I just blither on like an idiot by myself, there should definitely be more interaction with other people. My Star Wars round table shows were the most popular to date. So we'd like to do shows where I have a guest or two on. Now, getting people to find time to get together to do these shows is quite a challenge. We all have busy lives and scheduling these shows is a bit tougher than you think. Second, the guy who produces these podcasts, "Double A-Man", has been busy with a plethora of projects lately. And thirdly, I've been a lazy bastard! But, I'm hoping to do something soon, so stay tuned. Halloween is coming and me and Roberto may have a show or two coming up!


Speaking of Horror movie reviews, here's a couple quickies to kick the Season of the Dead off here in my Blog of Geekdom!

Dead Silence - In a Horror movie era where there's a definite lack of decent supernatural thrillers that are being replaced by slasher flicks, bordering on torture porn, this creepy little ditty was quite enjoyable. The sense of eeriness is abound as the ghost of an old lady ventriloquist, who can posses her old puppets, haunts a small, run down town, seeking vengeance on all. There's some really great creep out scenes in this one, though, it does get a little cliche at times. Still if you're creeped out by undead puppets and really spooky old ladies, this is one for you!

The Messengers - Another paranormal / supernatural thriller that I really enjoyed! This one is a little more laid back and subdued compared to Dead Silence. What happens when a family who are trying to start thier lives over buy a haunted farm house in the middle of Nowhereville? Madness ensues! Sure, this one was a little slower than other thrillers I've seen, but again, the creepiness was aplenty. It was especially nice to see upcoming actress, Kristen Stewart, work her acting chops in a role I was really impressed with (and not in a creepy old man kind of way). The one and only problem I had with this whole movie was the twist ending that I figured out about 1/3 into the movie (Highlight for spoiler)...
It was an obvious red flag to bring in a character, played by a recognizable actor, into the early part of the movie that at first seems to have no relevance to the plot. He just hangs out a lot. This had me thinking, "Hmmmm.... either he has something to do with the past of this house or producers wanted a name actor in the role for set dressing." I bet on the former of the two and was proven correct.
Otherwise, this was another really good creepfest. Especially for those who like more spookiness than gore.


In more spooky stuff, my participation in the RPG, Call of Cthulhu, is making a triumphant return in a couple of ways. Since it's been a while since I ran a game I'm going to be doing some reconnaissance and try out being a player rather than a game master. I'll be playing with a different group of people than I usually play this game with (which I'll probably get loads of flack about from my player, Iris Von Beaverhousen, in the coming month). It's only two games that I'll play in and then I hope to be reinvigorated to start running new games with my usual group for the winter season.

In more geekish news...

They've finally settled on a name for the next Indiana Jones movie, due this coming May 22nd. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull! Yep! Sounds good and pulpy! I've heard some murmurings on the story (Spoilers: Highlight to read again)...
Apparently, since it takes place in 1957, Jones will have no Nazis to tangle with. But there still has to be that cliche military antagonist for him to go at it with. So this time he'll be up against the Soviet army who'll be forcing him to help them find some sort of ancient crystal skull.
Sounds pretty feakin' cool. This will be the ONE summer movie of '08 that I will just have to see!!!

What video games have I been wasting my life away with recently, you may ask? Well I got to the end of Gears of War, but the final boss was impossible to beat. After talking to people who had beaten the game, it was revealed that you have to bee hooked up on-line and be in co-op mode for two people to beat it. My other gripe with this post apocalyptic monster shoot-em-up game was that the single player mode was WAY TOO FRACKIN' SHORT! Visually, it's an awesome game and the game play is excellent! I just wished it delivered in length and didn't have an impossible ending.

A game I just started was Call of Duty 3. Though I've played a few other WWII FPS games, I never have played a COD title. I love it so far! Great graphics and artwork, loads of non stop fire fight action and it's many levels long. So length is NOT a problem here for single players.

I've also just bought a few older games from the used game store. Mercenaries (haven't played yet), Legacy of Kain (haven't played yet) and to keep the Halloween spirit alive, Silent Hill II. What little I played has yet to get to the real creepy parts and I now realize how spoiled I am with the graphics of the Xbox 360, as the graphics for SHII are pretty bleak in comparison. But, it is what it is.

Also in the Halloween spirit, I'm still trogging along with Resident Evil 4. I finally got through that god awful giant fish in the lake scene, now I'm escorting the President's daughter through the creepy, old western European town where cultists and creatures are all over the place. Very Lovecraftian influenced!

Well it's Saturday and I've got games to play, videos to watch, beer to drink. More spookiness to come!

Zangz's out!