Van Helsing's Curse- Haunted Attractions

Bruahahahahahahaha.........

Have a safe and spooky Halloween from Zangz's Blog of Geekdom!

Movie Reviews from the Grave Part Duex.

Before we get to more of my Horror movie review buffoonery, I found that I actually got a comment from the performance group The M.U.T.E.S whom I mistakenly referred to as mimes in my review of their opening gig for the Night of the living Dead Puppet Show. Please see below......

Vine Pewter said...

Hi Zangz!

Thanks so much for giving The Marvelous Unspeaking Troupe of Entertaining Scoundrels aka The M.U.T.E.S. a shout out and we are glad you liked the show! I just want to clear up that we are NOT mimes! This misconception has haunted us from the beginning. We don't talk when we do our skits because the idea is that you are watching a silent movie live and we paint our faces white to add to the black & white effect. We do however use props-lots of them at times! We don't pretend that things are there that aren't. We just want to put that out there because so many people are afraid of or hate mimes. We don't want to lose potential fans because they avoid our shows thinking that we are mimes. Find out more about the nation's premiere silent film style sketch comedy troupe at themutes.com.

PS We audition for AMERICA'S GOT TALENT on Nov. 7 in Chicago!!

So there you go folks. I've been educated. My apologies for misconstruing what The M.U.T.E.S. are all about. I'd also like to thank Vine for actually reading and responding to my blog which will make Vine the third or fourth person to not only visit, but actauly acknowledge openly that they've visited my blog of geekdom! This makes Vine the #3 of the 3.5 people who've actually visited my blog!

Please keep your eyes open for their next performance since it's something quite original and fun! And good luck to the gang on their tryout for America's Got Talent!!


So on to just a couple of reviews from my Halloween / Horror movie viewing this season. I've saved the best of them for last.....

Paranormal Activity - Before everyone starts screaming "BLAIR WITCH CLONE" just hear me out. Yes, much like The Blair Witch Project, this movie is presented as home movie footage of unexplained events. And yes, the actors keep their real names in the movie. Admittedly, there's a lot to compare with Blair Witch. But, Blair Witch was an experiment that went wild and Paranormal Activity is more of a spawn from Blair Witch type film making.

It is shot from the point of view of a young couple who are experiencing odd happenings in their condo. The strange events seem to be focusing mainly on Katie, the girlfriend of Micha. In an attempt to document the strangeness, Micha, a day trader with a tendency to not listen to his girlfriend's warnings, buys a home movie camera and sets it up in their bedroom.

Through the eyes of the camera we witness the strange noises and bumps in the night that plague the couple as they try and sleep. At first the haunting is very subtle which helps turn up the creep out factor. As Micha becomes a little more obsessed with trying to document and provoke the "spirit" the entity becomes far more active and angry. At the pleadings of Katie, they decide to bring in a psychic who tells them that he doesn't think it's a ghost. He believes it's something far more sinister.

For whatever reason this drives Micha to try and provoke the entity even more while Katie becomes far more reluctant to mess around with it. You see how their relationship starts to fall apart and how the activity starts to get far more disturbing at the same time, leading up to the climatic ending of the relationship.

Compare it to Blair Witch all you want. I won't disagree. I will say that I found Paranormal Activity to be even more creepy than Blair Witch. The scene in Blair Witch when they're in the tent and can hear little ghostly children laughing out in the woods creeped the the frack out! Well, paranormal Activity has scenes that trump that! I found myself pausing the movie to look down my darkened hallway to make sure there was nothing lurking down there during my viewing.

I really liked this flick. It focused on the "creep out" rather than buckets of blood and obnoxious teens getting sliced and diced. It's a nice breather from the usual fare. The prefect film for a cold, spooky evening. Best viewed in a dark room only lit by Jack-O-Lanterns! View trailer HERE!

Trick 'r Treat - Not to be confused with the hard rock influenced shlock fest from the 80's, this 2009 flick completely captures what a Halloween driven horror film should be. This anthology of horror revolves around a small town's Halloween festival where wondering if you have enough candy for the Trick or Treater's should be the least of your worries. Each little story saturates itself in gallows humor and usually leads into the next little vignette until the stories come full circle. Undead spooks, werewolves, a serial killer and a nasty little phantom Trick or Treater all take part in the gory shenanigans of the holiday festivities. I really loved this movie, if for nothing else, the whole spirit of Halloween is always present! View trailer HERE.

That's it for today. I'm off to help put up a giant inflatable Haunted House for my Friends' kid party. Before I leave you, keep in mind, tonight is Halloween Eve, be sure to close the windows and lock the doors. The dead can be pesky SOB's.

Zangz.

Undead Puppets and other Halloween Hijinx.

The old Oriental Movie Theater holds court over the pub scene of my town. It stands vigil over the city streets, adorned with spiral towers that hint at it's Asian motif.

Within it's walls visitors are taken back in time when going to a movie was a real event. There's a grandiose staircase leading up to the balcony. Within the main theater statues of Asian deities watch over the crowd from the walls. It is probably this city's most beautiful landmark that hearkens back to more easy going times.

But, there's also something slightly sinister about the place. It's almost as if there's something watching from behind the curtains and corners of the old establishment. Something no longer living.

There are ghost stories about the place. I knew one girl who said she saw a "shadow person" in the women's' room. Other tales of netherworldly visitors who lurk about the theater are told in hush voices.

Last night I was at the theater and experienced a far different form of undead entity. Zombies! Not just any type of zombies....PUPPET ZOMBIES!!

A performance troupe known as Angry Young Men Ltd have been putting on a puppet show version of George A Romero's Zombie classic, Night of the Living Dead (I'm not going to Wiki link all of that since I've been doing so in the last few blog posts) for a few years now. I first heard about it last year at the now defunct ZombieconX. I didn't get to see the show but I heard it was quite funny.

When I heard they were coming to the Oriental Theater to do their show, I went down to the box office and bought me a ticket!

The next night was the show and I had arrived there just in time. The line was large but moved quickly once they opened the doors. To say that it was a good turnout would be an understatement. It ended up being standing room only for a few late arrivals.

The show started with a puppet zombie host who had a Draculaesqe accent slinging one liners here and there and then introducing the opening acts. This is where the show became very reminiscent of the old Vaudevillian days of theater as a sideshow circus group, Dead Man's Carnival, and a very interesting mime group, The M.U.T.E.S., went back and forth with skits and tricks of daring do. I found the The M.U.T.E.S. particularly interesting since usually I REALLY.... HATE.... MIMES. The M.U.T.E.S. were something different entirely. Imagine an old black and white silent films from the early 1900's being brought to the stage. The skits were all fun, creative and quick....the only way I can like mimes.

Once they were through, out came the zombie MC again with more hilarity and then on to The Night of the Living Dead Puppet Show!

The puppets themselves were life size torso, cartoonish likenesses of the characters in the movie. They were operated with the puppeteer in full view, but draped in black to hide their faces. The show took the 90 minute movie and condensed it into 30 minutes of dark humor and puppet gore!

What is puppet gore, you may ask? The Angry Young Men used red fabric and red ribbons as blood splatter. At one point there were red ribbons flying everywhere with zombie puppet heads exploding after shotgun blasts! Yes, it was pretty awesome!

All of the main plot points and famous scenes were kept in the show. "They're coming to get you, Barbra" had new meaning when the poor girl is literally torn to pieces by flesh eating zombies. Even her puppet entrails were being gnawed on by undead puppets.

The show may have been short, but it was certainly sweet and brought forth a standing ovation at the end. Well deserved, I must say.


On to other Halloween news....

Sadly, I don't think I'm going to make it to any other haunts this year. Not enough interest from others and a tight schedule put a damper on my haunt attendance this year. But, in my own sad and pathetic little way I did get to "virtually" visit a few through the YouTube channel Hollywood Gothic.

Hollywood Gothic is run by a guy who lives in LA and visits as many local Haunted Attractions out there that he can. You can check out the website also HERE.

My Halloween weekend will be far from a total bust. Tomorrow I'm going to a family friendly Halloween extravaganza thrown by the wonderful DelAmorte's that will feature an inflatable Haunted House and lots of sweets.

Then on Halloween my family will get together and have a nice diner and watch a Horror movie.

Then the next day I immediately dive into seasonal effective disorder since I consider November 1st to be the first day of the 6 months of crap that is the Holiday and winter season. Yuck!

I'm hoping to do some more movie reviews and post tomorrow. We'll see.

Until the next time, make sure you do something spooky this weekend!

Zangz.

The Zombie Plague is Here and Strong!

During Halloween seasons in the past, Zombies never got their fair due. You'd see vampires, werewolves, mummies, Frankenstein and ghosts decorate houses, appear all over TV and be represented in costume shops all over the place. But, there wasn't much adoration for Zombies.

Within the last ten years or so, this has drastically changed. Zombies are limping and shuffling their way into the higher echelons of pop culture.

In the beginnings of the Zombie mythology the walking dead seemed to originate out of Voodoo curses and superstition. It was far more paranormal and occult than what it has become today.

In recent years the Zombie origin in most media and print is usually some form of disease or virus that sweeps it's way across the globe at an alarming rate. First the plague would infect the living individual with flu like symptoms. Then the sickness would progress quite rapidly within the next hour or so until the individual would die. Within seconds or minutes of death that person would be resurrected as a mindless Zombie with only one thing driving them.....the hunger for human flesh. Primarily the living human brain!

Of course if someone is bitten by a Zombie the infection is transferred to that individual who will go on to become a Zombie themselves and will then bit someone else and so on, and so on and so on.

There's also the old toxic spill story where either some greedy, scientific corporation, or our own military accidentally unleashes some chemical somewhere and it starts to infect people as well as those that are already deceased.

Formulaic example: Greedy corporation+mysterious chemical that needs to be dumped somewhere+ graveyard = Zombies.

In any case, Zombies are "alive" and well and here to stay! A new horde of Zombie films are finding their way onto the silver screen within the last few years.

Zombie movie demigod, George A. Romero has released a few newer Dead movies recently. Danny Boyle's 28 Days /Weeks Later movies scared the living bejeezers out of moviegoers a few years back. We've also seen the comedic likes of Shawn of the Dead and last year's Zombieland receive critical acclaim.

Premiering this Halloween, AMC will be bringing the wonderful Zombie comic, The Walking Dead to cable TV. I'm jonesing out for that one!!

Check out the trailer.....



Most recently author Max Brooks has brought zombies into modern day literature. His dark humored The Zombie Survival Guide and the serious toned World War Z: An oral History of the Zombie War are bestsellers.

Which is a nice segue to the main part of this post. A book review.


World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War - I read this book on a nice relaxing weekend where some friends had rented a small lake house and invited me along. I pretty much dove into the book expecting it too be creepy tale that featured the eating of flesh and other gory visions. But, what I got was a lot more frightening.

Told as a series of interviews from those that survived a worldwide Zombie infestation, World War Z is far more a scary social commentary on how we, as human beings, may not be that much better than the zombie hordes. In many stories throughout the novel, we are our own worst enemies.

As the Zombie plague breaks out and spreads itself rapidly, humanity finds cut-throat ways to back stab and obliterate itself. Evil corporations find new ways to make money off of the tragedy while governments take holocaust-like steps to protect the elite. And that is the most terrifying thing about this book. It mirrors what may very well happen if some sort of international tragedy, such as a deadly virus, actually comes to fruition. As we humans are continuously tortured by big corporations and the politicians who help support these companies, it's easy to see where it would all end if the unthinkable would take place.

Max Brooks captures that image very well in these interviews (stories) that accumulate into one big vision.

Some may be disappointed that the Zombies themselves are pretty much there as a setting for the more social and political themes in this book, but there are some pretty good, edge of your seat, type stories here also. There's one about a military helicopter pilot who crash lands into a Zombie ridden swamp and is helped by a mysterious stranger.

I'm not much into sociopolitical books whatsoever, but throw in a heaping of Zombies and it isn't so bad.

If I were a poli-sci professor, I'd put it on the reading list for my students for sure!


Alright then, kiddos. I'd move onto other Halloween subjects, but I'm in a bit of a rut with having a low key Halloween this year. There was no ZombieConX this year and outside of watching a plethora of Horror movies, I've only visited one haunted attraction this year.

Once again we went to a local gun club's Fin and Feather Haunted Woods. They changed it up a bit this season. My favorite addition was the ghostly bride who followed you down the path with caged corpses hanging from the trees above your head. Creepy. The attraction ended on a bit of a downer when we ran into a bunch of monsters (teenagers) all mulling about in a large group just goofing off and having some form of conversation. At first I thought we took a wrong turn and were in a "backstage" area. Nope. It was just a bunch of young scare-actors standing around when they should have been in full on scare mode. I know help is hard to find, but I'm becoming less and less of a fan of letting teeny-boppers take part in haunts.

In any case, it was still a good time and I have one more weekend of Halloween bliss to try and con...er I mean drag....er I mean take someone to go with me to another haunt.


And with that a bid you all a fond farewell. It's supposed to be a full moon tonight, be sure to go out and enjoy the spirits and ghouls it will beckon.

Zangz.

Zangz's Horror Movie Reviews from the Grave....

.....I dare you to come up with a more generic and lame post title than that!

Hello, fellow fans of fright and the wonderful Halloween season! The colors are coming into their own and allowing the early morning and late afternoon sun to blaze across them giving them blinding beauty. The pumpkins are invading the markets, Halloween decor is popping up in yards and the local Haunted Attractions are popping up all over the rural suburbs.

'Tis the season of ghosts and ghouls and I couldn't feel more rejuvenated because of it. In fact, on my day off yesterday, I did something I wouldn't usually do on a vacation day. Usually, I sleep in late and then get up and lay on the couch and watch horror movies. Before you know it, it's noon and I've wasted half a day. But, yesterday I got up as early as I usually do on a workday and went outside to watch the sun rise over the lake. The way it bounces off of the clouds on the horizon creating blues, oranges and reds is quite Autumnly spectacular!

I then walked on down to the local diner and gorged on a meal of Greek breakfast skillet. Good gosh-darn times, I tell you!

And since it is that spooktacular season there are a few annual events taking place right now. First we have the local Haunted Attractions running full force. I'm going to try hard to get to at least a couple this season. Perhaps next weekend. Stay tuned for a review.

Second, we have the annual Al's Run for the local childrens' hospital. It's a huge marathon that runs right down my street in front of my apartment every year. In fact I'm looking out the window and watching the participants running down the street right now, as I type this. At least I'm hoping it's Al's Run and not neighbors running from the oncoming, flesh eating zombie hordes! No one knocked on my door to warn me to get my skinny little butt running! Rat-Bastards!

Ehem....anyway. The third annual event is my Horror movie reviews here in my blog. So lets get right down into the thick of it, shall we....

Rob Zombie's Halloween II ("H2") - Rob Zombie is an artist I really dig. His live shows are theatrically Horror driven extravaganzas. His love of the Horror genre is infused within the music he makes and the movies he writes and directs. Rob, also, pulls no punches when it comes to controversial use of disturbing violence and gore in his flicks. So if you enjoyed the brutal non-stop blood fest that came from his first Halloween movie as well as, House of 100 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects, you'll know what you're in for.

I really enjoyed his first homage to John Carpenter's original Halloween (probably one of the best darn Horror movies of all time) but, only when I looked at it from the perspective that it is an homage (pronounced OHMAJ for you snootier types) rather than a reboot. In my eyes, he succeeds in the same way with H2, while at the same time, opening up a whole new avenue of telling the story of the cursed Meyers family. Rather than it being just a tale of poor Laurie Strode being stalked by her infamous serial killer brother, Michael Myers, it is also a twisted tale about the links between sister and brother and how you can never really escape family.

A lot of Carpenter / Halloween purists have decried a befouling of the series in Zombie's two interpretations of the first two originals. I can understand that if I were only looking at Zombie's works as reboots. But when you look at them as simply his homages and personal interpretations, you may enjoy them a lot better.

I didn't get into H2 as much as I did Zombie's first Halloween movie. Perhaps this was due to the fact that the first movie paralleled the first original Halloween movie much better and gave you more of a grounding for the story. H2 starts off like Carpenter's Halloween 2, but then ventures into it's own original plots and twists.

Once again Scout Taylor-Compton takes on the roll of Laurie Strode with a energy that I hope movie goers will get to see in many more movies to come. She's a force to be reckoned with. Keep an eye on her. And I don't mean that in a dirty-old-man kind of way either.

Again, Zombie's Halloween movies are great homages to the originals if you're willing to see them that way. If you're a purist, stick with Carpenter's originals.

View trailer HERE!

The Crazies - Another remake of an '70's classic. It's an interesting play on the zombie genre with a switch. Yes, there's a biological plague, but it is not turning the people of a small farm community into brain eating zombies. It is turning good natured town folk into creepy raving lunatics. And of course this movie gets a big boost with George Remero's finger in the frosting since he is executive producer.

I've enjoyed Timothy Olyphant's work since his strong as nails portrayal of Sheriff Seth Bullock on Deadwood.. Here he plays a sheriff whose town is falling pray to the virus changing his friends and neighbors into homicidal maniacs. He, once again, does a fine job of being the strong character amongst a metric butt-load of craziness.

The plague victims are a far cry from Remero's zombies. Unlike zombies these "people" don't mindlessly plod around looking to eat brains. They're a little more methodical in their endeavors. Instead of going for the jugular of their victims they lean more towards options such as locking their family in an upstairs closet, then dumping gasoline all over the house and then setting fire to the house and watching it burn to the ground. So there's a bit more of a sinister urge these folks have.

Of course the military and government are knee deep involved with the virus and they're just as much of a threat to the surviving townsfolk as the crazies are.

The movie does come with a good dose of stock, thriller trappings. But, I did enjoy this movie for what it is, a real good spook thriller.

View trailer HERE!

The Wolfman - This Victorian based horror movie is one I seemed to enjoy more than most. But, I'm a sucker for history based Horror such as Sleepy Hallow and Interview with a Vampire. There's something about the Horror genres that are told from historical times that seem far more creepy and spooky than those of modern day to me. And this movie has all of those old, creepy motifs well planted. A creepy crypt, some spooky bogs, dark forests and a huge, Gothic mansion all decorate this film. It definitely stroked my love of the macabre in a visual way.

However, I can see where it didn't make a big of a dent in the box office as was hoped. The plot is predictable and some of the acting was "called in".

Sir Anthony Hopkins is quite entertaining as the patriarch of a seemingly cursed family and dives into his role with great relish.

If you're into Gothic Horror it is something to check out. If your a slasher fan, there's plenty of blood and guts to satiate your gore-hound tastes.

View trailer HERE!


Deadgirl - This is probably the most disturbing zombie film I've ever seen.

It's not disturbing in the way The Exorcist keeps you up at night. It's disturbing because a couple of the main characters are valueless turds of human beings and their actions are unspeakable. And it's not a "zombie film" in the traditional way where there are loads of zombies taking over a small town. The film revolves around one main, young female zombie who spends much of the movie helplessly strapped to an old gurney.

The movie gets going after two high school burnouts are exploring an old, empty asylum. They come upon a forgotten back room where they discover the "deadgirl" strapped to the gurney. This is where things get pretty fracked up.

I'm not going into detail of what one of the burnouts spends much of the movie using the zombie for. Suffice it to say, he is king of all perverts. The other burnout goes back and forth with his conscience with the whole twisted situation and in the end he is no better than his pervo friend.

An interesting view on the zombie genre, but I think this is more of a Horror film for those that are into disturbing, art house, independent films. Not my cup of tea.

Jennifer's Body - I thought I wasn't really going to like this film. The Horror fan crowd didn't seem to jump onto this one. Megan Fox is perceived as being a one-trick eye candy actress and Diablo Cody's dialogue might seem trendy and clever for one movie (Juno), but in a Horror film it might be a bit overboard and over saturated.

But, for the most part, I dug it. It was a well told tale of two friends, one hot as hell and the other a bit nerdy, and how their relationship hits a pretty big snag when the hot one (Fox) becomes possessed by a demonic succubus and has to feed on the flesh of humans to keep her powers.

Fox does a fine job playing the hot cheerleader with a dark secret. And the dialog, while peppered with great Cody-isms, doesn't go too overboard.

This film took me back to movies like Heathers, a teen comedy with a real dark side.

While it's not very creepy, or scary it still has a good dose of blood and guts in it. There's also a bunch of real cool cameos and small roles that are fun to see in this film. J.K. Simmons, Amy Sedris and Lance Henrikson all pop up in various rolls.

A fun Horror flick to be sure, home skillet! View trailer HERE!

This is going to be it for me today. Don't be discouraged as I have a few more reviews coming within this eerie month of the dead. So stay tuned and stay vertical!

Zangz.