Celebrating the Work of Tod Slaughter in 'The Greed of William Hart'

In celebration of a Tod Slaughter Christmas, currently being held over at From Beyond Depraved courtesy of Jose Cruz, I thought it might be fun to take a look at what many considered to be the actor's final film (at least his last feature film): The Greed of William Hart (aka Horror Maniacs).

Based on the ghoulish exploits of William Burke and William Hare, also known as the West Port murders, The Greed of William Hart is the second film ever to adapt the tale of the two fiends (preceded only by Lugosi and Karloff loosely referenced The Body Snatchers). Originally entitled Crimes of Burke and Hare, the film drew so much controversy in England that it was later retitled for Ambassador's 1948 theatrical release, though the story still maintained its macabre sense of murder, greed, and medical mischief.

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Splatterhouse: Behind the Blood Featurette

Bet you thought the Splatterhouse brew-ha-ha was over, eh? Despite critical reviews by some of the internet's largest gaming sites (go suck an egg IGN and Kotaku), my passion for splattering is far from extinguished. Luckily, Namco Bandai is more than willing to feed my need with two new videos they released this past Friday featuring a behind the scenes look at both the art and history of Splatterhouse.

You might recognize Dave Wilkins (Art Director) who was kind enough to stop by and lay some knowledge of the game on us way back in July (click here to see that interview). Dan Tovar has also been a driving force behind the new game as Producer. It's a shame what happened to this stellar team of creators (if you haven't heard, Namco sent 90 employees packing recently including the entire Splatterhouse dev team), and there's absolutely no reason for it to be garnering such bad reviews. On the bright side, reader reviews on many of these same sites seem almost entirely positive.

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Trailer Terrors: Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992)

"He kind of plays it fast and loose." 

Call it a guilty pleasure, but there's something about this time of year that puts me in the mood to watch a boatload of Chevy Chase films. Of course there's National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, but more than that I'm talking about Chase's classic fare like Caddyshack, Fletch, Nothing But Trouble, and (yep, you guessed it) Memoirs of an Invisible Man!

As one of the less fondly remembered Universal Monster, the Invisible Man has always had it kind of rough in terms making a lasting impression upon the horror world. Despite being the butt of many a joke, the Invisible Man does manage to work his way back into the Hollywood every so often (Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man, Hollow Man, several TV series) and in 1992 it just so happened that he fell in the lap of Chevy Chase by way of of John Carpenter. Yes, my friends, that same "master of horror" who brought us Halloween and They Live directed a comedy starring Chevy Chase as an Invisible Man. Can't get better than that, right?

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The Top 6: Animated Pilots that Would Make Great Series

For every El Tigre or Samurai Jack that makes it to TV superstardom there's dozens of animated abortions littering the cutting room floor. I think it's a given that there are reasons (whatever they may be) for why these cartoons get snubbed before you or I ever get a good chance to see them, but the following are five that really should be given another shot. Who knows— maybe we'll someone out there is listening...

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Preview 'Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale'

Tired of watching A Christmas Story ad nauseum every year on TBS? Well if you're lucky enough to live anywhere near New York, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Boston, Kansas City or any of the other theaters listed here than you're in luck! Those are the cities that will be premiering director Jalmari Helander's latest feature film, Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale.

Based on a series of short films by Helander, Rare Exports Inc. (see above) and Rare Exports: The Official Safety Instructions, this feature length adaptation finds a band of Finland archeologists who inadvertently discover the "real" Santa Claus, a terrifyingly real (and most likely rabid) representation of 'ole Saint Nick. Unearthed by a reindeer hunter and his young son while searching for the cause behind a recent string of missing children, Santa doesn't take to kindly to being held captive and before long his elves come looking for him... and they ain't too jolly either.

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Thanksgiving Day Trailer Terror: Predators 2

"This time it's open season... on all of us!"

Thanksgiving is here and I'd like to take your mind back 20 yrs to this very week, where Predator fans were treated to a sequel of the classic sci-fi original, Predator 2, that sees a Predator alien doing his hunting in a new jungle... the urban jungle.

The story is fairly simple, a Predator is hunting violent gangs in Los Angeles, most likely because they look like good prey to do battle with. Fairly quickly Detective Harrigan (Danny Glover) and his team realize there is more going on that normal gangland turf wars. As they dig deeper they begin to uncover things that reveal the Predator to them, but to us as the viewer we know it's the Predator from the get go. A third group is also thrown into the mix with Gary Busey's character heading up some government department that knows full well what the Predator is and would like to capture it, for it's technology I assume. The hunt for the Predator leads up to a pretty great final battle with Danny Glover and the Predator on a Predator spacecraft. Fans of the original Predator (1989) comic book series by Dark Horse Comics will find this plot very familiar, as it was essentially what the comic depicted with various changes when taken into the film world.

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Uncle Eerie's Howling Halloween Shiver Show

You may remember our 'ole Uncle Eerie from a few months back when we dropped by the clubhouse to shill out some of his trademark sinister sideshow mystique... and a bag of "authentic" shrunken heads. Well, that cool ghoul is back again and this time he's brought a boatload of his favorite friends with him for a special Halloween Shiver Show that aired this past October.

Equal parts Ren & Stimpy and Boris Karloff (by way of Groucho Marx), Eerie's unique brand of humor shines with a faux-commercial for candy-coated razor blades— the perfect treat for that little brat in your life. Segueing the typical Halloween horror movie special, Eerie gives us a showcase of classic cartoons, vintage toy commercials and an assortment of trailers. Things get started with Wot a Night, an oldie featuring the original Tom and Jerry as two cab drivers who find themselves trapped in a castle that offers more scares than cab fares. It was definitely my favorite of the bunch, though the "blackface" skeletons near the end was sort of a buzzkill.

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Lost Signals: Sifl and Olly Show (1997)

"Sifl and Olly Show... ROCK!!!"

The 90s saw a cornucopia of some of the most twisted, deranged, and innovative television to ever grace the screen; none more potent or vital to my existence than the shows on Nickelodeon and MTV. As it is, both of these stations lost the will to entertain after 1999 and gave in to pregnant teenagers, whining pre-teens, and cartoons that would cause the braindead to become... er, braindead.

But let’s not dwell on the things that we can’t change. No matter how many petitions are signed, Facebook groups are started, or how many times we swear off television we’re never gonna be able to bring back that glorious orange couch on Friday nights; the wit and disdain dripping monotone of an unpopular high schooler; or the sexual and thematic undertones of the cartoons that we absolutely adored. So, we need to just suck it up find home grown comfort from blogs such as Strange Kids Club.

The fun part for me came when I went back to these shows and rediscovered what I fell in love with in the first place. So, with this turn of the screw, I’m going to take you hand-puppet in hand-puppet down the hypnotic grooves of one Mr. Sifl and his confidante Señor Olly. ¡Olé!

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MTV's 'Teen Wolf' Reboot... WTF?!

Turd Wolf cometh

I hardly muster the words to describe what an insulting abomination this is. Like the bastard child of Twilight and The CW's Vampire Diaries, this teaser trailer for MTV's upcoming reboot of Teen Wolf reeks of teen angst and glitter-sniffers. Yes, I understand that this demographic exits, as if ticket sales for Twilight isn't a big enough offense, but what in the holy hell are they thinking?!

Could they seriously not have made this into an original series instead of dragging the Teen Wolf franchise over hot coals before pissing on the ashes? Shot mostly in Atlanta, GA the show's premise apparently focuses on a

newly bitten werewolf, ‘Scott McCall,’ his best friend ‘Stiles,’ the mysterious new girl in town, ‘Allison,’ and Tyler Hoechlin as the older and possibly quite dangerous werewolf, ‘Derek Hale.’ Always an outsider and often unnoticed, Scott McCall yearns to be recognized in some small way that takes him out of his typical state of high school anonymity. When his best friend, Stiles, convinces him to go into the woods one night to join a police search for a dead body, Scott encounters a creature in the darkness.

Seriously, this one makes me want to grab a copy of Skinwalkers or even *shudder* Cursed to wash out the bad taste.

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Trailer Terrors: The Boneyard (1991)

The Boneyard is a film that shares much in common with Syngenor in the fact that it has a great concept, but ultimately fails from an undecided mix of poor direction or underfunded production. The film rushes to open without the slightest bit of exposition or reason to care about any of the characters, made all the more relevant by a stark unevenness between the sound design and dialogue (or lack thereof, rather). In many parts its as though the score continues to drone on when really there should have been some audible reaction from the actors themselves; a gasp or a scream.

The pacing is just as inconsistent with the actors bouncing back and forth between impassioned and believable to ludicrously absurd and though it's certainly not the worst I've ever seen it definitely sabotages the storyline. The only exception(s) to this that I saw was any scene that included wild-haired Phyllis Diller who, as Mrs. Poopenplatz (yes, Poop-en-platz), steals the spotlight with an offbeat enthusiasm worthy of Night of the Demons. Likewise, the visual effects are pretty stunning and while certain elements of the film that were schlock (such as a 7 foot poodle monster), the zombies children themselves came off as chillingly haunting as anything I've ever seen which makes sense given director James Cummins background in special effects design.

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Short Film Review: Contact

At only a little over 11 minutes, Contact delivers a skin-crawling atmosphere that exudes paranoia that borders on Hitchcockian. With only a few lines of dialogue this short film by director Jeremiah Kipp is truly one of "sight and sound" that plays like a bad trip from William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch thanks to Tom Burns' foreboding score.

Do you remember that scene in Demolition Man between Sylvester Stallone and Sandra Bullock where they start to make out in some trippy, virtual reality simulator? Imagine that if it were choreographed by David Cronenberg and you might have an idea of the psychotropic vibe that this short emanates with it's decidedly dystopian tone.

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Indie Film "Midnight Son" Bares Its Fangs

It's always a pleasant surprise to check the 'ole Clubhouse mailbox and find a slew of indie artists and filmmakers eager to share their latest project. The difficulty often becomes separating the good from the bad... and the bad from those better left to the X-Files. Luckily, Midnight Son is a "gritty, realistic look at the vampire genre" that marks the debut of writer/director Scott Leberecht. Backing up Leberecht is Matt Compton as Producer and Eduardo Sanchez as Executive Producer (co-creator of The Blair Witch Project.)

Channeling Romero's 1977 stab at the vampire subgenre, Martin, Midnight Son seems to take a similar approach in its attempt to blur the line between reality and fiction. According to the site,

the story of Jacob, a young man confined to a life of isolation, due to a rare skin disorder that prevents him from being exposed to sunlight. His world opens up when he meets Mary, a local bartender, and falls in love. Tragically, Jacob’s actions become increasingly bizarre as he struggles to cope with the effects of his worsening condition. Forced by the disease to drink human blood for sustenance, he must control his increasingly violent tendencies as local law enforcement narrow their focus on him as a suspect in a series of grisly murders.

Official Site
http://www.midnightsonmovie.com

Find Midnight Son on Facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/MidnightSonMovie

Follow Midnight Son on Twitter at:
http://twitter.com/MidnightSonFilm

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(Re)Animations: R.I.P.

Beware of the one-eyed man.

Searching for this particular animation can only be equated to Captain Ahab's quest to hunt down the infamous great white whale, Moby Dick. Seriously, every year around Halloween this same cartoon (or one in a series of shorts) appears on Cartoon Network (courtesy of TCM) as a filler between shows without any sort of forewarning or title card. It doesn't help that it's also usually late at night when it runs or the fact that the only clue to its origin is in French.

Finally, however, FINALLY I've managed to track this red herring down to a French animation studio, Vivement Lundi, who apparently produce a diverse range of animated shorts. This one in particular seems to be called R.I.P. and consists of a series of shorts produced and directed by Bruno Collet.

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Trailer Terrors: Night of the Demons (2009)

"No costume, no candy motherf#cker!"

So last year's Night of the Demons remake has finally made it home, but was it worth the wait? In not so many words... HELL YES. While the film as a whole is not the best the genre has seen it does stand in my mind as one of the best remakes in the past decade.

It's quite impossible to please everyone, but Night of the Demons treads that fine line between paying homage to the original and upping the ante for a younger audience of gory-hungry horror hounds. It all starts with a splatterific silent film sequence that helps to set the stage for the film's new backstory which, in my opinion, was indifferent to the film's conclusion but didn't manage to detract from the story either.

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A Monster Cereal Reboot?

I suppose I'm on a bit of a Monster Cereal kick lately, but I couldn't help not to share this hilarious attempt at "rebooting" the Monster Cereals franchise via indie sketch comedy group Mantapus Productions. Anyone know where I can find some Freddy Krueger Flakes?

Speaking of some sugar-coated confections, Von Kreep (that cool ghoul who I brought us The Spooky, Swinging Sounds of Kreepsville Manor) also has another project that's in the works entitled Cereal Killers! Collecting some especially ghastly work from all sorts of talented artists, Cereal Killer is scheduled to be published as a book though in the meantime many of these sinister creations can be found online.

This article is part of the Countdown to Halloween blogathon, a month-long blogging marathon dedicated to honoring the Halloween season. For more information and a full list of participating sites, please visit www.countdowntohalloween.com.

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Trailer Terrors: Darkman (1990)

Creature of the night, defender of the weak, he is all of these and more. He is Darkman!

When I was given the opportunity to throw in my two cents here at the Clubhouse for the Trailer Terrors feature, I thought it’d only be appropriate to dig deep into my warped childhood to a find a film that has left an undeniable impression on me and forever sealed my fate as a strange kid. It didn’t take very long… the minute I happened upon the title of today’s flick, an irrepressible grin spread across my face that beamed with the warmest familiarity. Like a beacon of light shining from the shadows, that mysterious figure of justice known only as Darkman rose from the ashes for another bloody battle against crime in my DVD player!

Darkman was once a normal man, a scientist named Peyton Westlake (Liam Neeson) who was devising a formula for synthetic skin, the secret to the material’s consistency always eluding him. Just when he reaches the brink of discovery and finds that the skin holds together in the dark, his lab is taken under siege by a gang of criminals looking for a memo detailing the illegal affairs of corrupt businessman Louis Strack Jr. (Colin Friels).

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(Re)Animations: Mary Shelley's Frankenhole

A glorious mishmash of monsters and loose morals.

I really must give a shout-out to the lovely Tenebrous Kate, whose recent post over at Love Train for the Tenebrous Empire inspired me to write this one. You see, that's just how freaking awesome this show is. It's like a form of digital syphilis except with none of the painful genital sores... but I digress. In all seriousness Mary Shelley's Frankenhole, created by Dino Stamatopoulos of Moral Orel fame, is one of the best horror comedies in recent memory to appear on cable television (aside from Ugly Americans).

While each episode feels a little short (only 15 minutes apiece), they're crammed full of so many entertaining variants on your favorite movie monsters and pop culture that you'll find yourself re-watching them over and over just to see how many Easter Eggs they contain. One of my favorite episodes, Attack of the Were-Lawrence, is an inspired (if not altogether goofy) spin on The Wolfman wherein a pathetic Stewart Lawrence (a riff on Jimmy Stewart and Lawrence Talbot) desperately seeks someone to love him so that they can kill him only for things to go awry.

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Trailer Terrors: 30 Days Of Night | Dark Days

These are indeed 'Dark Days.'

When the film adaptation for 30 Days of Night first came out back in 2007 I had just really fallen into my full blown Steve Niles phase, devouring every comic and graphic novel that IDW had so thoughtfully republished in triplicate. The combination of Niles enthusiasm for the genre and Ben Templesmith's moody artwork created the perfect storm of gritty, noir storytelling that previous horror comics (post-E.C.) just couldn't seem to nail down.

From there I followed Templesmith to his equally (if not moreso) enjoyable Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse series (It Only Hurts When I Pee, Calimari Rising) and managed to find a few new books that I liked from Niles (Aleister Arcane), but it was really that first book that reignited a spark of interest in comics for me. Then of course came the movie and I eagerly attended the midnight screening, book tightly clutched in one hand popcorn in the other, only to leave with a lingering sense of dissatisfaction.

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Sneak Freak of Ugly Americans Season 2

Ugly Americans	Weds 10:30pm / 9:30c
Preview - Psychiatric Evaluations
www.comedycentral.com
New Episodes Oct 6, 10:30pm/9:30c Department of Integration Field Guide Follow the Show on Twitter

Only a few more days until the premiere of Comedy Central's Ugly Americans rears its... well "ugly" head again. Although with a demon chick as hot as Callie on the show, I guess "ugly" is the new sexy. Anyway, the new season premieres this Wednesday at 10:30pm and boasts "zombie cults, inept wizards and a Halloween in Hell." Sounds like good times ahead.

Want to relive the gory glory of Season 1 or miss out entirely and need to catch up? Then check out our Ugly Americans Giveaway to win the entire first season on DVD. All you have to do is leave a comment!

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Trailer Terrors: Superstition (1982)

The victims who died were the lucky ones.

With a company as large as Anchor Bay, there's sure to be more than a few fright flicks that really belong locked away in a closet instead of being re-packaged for unsuspecting consumption. Superstition, originally released in 1982, is one such film whose frustratingly uneven, revenge-themed storyline focuses less on plot development and more on low-budget special effects.

A weird sort of film that falls somewhere in-between Pumpkinhead and The Amityville Horror (never quite reaching too far towards either story), Superstition aka The Witch opens with a generic love scene in which a frightened, teenage girlfriend tries to persuade her horny man-meat to leave the spooky old makeout spot for something more "romantic." Of course, this is all really a ploy to lure the viewer into a cheap fright gag whereupon the real terror begins.

Essentially, this opening scene sets the precedence for the frustration that unfolds throughout the entire movie. Cut to the next day where our hero, Rev. David Thompson, is introduced followed by Inspector Sturgess (hereby known as Detective Dipshit), his partner #1, and perhaps the most bizarre attempt at a red herring ever, Arlen the Caretaker. While most of the characters who come and go before the film's conclusion are given plausible roles for being in the story, Arlen seems to be the most unnecessary element of all. His only purpose seems to be to give the viewer a reason to doubt the supernatural elements of the plot, but when you only see him 2-3 times during the course of the movie it's hard to even remember who he is.

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