Things That Go Bump In The Night.....

"From ghoulies and ghosties And long-leggedy beasties And things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us!"

- Taken from a Traditional Scottish Prayer

I left my bedroom window open a crack last night to freshen up the room a bit. I awoke to a chill slowly funneling through the window opening. This wasn't the usual bitter morning cold that can pinch us on a late autumn day. This was a forewarning. This was communication.

This was Them telling me, "We're here! This is our day! Not yours!"

I looked out my window to see the early morning dark clouds move along the sky as if they had a life of their own. The wind howled between the buildings down my avenue. The leaves flew in circular motions up and off of the ground.

This very day and night truly does belong to Them.

And who are these "Them"? For they are dead things, creepy things, rotting things, things with scales, things with fangs, things that moan, growl and snarl from the shadows. They are disembodied whispers coming from the corners of a dark room. They are the things you can't see, but know are close by.

For the last several weeks the doorway between the worlds of the living and the dead has slowly been creaking open and today is the doors are torn off of their hinges with spirits and creatures from the netherworld running freely amongst the living.

Take heed! Quickly carve that Jack-O-Lantern and put it in the window to ward them off. Or you can dress up as one of them to blend in with the dead.

It will be the witching hour, midnight tonight, when they will be called back to the world of the unknown and the door will be sealed for another year and we living humans will have safety from the dead.

As a special Halloween treat, for those of you who maybe didn't get a chance to visit local Haunted Attractions this year, here are some YouTube links to videos on some of the nation's best Haunted Houses! Each of them are 5 to 8 minutes each, so you have a good hour to peruse some pretty impressive haunts! Enjoy.....

THRILLVANIA
CREEPYWORLD
BATES MOTEL
FIELD OF SCREAMS

NETHERWORLD
GOATMAN HOLLOW
SPOOKYWOODS

That's about it for me today. Please have a very safe and downright spooky Halloween!

Zangz.

A Haunted Concert at a Haunted Venue by a Haunting Band

Last night my favorite band, Type O Negative rolled on into town. It was one show of a very special 12 city Halloween tour that they occasionally venture on during October of certain years. There's one venue in particular they play every time they tour. It's called The Rave and it's housed in an old building called The Eagles Club.

The big, looming building was constructed in the 1920's as an athletic club that would also have grand functions like ballroom dances and diners. Once the athletic club closed, it became a shelter for men for a short spell. Once the big haired 80's hit the building started to host rock concerts in the ballroom. In fact a few of my first concerts were in this venue including Adam Ant with INXS opening as well as a double headlining show of Metallica & W.A.S.P. with Armored Saint opening the show. It has now opened a few more theaters within the venue. There's a smaller hall called The Rave Hall. This is where Type O always perform. Then there's the big Eagle's Ballroom on the 3rd floor. The lower floor houses a much smaller club hall as well as a vacant and locked up old swimming pool. So a lot can go on in one evening at this one establishment.

But, once the fans have left and the bands have loaded up their gear and there's a small smattering of employees left to do some last minute clean up, that is when very odd and downright spooky things can happen.

Witnesses have reported that there seems to be a group of children who haunt the halls of The Rave. Disembodied voices of children both playing and crying can be heard when the venue is near empty. The entities of the children all playing together have actually been seen by employees. There's also a ghostly little girl who wonders about the basement giving witnesses a cold feeling of dread before she manifests. Creeeeepy. Buahahahahaha!

That's not all! Many other odd occurrences take place when the venue is near empty. Sightings of Shadow People, feelings of cold spots, inexplicable negative feelings and the sounds of foot steps seem to flow through the building.

There's one particular ghost that seems to like to watch bands do their sound checks and rehearse. Band members have spotted a dark figure seem to peer at them from a balcony or side of a stage and then the entity disappears suddenly. There are those that believe that it may be the ghost of the late Buddy Holly who enjoys watching from the shadows. Apparently, Buddy Holly played his last concert at the venue before he died in a plane crash.

When I attended ZombieConX a few weeks back, I went to a panel discussion given by The Wisconsin Paranormal Investigators. One of the subjects that came up was famous Milwaukee haunts. The Rave was one of the first to be mentioned. One of the people in the crowd used to do work there and he said that he'd show up when hardly anybody was there to set up equipment. He then went on to say that there would be a major feeling that he was being watched even though he was the only one in the room.

I've been to this venue for concerts about 12 times in my entire life and sadly the only ghoulish spooks I've ever seen here are Type O Negative.

And that, my friends, just made a great segue to my review of Type O Negative's All Hallows Evil Tour '09 show at The Rave....

Once I entered the spooky old venue I bellied up to the bar where, beerwise, they were sadly only selling $7 domestic swill. It's a Rock Club. What should have I expected? I hopped up on a stool and begrudgingly ordered an MGD. I sat and enjoyed the Goth-Metal band that was playing in the bar lounge area since security weren't opening the Rave hall doors for the main concert yet. I wish I could remember the name of the band that was playing as they weren't too bad and had a pretty mysterious and sultry red head as their singer/keyboardist. Ok, ok. I'll admit it. I'm still a creepy old geeky dude.

Soon after the bar band were done the main doors opened and I got myself a Type O tour shirt (for the remainder of this review Type O Negative will be referred to as either "Type O" or "TON" 'cause I'm a lazy blogger).

Pickings for merchandise were quite slim since this was the second to last show of the tour. With T-shirt in hand I once again got my seat up in the balcony since I'm way too friggin' old to deal with the moshing or body passing that occurs on the floor level of the hall. The balcony area (costing an extra $5) also had it's own bar that in years past had a little more of a variety of beers. But this time around it was the same domestic swill that was at the lower bar. An MGD was once again begrudgingly purchased and sat at my seat awaiting the first act to hit the stage.

After I did some serious Goth kid watching the lights went down and Seventh Void came on. Seventh Void features two of the members of Type O, Kenny Hickey on guitar and lead vocals and Johnny Kelly on drums. This four piece sounds far more energetic live in concert than they do on their CD. Their other guitarist is incredibly lively on stage, bounding and dancing around as he strums away. Seventh Void's real strength is in a live show!

After a very quick set change the second openers for the night came on. Destrophy are a band out of Des Moines, IA that plays a powerful, yet melodic kind of Metal. I liked them a lot and they had one heck of an entertaining drummer who was swinging the sticks all over the place never missing, a beat. I may have to pick up their CD!

Once they finished their set a real cool geeky moment happened to me. I went up to the bar for another beer. I was wearing my old, black leather motorcycle jacket that I've had for over 20 years now. It's pretty worn but, I have a cool patch of the Galactic Empire's symbol form Star Wars on the arm of the jacket. I also have adorned the lapels of the jacket with pins of Boba Fett's Mandalorian symbol and Death's Head (I'm not Wikki-ing all of that. If you don't know Star Wars, you don't know $#!+). The guy who came up next to me as I was ordering the beer looked at the patch and buttons and told the bartender to get me a shot of JD on him. Apparently he was impressed that there was a fellow SW fan there wearing his fandom on his jacket. Way cool!!!

I have to give props to the road crew on this tour. Usually it takes a good 30 to 45 minutes to tear down one band and set up another, but these people were quick! After fifteen minutes the lights went down for the headliners, Type O!

Over the speaker system the into tape was playing the them song to The Munsters as the gruesome foursome took to the stage. The intro stopped, the lights came on and TON slam into one of my faves, "Dead Again"! And then they merged right into another one of my faves, "Hey Bacchus". It was a great start to a show that just kept moving with dark energy. Sometimes when they tour, their set list is heavy with a lot of their older, more plodding songs. But this time around they seemed to focus on their songs that have both a lot of energy and melody. Highlights included, "Halloween in Heaven", "Love you to Death" and of course the concert ending "Black #1". They really seemed to be in the spirit, healthy and pretty energetic on stage this tour. This was one of my top 3 shows of all the times I've seen them live!

Tall and Lurch-like Peter Steele (vocalist/main songwriter/bassist) didn't talk to the crowd too much this time, but when he did he seemed to be in very good spirits.

Kenny Hickey and Johnny Kelly didn't seem slowed down or tired from Seventh Void's earlier set. they were just as up for some headbanging as everybody else.

The stage set was nothing special. Just their banners and flags hanging from speakers and the back drop.

There was a very notable difference in this TON tour than in years past. Keyboardist, Josh Silver, is passing on this tour to continue his EMT schooling. He will return for future albums and tours. In the meantime TON got Scott Warren who's usual gig is with Dio and Heaven and Hell (aka: Ronnie James Dio lead Black Sabbath). Though Josh's flipping off the audience and waving around his big curly locks was missed by all, Warren seemed to more than capable in keeping up with all of the TON songs that evening.

The set list (as best as I can recall... after the shot of JD) was as follows.....

Intro - The Munsters theme.
1. Dead Again
2. Hey Bacchus
3. NIB (Black Sabbath cover)
4. Halloween in Heaven
5. Prophets of Doom
6. Love You to Death
7. Wolf Moon
8. Anesthesia
9. World Coming Down
Encore
10. Black #1.

Ten songs may seem like a short show, but you have to remember Type O songs can last anywhere from 5 minutes to 15 minutes.

Would I have liked to hear a couple more of TON's Halloween themed songs in the show? Heck yeh! After all it was a Halloween tour. It would have been nice to here "Creepy Green Light" or "All Hallows Eve" thrown into the mix. But that's the only minor complaint I have.

This was one of TON's best shows here in Milwaukee yet. It was a tight set that flowed really well and was very energetic. Though I may have to wait another few years for a new CD and tour, it will be worth the wait!


Here's more Halloween happenings!

I did go to another Haunted Attraction last weekend!

Meadowbrook Haunted Cornfield Adventure - I hadn't been to this one in a few years so I was a bit curious on what has changed. I know the price did rise dramatically in the last few years so a lot of my fellow haunt enthusiasts stopped going. Upon traveling through the maze I did notice that a lot of the effects have changed for the better. It used to be mainly actors and paper mache dummies that lined the stalks. But this year they've added some real cool mannequins and some very nice animation effects. There isn't an area of corn maze that isn't themed or adorned with some sort of frightening sight! There are three or for shacks you have to go through in between your venturing through the stalks. One is clown themed that has a goofy maze to traverse. then there's the hillbilly hut where gruesome things lurk. There's also a shack that didn't really work out too well. They herd you into this room and lock you in and keep you there with nothing going on inside it. After about 3 to 4 minutes they open the door to let you out. What's the point of that? The Pirates of the Caribbean finale will have you blown away, sea monster and all! I do have to admit, they've pretty much improved from the last time I've attended. We'll have to see if they keep on improving from year to year. Hopefully they will not keep raising their admission fee and ostracize potential patrons. They've got a great thing going here and it would be a shame for them to out price themselves.


Before I head out, I'd like to post another edition of.....

Zangz's Website of the Moment:
MILWAUKEE AREA PARANORMAL INVESTIGATIONS

Since we were on the subject of a local haunt earlier in the blog, I thought I'd
post a link that has a few more places in my hometown that are spooked up.
A few of them are a 5 minute walk from my Vault of Geekdom headquarters.
So Take a peek and leave a light on tonight!

Well tomorrow is the big day and the Season of the Dead will sadly come to an end during the witching hour. I've got some errands to run and do today. So I'm calling it here, kido's

Zangz.

More reviews on undead, spooky and Halloweenish stuff...

Hello there, fellow geeks, goobs and lovers of things dark and creepy. We're certainly full throttle into our time of year. Only one more week to go before the fun is over.

Today I enjoyed the day off from work and had a chance to take a drive into the suburbs. I have to tell you that even thought the weather was dark, murky and wet, the color of the changing trees were all that more brilliant! In an odd way the gray sky backdrop heightened the bright orange leaves the trees were trying not to loose. Very beautiful!

So over the last week or so I've immersed myself in Halloweenish indulgences. I have experienced a few Horror movies and a couple of Haunted Attractions. So let's dive right into the reviews.

Let's start with the movies

Dark Ride - Get a young, hot, name actress coming off of one of the greatest TV mobster serials of all time, then add a creepy setting such as an abandoned Haunted House ride on Cooney Island, try and spice it all up with a group of college kids trapped in the Haunt with a homicidal maniac, then attempt to put a little mystery into the mix and you'll get a so-so B-grade horror flick. Jamie-Lynn Sigler heads the cast as a fed up girlfriend who's dragged along on a road trip with her boyfriend and a few other kids to spend the night in the abandoned dark ride. Once they arrive and break in the slaying then ensues. Far from the worst horror movie out there (The Wickeds), this film does little to give the Horror Genre a boost. Its' pretty common slasher fare up until the very lame mystery "reveal" at the end of the film. There is some good creepiness in the main killer with his mannequin face and slow, hunched over movements, but it's not much that we haven't seen before. (View Trailer HERE).

The Messengers 2: The Scarecrow - The first Messengers movie, staring a pre-Twilight Kristen Stewart was pretty friggn' creepy if not a bit predictable. If you're looking for something similar you'll be sorrowfully disappointed in this name only sequel. Yes, it involves a family trying to make a change in their lives by buying a creepy old farm like the first movie. That's where the relativity stops. Instead of a bunch of way-creepy restless spirits haunting the farm, it's a half-assed, looks like plastic, supposed to be creepy scarecrow that is cursed to whoever uses it. The father of the new family, who looks like he's about 25 years old rather than a fatherly figure, decides to use the "creepy" scarecrow to ward off the crows who are eating up his cornfield and putting him in debt. That's when people start to disappear and the scarecrow starts to take victims. This movie is pretty long winded and predictable. (See Trailer HERE!)

The Hills Have Eyes (2006 remake) - Like the original, this remake (yep, another) features the story of a family making a cross country trek through the vast desert of the west when they run into a psychotic group of inbred, nuclear mutated freaks. Once the trap is set the muties start picking off family members one by one in shocking way after diabolical way. I think that I would have enjoyed this film a lot more if A. It wasn't a remake (can't anyone in Hollywood come up with something original.) and B. there wasn't a rape scene. I know the original had the rape scene as well, but that was released in a time where rape scenes in horror films were more than just there for shock purposes. It was beyond taboo and was in the film for a real jarring reason. This scene is there strictly for the "look how evil these muties are, ohhh are they scary" type of vibe which is NOT COOL!!! I've said it before about certain horror flicks and I'll say it again. Rape should never be used as a trivialized scare tool! And sadly this remake does just that. Sad, since it had sooo much more potential. (See trailer HERE).

The Landlord - I came upon this film from attending ZombieConX a few weeks back. In the dealers room there was a booth dedicated to the film. As I walked past it, there was a young man with long hair and glasses standing in the isle who noticed my "Illuminati: Someone You Trust Is One Of Us" T-shirt. He commented on it wondering if I was a fan of the collectible card game. I told him I'd never played but thought the shirt was very clever with the whole hint of how the "mythical" organization is in control of everything. He found that amusing and then went full throttle into trying to sell the horror movie to me. I talked to him a bit and he told me he was a fledgling film maker from Chicago. I told him I'd check back with him later that weekend. Sure enough, the next day I plopped down my $10 for the DVD of his movie, The Landlord. If you're a Horror fan you'll appreciate this movie, if for nothing else, the creative force of very independent film makers who've probably funded their film on a bunch of newly accepted credit cards that were probably maxed out straight away before production even started. There's a good dose of dark humor in this flick about a building land lord who owns a building that has a gateway to hell and is under the control of two ancient demonic spirits that date back to Egyptian times. You'll have a love for this film if you're a fan of independent film makers who focus on the Horror genre and if you have a fond love of dark humor. If you're looking for a big budget Horror spectacular that doesn't use gory props that can be purchased at you local Halloween shop, then you may not be interested. But you gotta love the independent filmaking process that this movie exudes! Kudos to Emil Hyde for putting his financial balls on the line and living his dream of being a Horror film maker and stopping me in the middle of the ZombieConX isle to comment on my Illuminati T-shirt.

The Hills Have Eyes 2 - The sequel to the 2006 remake doesn't fare too much better than its predecessor. The exception may be that there isn't a full on rape scene, just a near rape scene (sigh). Instead of a family being terrorized by a group of muties, it's a squadron of army trainees who are investigating the disappearance of a survey team out in the hills and mine tunnels of the desert. So it tries hard to be reminiscent of Aliens with a lot of that machismo military banter that plagues sooooo many Sci-Fi, Action and Horror movies to date since Aliens was released. Outside of the cheesy banter, that's where the comparison with Aliens ends. It's also slightly more predictable as it's first movie. (View Trailer HERE!) Oh when, oh when, Dark Spooky Gods, will there be a Horror movie I have rented where I can get the creeps at the same time be entertained?

Quarantine - Ok. Ok, we're starting to get there. If not in big leaps in bounds, certainly in little steps. This flick has a lot going for it. It's creepy. It's a zombie flick (oh yes it is!). And it has some truly creepy scenes in it. It's shot in documentary form as it follows a news crew covering an evening in a firehouse and what firefighters have to go though in a "day in the life" piece. The TV crew tags along when the station gets a call about some sort of health issue with a woman living in a slightly run down apartment building. Well of course the lady has some sort of zombie like virus and before you can say "Bob's Your Undead Uncle" the whole building is forcefully under quarantine and shut closed with tenants, firefighters and the news crew trapped inside with a zombie plague slowly infecting them all. For the most part I really enjoyed this movie. There was one slight issue I did have with it, however. It was shot in a Bliar Witch type of "lost footage - found" vibe, supposedly from the news team covering it all. This would have been a real cool idea if the movie hadn't been so Hollywoodized. When you shoot a film in that kind of style, you're trying to convey the fact that "this could have really happened!" But, the facts that you have stars from Dexter, Boston Legal and the dude who was married to Christina Applegate staring in the film, kind of takes away from the whole reality feel they were going for. Also, the sets and lighting and effects have a very polished Hollywood feel to them as well, also negating the "true life feel" the film was trying to convey. Despite that flaw, it's still a pretty darned good Horror flick! Worth a good viewing. Especially if you're a zombie film fan who's looking for something a bit different. (View Trailer HERE!)

Drag Me To Hell - Hell yes!!! Now We're getting somewhere! Unlike the plethora of remakes and slasher films that are plaguing the Horror Movie genre as of late, this Sam Raimi flick takes on an original approach to the genre. If psychos and vampires and ghosts and satanic demons have been overly used in current horror movies, where is a brilliant script writer/director to go? How about a movie about a curse? That hasn't been done in quite a while! And Sam takes on the subject matter with great, ghoulish relish! A cute, young yuppie, bank official, who isn't usually opportunistic denies an elderly gypsy woman a 3rd mortgage on her home. Thus, the elderly woman will probably be kicked out of it. The gypsy woman begs on her knees to Allison Lohman's bank official character for just one shot. With the potential of a promotion at the bank, Lohman's character takes the yuppie, capitalist road and denies her the loan. The gypsie woman puts a curse on the young bank executive and that's when things start to go very bad for Lohman's character. If only stuff like that happened to real life bank officials before the whole downturn of the economy, maybe we wouldn't have the mass unemployment that we do now! Getting back on the subject. Allison Lohman's chacter is haunted by a demon throughout the rest of the film and Raimi pulls out every extravagant gross out, fun filled creepy scene he can think of to do it. Allison Lohmon should win an Oscar just for the mass amount of undead-gross out-bodily fluids that she seems to have to ingest in her mouth throughout the movie! There's also a few really creepy scenes that Raimi has seemingly been influenced and pulled from his classic Evil Dead films of past legend! Sadly there was one big gripe I did have with this movie. The big ending was given away 3/4th of the way through the movie. Even a less than astute viewer knew how the movie was going to end when a less than subliminal clue was given out when.... (Highlight to read if you haven't seen the film yet.)

A character trying to help the girl ward off the curse gives her a coin-like object in a white envelope, JUST LIKE the coin that her boyfriend gives her at the beginning of the movie. Can you guess what items will be mixed up and who will still be doomed at the end of the movie, no matter what?

That kind of put a big damper on what was looking to be a really great horror movie! Nobody does gross out, fun horror like Sam Raimi! And this has real potential, if it wasn't for the give away ending. Still worth a viewing if you're a big fan of of Raimi's Evil Dead films!!!! (View trailer HERE!)


Ok, we're now going to take an undead look-see at a couple of good ol' local Haunted Attractions.....

When my good friend and fellow fan of the macabre, Roberto Del Amorte, found some free time in his recently challenging life, he leaped at the chance to join me in an evening of adventuring into the realms of the dark unknown.

Terror on Rural Street - As usual this is our "go to" haunt. It's become a tradition of the Halloween season. Every year they change things up a bit while reinventing some old effects t be more economically conscience. There was certainly a lot of good effects and rooms and scare-actors to go around. The theme this year was a generic creepy old house and the wonderful facade that greets you once you get in line certainly reflected that image. Once inside we were presented with all of the usual Terror on Rural Street fun we have very year. Yet, nothing entirely different or that sticks in our minds.

Hartford JC's Haunted House. - It didn't start well. After buying our ticket we were sent to wait in a couple of small rooms in a barn with a whole slew of Slinger teenagers who were singing songs at the top of their lungs just to piss off and annoy the other patrons. We left he main room and went to a smaller room where they were showing Alien VS. Predator against one of the walls. We sat there for a while enjoying the movie when the cavalcade of singing tweeners decided to move into our room and ruin the movie for us and others there. I had to wonder if I was ever that retarded when I was that age. I don't recall so. It seems to get worse every year. Kids get more and more obnoxious. Luckily their numbers were called far before ours. Once we started to get some peace and quite, we were ushered into the pre-show tent. The wait there didn't last quite as long and before we knew it, we were on our way through he haunted woods that would lead us up into the haunted farm house. The whole haunt gets better and better every year! This year was no exception. The scare-actors are far more theatrical and well into their rolls than other haunts. And if god wasn't my witness, there was some form of corpse popping out at every turn. All the rooms had very detailed props and scenery. Again these guys inch out Terror on Rural Street as a realy great haunt to visit. If they keep up the advancement that they exceed every year, this could become a real name haunt!!!!! Now a quick video game review.....

Dead Space - The Survival Horror genre of video games has a boat-load of competition since Dead Space hit the shelves over a year ago. I had the privilege of first plying it just recently. It's a 3rd person, over the shoulder shooter with a bunch of survival and RPG mechanics thrown in for good measure. Imaging being an engineer on a space vessel in the distant future who is aboard a ship bound for a derelict space station that has lost all communication and is need of a rescue operation. Once aboard the creepy vessel you're ship is destroyed and you find yourself among morphed and scary versions of the former crew of the derelict vessel. As the story pans out, a large portion of rock that this space station has gutted from the lower planet it is hovering over has brought about some form of evil power that has mutated its crew into god-awful creatures that you have to destroy while trying to bring power back to the station in a bunch of different missions you are put on. This game is every bit as addictive as it can be frustrating! One moment you'll be lovin' life as you blow away spooky, creepy crawly remnants of the former crew members as you build up your character's weapon and armor stats, the next you'll be wanting the throw your controller through the nearest window as you try to get through some ridiculousness that includes missions where you have to sweat through silly timing puzzles and awkward trails to accomplish tasks that won't let you progress in the game unless you succeed. So, as every bit as cool as hell as this game is, it stunts its own growth by putting you in some really outlandish and more than difficult situations where you'll find yourself having to re-spawn and start over after a silly death due to very unfair challenges. Definitely worth checking out if you like survival horror, action or even RPG video games. But don't expect to progress too far without cursing the game at least 5 or 25 times. (View some footage of gameplay action HERE!)



And that about ends it for this week. I'll have a couple more movie reviews and perhaps one more local haunt review for you sometime next weekend to cap off this year's Halloween season. Then I'll have the Type O Negative concert to look forward to. Until next time, Stay Vertical, unless you're lucky enough to be undead.

Zangz.

ZombieConX Review

I spent last weekend getting infected...and it wasn't half bad.

"Infected? You Will Be!" was the promotional motto for last weekend's local Horror Genre convention, ZombieConX. Since it had been eons since I had the opportunity to attend a fun filled fan convention, I wasn't going to miss this con held just a 10 minute drive from my apartment.

I decided to go both Saturday and Sunday to take in all the creepy gory splendor. I got there a little too early as I had to wait in a small line of darkly dressed people for about an hour or so. The only entertaining moment that occurred was when the "Zombie Dolls" (spoke models for the con that were dressed in tight black paramilitary outfits) stormed past the line pulling along a captured zombified girl as they hollered things like, "Keep clear! We have an infected!!!", just prior to opening the doors. Cute. It's nice to know the organizers put a little fun and imagination into it.

Finally they started to herd people into the ticket lines. After a little confusion of what part of the table you actually purchased the tickets at, I got my two day tickets and headed into the main vendor/autograph hall. Apparently getting there early paid off quite well since the first 50 people in line received a free ZombieConX T-shirt. Trey cool, dudes!

Although the vendor section of the con was a little on the sparse side, it still had a whole bunch of cool people to talk to. I met one artist named Billy Tackett who is a painter that takes famous iconic images from the past and present and then adds a zombiesque touch to them. I bought a T-shirt with his Uncle Sam artwork on it. Then I met another artist named Mike Natarelli who was not only a tattoo artist, but also did some incredible genre / pop-culture etchings on glassware that has to be seen to be believed.

I also met a gentleman by the name of T. Glenn Bane who is an author and a Role Playing Game designer. He will have a book coming out soon called "The Gnoming - Haikus from Hell" which will feature a story of a small town infested by an army of demonic garden gnomes. Parts of the tale will be told in Haiku prose. I poop you not! He's going to pull it off.

There were also a cadre of small, independent fill makers either selling or promoting their movies. I ran into one group that just released their movie The Landlord. Apparently the movie has its own built in drinking game. So of course I picked up a copy. I haven't watched it yet. I'll let you now how it is.

I was hoping for more vendors (especially a T-shirt vendor with Horror movie images on them. Maybe next year.), but when you're at smaller con, you make the best out of what you have, and being able to talk and converse with these folks was pretty cool.

Then there were the celebs that showed up for selling autographs and Q & A sessions. All of them were quite gracious and friendly and were having as much fun as the fans coming to the show. Especially Scout Taylor Compton and Dee Wallace. Sid Haig was also there signing for fans.

One of the funny things about Saturday's events was that they held the Q&A sessions on the other side of the convention hall which was having some geriatric wellness seminar. So it was a regular site to see a bunch of people dressed as zombie clowns or zombie clergy walking down the hallway along with older people and their walkers. I guess you had to be there to appreciate the vision.

I went to a number of cool as frell Q&A sessions. There was one with some stars of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre that was more of a comedy improv theater than a Q&A.

There was one called The Great Zombie Debate which I thought would be some authors and fans talking about zombie mythos. But instead it was darn near every celebrity and author going at it on the subject of what was more horrifying, the slow traditional zombie or the newer, much faster zombies from movie like 28 Weeks. Everybody was getting into the quasi-heated discussion. Especially Scout Taylor Compton.

The Halloween: Then and Now seminar was just as good since actors from the original Halloween movies and the newer Rob Zombie redo's were there. Over the course of the half hour the subject matter changed to how Hollywood is made up bean counters and they're the ones who make the decisions on what movies get made and that is reflecting in a lot of these crappy remakes and unoriginal material that is infecting our Horror movie culture right now. All they care about is money and not plot, story or performance. Sad.

One of the last Q&A's I attended was the Wisconsin Paranormal Investigators. It's our own local group of ghost hunters. Though most some of them are skeptics more intent on debunking haunts rather than capturing ghosts, they did have some spooky stories to tell. Check their website!

I'm hoping this will be an annual con and they start to grow more. It has tons of potential of being up there with the likes of Chiller Con or Horrorfind Weekend! Perhaps getting more vendors with collectibles and souvenirs would be a start on expanding the con. I definitely plan on attending next year and spreading the word of the undead that infest Milwaukee's Wyndham Hotel!


I'm off today so I plan on spending much of it playing some Dead Space that I rented for the weekend. So far, it's pretty phenomenal when it comes to sc-fi survival horror! I'll have a review soon. Also watch for some possible Haunt reviews and more Horror movie reviews coming soon. I'm also hoping that my buddy Bruce will have his DragonCon diary up here soon. Perhaps after Halloween.

That's all for today! Until next time, Stay Vertical!

Zangz:

Into the Realms of Shadows.....or my lame movie reviews. Whatever blog title you feel suits this post.

October is in full swing.

As I drove home from work tonight the light from the setting sun reflected off of the trees changing color quite beautifully. It made my sour mindset that the hellacious work week implanted fade away quite quickly. That is until I witnessed some rich little pr**k in a Porsche (aka: The I HAVE A SMALL PENIS AND HAVE TROUBLE PERFORMING IN BED mobile) that pulled out of a mansion driveway off of opulent Lake Drive, cut off an ambulance as it passed on the right. Die Yuppie Scum!


On to more happy and spooky musings. Tomorrow and Sunday I'll be attending a Horror convention called Zombiecon X. To be perfectly honest, I never knew there was ever a I through IX. It's the first I've ever heard of a halfway decent genre convention here in my hometown after Gen Con left. Some of the stars of the Living Dead movies as well as Rob Zombie films will be in attendance. I'm in it to get some friggin' cool T-shirts, see some gothy babes and enjoy a panel discussion or two. I'll let you all know how it goes.


My buddy Bruce is almost ready with his review of this year's DragonCon. Hold tight. He wants it to be just right. I'll be posting it very soon. Now on to the main meat of this blog.

I promised you fair readers some Horror film reviews and I have them here. So lets buckle down, turn off the lights, fire up some Jack-O-Lanterns and read on... if you dare.

Friday the 13th (2009) - Not nearly a horrible remake as I was expecting. The original F13 was one of the many Horror movies of the late 70's that heralded in the "slasher flick". It is hard to capture that same sense of dread in this decade. When you want to make a re-boot film you have to be very careful not to crap all over the original. If you're not going to bring in a feeling of a homage to the source material, you might as well throw in the towel. This Michael Bay produced recharge isn't exactly a homage as it is just another Friday the 13th flick that tries to restart it from a new millennium perspective. There are slight hints to homage of the original. But it's mostly a teen slasher flick that happens to have Jason Voohees as the killer. I will give it this, the first 20 minutes are quite cleaver as we are introduced to a group of teens going to camp out near Camp Crystal Lake and within 20 minutes they are all slaughtered. End of the film? Not quite. that's just the introduction before the title screen. Then we go into the meat of the story line that involves annoyingly rich, beautiful kids spending a drug filled, boozed up, oversexed weekend at some snotty rich kid's parent's vacation home. Of course violence soon ensues. Not bad at all, but not the rebirth of the Friday the 13th movies as Casino Royale was for the James Bond movies or the recent Star Trek is for the Trekkie franchise. Worth checking out if you're a horror fan. If for nothing else, for curiosity's sake. Speaking of Trekkie's, they might get a laugh at who plays Jason's psychotic mother at the beginning of the film.

The Haunting of Molly Hartley - In a nutshell it's sort of a modern day, teen Rosemary's Baby without the pregnancy. A dark "chosen one" has to get herself through puberty at the same time as coming to terms there's a lot more to her than just teen angst. Apparently she's some form of dark, evil entity. Once she turns 18 she will attain great evil powers. It's never really revealed what her position in evil will be. Is she the daughter of the devil, the Anti-Christ, some big spooky chick. Even at the very end of this film you're asking yourself, "So just what the hell was she supposed to be?" I found it pretty boring and the ending was not at all as revealing as it should have been. Slight twist, but, by the end no one cares.

Feast 2 - This was almost as cool as the first one! Uber-gory and darkly funny. This hidden diamond is worth if for fans of plain out crazy horror debauchery. Odd creature terrorize a small hick, western township, going after an all girl biker gang, a used car salesman, a couple of small people wrestlers and a few other slimy characters. I give this puppy two thumbs up for a horror movie that never takes itself too seriously.

The Strangers - I found this movie to more of a disturbing quasi-slasher flick than anything else. Outside of the creepy masks the killers wear there's little else to give you the creeps. It's more about how a small band of psychos terrorize and victimize a couple who are renting a small ranch home as they're in town for a wedding. It has it's pop-out-scare moments, but that's about it. Another horror movie that just makes you mad rather than creeps you out and gives you nightmares.

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon - This started out as a brilliant, dark, mocumentary / comedy that satirizes the slasher horror genre. A grad school documentary crew follows an up and coming serial killer, Leslie Vernon. The first part of the film is quite humorously engaging as Leslie goes through the rules and processes of becoming the cliche slasher homicidal maniac. But, as the film progresses the pacing starts to go back and forth from dark comedy to oddball psychological thriller that takes itself too seriously and then finally on to actual slasher flick. Definitely worth checking out if you a big horror fan, even though it doesn't know what type of movie it really wants to be.

My Bloody Valentine (2009) - Another remake of a classic slasher film. I can't say that a guy dressed as a miner in an old mining town is quite as creepy or scary as a guy in a hockey mask or a guy wearing a busted ass William Shatner mask. But this film isn't quite all that bad. It pulls away from it's slasher roots towards the end and becomes a bit of a psychological thriller at the very end. It's ok. Rent it. Don't buy it.

Fido - A fun take on the zombie film. Not in the same vein as Shaun of the Dead or Zombieland, though. This takes place in an alternate history of the 1950's where there was a great zombie outbreak that the humans thwarted. A huge corporation found a way to harness the zombies and make them humankind's slaves cursed to do menial tasks for the living. One young boy befriends his zombie servant and that's when things start to go bad. A resurgence of the zombie plague is at hand due to the friendship of a boy and his zombie. A fun film for us zombie fans to check out!

The Wickeds - SH*T SANDWICH. 'Nuf said. I could poop a better zombie/vampire/ghost story movie than this flick that was made in probably somebody's back yard.

My Name Is Bruce - If you're going to make a movie in somebody's back yard, THIS is the way to do it. Mostly filmed on the Oregon property of Man-God and star Bruce Campbell, this fun filled comedy horror flick excels at it's own wackiness. Let's pretend actor Bruce Campbell was a complete jerk. A divorced, drunken, womanizing, egotistical nard, who's popularity was slowly declining into a world of uber-cheap B-SciFi flicks. He suddenly finds possible redemption in being "hired on" as a potential town hero who is assigned to take on an ancient, undead Asian god. You can't take this movie seriously at all, and that's the fun of it. Campbell makes major fun at himself with some cheap effects, lame jokes and goofball storyline. If you're a Bruce Campbell fan, this is the must see Bruce movie....outside of the Evil Dead movies.

Ok, that's a wrap for tonight. Watch for more ghoulish fun here in my Blog of Geekdom to come soon. Until next time, "Stay Vertical". Zangz.

I LOVE ZOMBIES!!! And they love me back..... but only for my brain.

Happy October...Halloween Season.....Season of the dead. Call it what you will, it is what is usually my favorite time of year. Though I'm still quite aroused by the chill in the air, color in the change of leaves and the Halloween decorations that are slowly starting to pop up all around the countryside, my thoughts are still with friends dealing with some rough times.

Though I won't be celebrating in the mad, obsessive, immersive way I usually do. I'll still celebrate it here in my Blog of Geekdom.

And what better way to ring in the season than with Zombies!

I've been on a real zombie kick as of late. It started when I bought "World War Z" by Max Brooks. Then I purchased books I and II of the "The Walking Dead" comic book compilations. I don't know why, but lately the whole Zombigeddon mythos has me quite intrigued. Perhaps its the intense evaluation of human nature it brings out. Or perhaps it's just a good dose of creepy, brain eating gore that always seems to spew forth from it.

For whatever the reason, I'm pretty full blown into the whole zombie thing right now.

That's why I treated myself to a viewing of Zombieland earlier this evening. So here's my first Halloween movie review of the season...

Zombieland - There's been a hell of a lot of hype over this Zombie movie within the last week. Many fan boy web sites are touting this to be one of the greatest zombie movies of all time. Now, when I started to get into zombie movies, the first one that I truly loved to death was Return of the Living Dead. A great horror comedy for the mid '80's. I held many a zombie movie up to that filme for a very long time. Then came Shawn of the Dead. That blew me away in every way a zombie movie could. So then I held every zombie movie up to Shawn of the Dead.

Tonight I saw the much touted Zombieland. After reading a lot of the online reviews, I was expecting the second coming of the zombie film. So, does it hold up to Shawn of the Dead as a zombie / comedy movie? It's pretty darn close, that's for sure! Zombieland does not disappoint in any way shape of form when it comes to grisly, gore infested, head shooting fun. But, for some odd reason, my heart is still with Shawn. I'm not sure why and may have to see both movies again to figure that out

On it's own, Zombieland is everything you'd want a zombie / comedy film to be. If for nothing else, Woody Harrelson's character of Tallahassee kicks ass! Much in the same way that Big Trouble in Little China's Jack Burton does. Both are machismo, action induced, adventurous ass kickers. The only difference in the two are that Tallahassee actually succeeds in his ass-kickery.

Harrelson really runs away with this movie as a vengeful zombie killing machine. He is one of 3 other survivors that team up together to travel through the zombie infested world that was once modern day earth. At first the team is not a match made in heaven. You have the geek, the ass kicker, the babe and her little sister who are actually two female con artists. Jessie Eisenberg, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin round out this incredible ensemble cast that work quite wonderfully together.

Then there is a 5th cast member who's cameo role, albeit brief, will go down in history as one of the funniest cameos in a horror movie ever. I will not give it away.

The only real problem I had with the movie was it was only 80 minutes long. I wanted to see more zombie killing!!!

In the end, I did really love Zombieland and it will go down as one of the best zombie movies out there. I do feel the on-line, fan boy hype was a little overdone. Perhaps just bit. It's not quite Shawn of the Dead, but it can certainly sit right next to Shawn with great glee and pride as a darn near, equally as good zombie flick.

Try and see this jem before the Halloween season is over.

One more zombie story.

Not long ago I had this weird dream I'd like to share with all of you. In the dream, the friends I usually go to haunted attractions with came with me on a trip to a small, quaint little berg that was sort of a resort / vacation / tourist spot. It had more of a Door County vibe rather than a Wisconsin Dells flavor to it. There was a nice, quaint little main street filled with antique and gift shops. Down the street was a larger warehouse looking building that was all boarded up.

Myself with my friends Iris and Roberto decided to investigate it. It had "KEEP OUT" spray painted all over it in big red letters. There just so happened to be an old timer sitting outside of the building.

We asked him what the building was used for. He told us a story of how a few years prior there was some sort of nuclear power plant not far from town that had a leak and many of the residents had turned into the undead. The local sheriff and his crew were lucky enough to herd them into the building were they have been sealed up ever since.

Now most normal people would view this dream as a nightmare. But let's see where this dream heads in my sick, twisted little brain.

At that point my friends and I start discussing the situation. Instead of seeing this a horrible place, we view it as a financial opportunity!

We decide to buy the building and turn it into one of the premiere haunted attractions of all time. Instead of using animatronic props and scare-actors, we decide have patrons really run for their lives using real life zombies.

My friends and I learn to herd the zombies around without getting bitten while at the same time reworking the warehouse to look like a haunted house.

It is at this point that I woke up unfortunately.

I don't know what that dream tells about me, but I may be headed to the asylum soon.

That's it for me tonight. Watch for more Halloween hi-jinx and horror movie reviews coming soon.

And remember that rustling outside of your window isn't the wind. It's an undead zombie coming to eat your brain. Sweet dreams!

Zangz.