Paranormal investigating sisters on a quest to capture proof of the supernatural, to make you aware of movies that are strange and macabre.
We scour the Web to find a glimpse into the dark realm,
searching hundreds of links so you don't have to.
On a small island off North America's coast, the dead rise to menace the living. Yet...the islanders can't bring themselves to exterminate their loved ones, despite the growing danger from those the once held dear. A rebel among them hunts down all the zombies he can find, only to be banished from the island for assassinating his neighbors and friends. On the mainland, bent on revenge, he encounters a small band of survivors in search of an oasis on which to build a new life. Barely surviving an attack from a mass of ravenous flesh-eaters. They commandeer a zombie-infested ferry and sail to the island. There, to their horror, they discover that the locals have chained the dead inside their homes, pretending to live 'normal' lives...with bloody consequences. What ensues is a desperate struggle for survival and the answer to a question never posed in Romero's Dead films: Can the living ever live in peace with the dead?
Freaks began filming in October 1931 and was completed in December. Following disastrous test screenings in January 1932 (one woman threatened to sue MGM, claiming the film had caused her to suffer a miscarriage), the studio cut the picture down from its original 90 minute running time to just over an hour. Much of the sequence of the freaks attacking Cleopatra as she lay under a tree was removed, as well as a gruesome sequence showing Hercules being castrated, a number of comedy sequences, and most of the film's original epilogue. A new prologue featuring a carnival barker was added, as was the new epilogue featuring the reconciliation of the tiny lovers. This shortened version -- now only 64 minutes long -- had its premiere at the Fox Criterion in Los Angeles on February 10, 1932.
The central story is of a self-serving trapeze artist named Cleopatra (Olga Baclanova) who seduces and eventually marries a sideshow midget, Hans (Harry Earles), after learning of his large inheritance. At their wedding reception, the other "freaks" resolve that they will accept Cleopatra in spite of her being a "normal" outsider, and hold an initiation ceremony, wherein they pass a massive goblet of wine around the table while chanting, "We accept her! We accept her! One of us! One of us! Gooble gobble, gooble gobble! One of us! One of us!" The ceremony frightens the drunken Cleopatra, who accidentally reveals that she has been having an affair with Hercules (Henry Victor), the strong man; she mocks the freaks, tosses the wine in their faces and drives them away. Despite being humiliated, Hans remains with Cleopatra.
Shortly thereafter, Hans is taken ill (presumably from having too much to drink at the wedding feast, but actually from poison that Cleopatra slipped him) and Cleopatra begins slipping poison into Hans' medicine to kill him so that she can inherit his money and run away with Hercules. One of the circus performers overhears Cleopatra talking to Hercules about the murder plot, and tells the other freaks and Hans; in the film's climax, the freaks attack Cleopatra and Hercules with guns, knives, and various edged weapons, hideously mutilating them. Though Hercules is never seen again, the original ending of the film had the freaks castrating him - the audience sees him later singing in falsetto. The film concludes with a revelation of Cleopatra's fate: her tongue cut out, one eye gouged and legs hacked off, she has been reduced to performing in a sideshow as the squawking "human chicken".
Spliced throughout the main narrative are a variety of "slice of life" segments detailing the lives of the sideshow performers.
* The bearded woman, who loves the human skeleton, gives birth to their daughter. * Violet, a conjoined twin whose sister Daisy is married to one of the circus clowns, herself becomes engaged to the owner of the circus. (Once, Daisy appears to react with romantic arousal when Violet is kissed by her suitor, implying that each sister can experience the other's physical sensations.) * The Human Torso, played by Prince Randian, in the middle of a conversation, takes his own cigarette and lights it, using only his tongue. (In the original scene, he also rolls the cigarette, but the sequence does not appear in any commercial release.)
Cirque du Freak tells the frightening tale of a boy who unknowingly breaks a 200-year-old truce between two warring factions of vampires. Pulled into a fantastic life of misunderstood sideshow freaks and grotesque creatures of the night, one teen will vanish from the safety of a boring existence and fulfill his destiny in a place drawn from nightmares.
14-year-old Darren (Chris Massoglia) was like most kids in his suburban neighborhood. He hung out with his best friend Steve (Josh Hutcherson), got decent grades and usually stayed out of trouble. But when he and his buddy stumble upon a traveling freak show, things begin to change inside Darren. Steve hangs around after the show and confronts a performer about being a vampire, then demands to be turned into a vampire. He tastes his blood and refuses, for Steve's blood tasted evil. Shortly after, Darren, obsessed with spiders, steals the vampire's performing spider, Madam Octa. After Madam Octa bites Steve and paralyzes him, Darren goes after the owner, determined to find an antidote for his best friend. He agrees only to give the antidote in exchange for one thing. That’s the moment when a vampire named Larten Crepsley (John C. Reilly) turns him into something bloodthirsty, a half-vampire, his apprentice.
Newly undead, he joins the Cirque Du Freak, a touring sideshow filled with monstrous creatures from a snake boy, Evra, (Patrick Fugit) and a wolfman (Tom Woodruff Jr.) to a bearded lady, Truska, (Salma Hayek) and a gigantic barker, Mr.Tall (Ken Watanabe). As Darren flexes his newfound powers in this dark world, he becomes a treasured pawn between the vampires and their deadlier counterparts, the vampaneze. While trying to survive, Darren must struggle to keep their brewing war from devouring what’s left of his humanity.[
After multiple dirty bombs are detonated, spreading deadly toxic ash across Los Angeles, Brad (Rory Cochrane) inadvertently quarantines his wife, Lexi (Mary McCormack) outside their new home by safely sealing himself inside. With the city under siege and Martial Law in affect, Brad and Lexi struggle to survive with little supply, limited time and no information—all the while separated by thin doors and thinner sheets of plastic. When "help" finally does arrive, it appears to be anything but.
This reminds me of every guy I've ever dated LOLOOLOL
Julian Marsh (Hoffman) is an out of work ladies' man who lands a job directing a bizarre adaptation of Hamlet named Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead. After casting his best friend (Kris Lemche) and his ex-girlfriend (Devon Aoki) in the show, Julian finds himself in the middle of a two thousand year old conspiracy. The play was written by a master vampire name Theo Horace (Ventimiglia) and explains the connection between Shakespeare, the Holy Grail and some sexy vampires. Now it's up to Julian to recover the Grail and reverse the vampire's curse...If only being undead wasn't so much God-damned fun!
Billed as a tribute to 50s, 60s, and 70s Christian scare films, it has the man with the magic touch, Larry Fessenden, who is producing and also plays a part as an imp. This has been shot in bits and pieces since 2005 and has some high profile faces like The Tall Man himself! (Angus Scrimm)
Inspired by films from the golden age of religious cinema such as A THIEF IN THE NIGHT (1972), IF FOOTMEN TIRE YOU, WHAT WILL HORSES DO? (1971) and STALKED (1969), SATAN HATES YOU is a graphic horror film that tells the stories of two individuals and their personal struggles with Lucifer himself. The film boasts a large ensemble cast, mixing well-known genre names with MonsterPants regulars.
With help from two gruesome rednecks, four young women, on a weekend get-a-way, get more then they would have ever bargained for. Their tale is a blood-soaked battle for survival.
I was in no way interested in this little horror film and after hearing about people supposedly "fainting" in the lobby after the screening I was also skeptical. Hell, any actor can be paid to drop.. but the film's gotten some great reviews and although there's really no footage showing much of anything, I'm starting to dig it and I'll give it a shot. All we need now is a trailer! Bueller? Bueller?
Madeline Matheson is eight months pregnant and determined to deliver her unborn child, Grace, naturally. When an accident leaves Grace dead inside her, Madeline insists on carrying the baby's corpse to term. Weeks later, when Madeline delivers, the baby miraculously returns to life... With an appetite.
Ahhhhh, I love a good plague movie and this one looks good. A new spin on the Ol' bird flu pandemic fear. It not only kills you but turns you into a zombie. Priceless.
I love that they did a retro/Grindhouse kind of effect with this film. Kind of Indie and low budget but something about it courts the muse (or at least my muse)
In a nutshell: Fed up with their mundane, ordinary lives, four wannabe thrill-seekers get more than they bargained for when they attend a wild rave in the California desert. Josh (Eric Christian Olsen) and his pals (Rider Strong, Bumper Stevens, Wayne Young) are up for some sex, drugs and rock and roll...not necessarily in that order. But these burning sands, it turns out, are home to some of the deadliest creatures known to man The Scorpions, a local biker gang led by sadistic, machete-wielding Dom (Dash Mihok). Soon, without warning, what began as a spirited road trip devolves into an agonizing battle for survival. Gorgeous Genevieve Cortese also stars in this masterpiece of mayhem about weekend warriors who are forced to become the real deal...or die!
My Mama and Daddy saw the original back in the 60's at the drivein and talked about it for years. When I found the remake I was dubious that it could live up to the cheese of the 1967 version. It also stars Robert England (AKA box office poison) so I wasn't expecting too much. It really surprised me. Not a bad little bad flick. Good with pizza and beer.
"A neurological pandemic has consumed the population. Drug-resistance has mutated the virus into a ravaging psychological plague, rendering ‘the dying’ desperate, paranoid and violent. Two survivors come together on an isolated farmhouse in desperate circumstances- April, a young mysterious girl with a dark past has survived alone for months, and Daniel, a man desperate and bereaved, clings desperately onto hope in the outside world. When a mysterious stranger turns up, they are confronted with a new enemy even deadlier than the one beyond the perimeter."
I'm so excited, this is one of my favorite zombie stories. While it's a bit low budget, the footage looks great and it also stars David Carradine, how can you go wrong with that? It's based on the acclaimed cult novel by David Moody and was recently picked up by sales agent Splotlight Pictures so let's hope we can get a screener soon. Here's a full synopsis:
"As the last autumn leaves slowly peel away from the trees, a mysterious airborne virus ravages the planet, and within a few hours billions die. Victims suffer horrific deaths as their internal organs liquefy, and whole towns’ expire within minutes. Soon cities become infested breeding grounds for the new apocalyptic virus. By the end of the first day there are only a handful of survivors.
A small group of ordinary strangers are soon forced to work together to stay alive. The survivors are lead by Michael (Dexter Fletcher “Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels”, “Doom”) a lonely soft ware consultant, and Carl (Dickon Tolson “Peak Practice”, “Eastenders”) an ill-tempered mechanic. When Michael and the survivors escape from the infested city to an isolated country house, they discover the real horror has only begun!
When the dead start to gruesomely reanimate the group have naive hopes that the “walkers”, or the “meat suites”, would decompose and simply fall apart but they discover the longer the reanimated corpses are alive the more they learn, the cleverer they get, the more aggressive and treacherous they become – the more they became killing machines.
When Phillip Evans (David Carradine “Kill Bill”, “Kung Fu”) is discovered as a lone survivor in the lifeless city, a new hope emerges, but nothing is as it seems in a world turned upside down, and hope soon turns into terror. In order to endure the winter each survivor must find the strength within themselves to fight their personal demons and find the courage to combat a war against the vicious dead. What follows is a shockingly clever adventure of survival, in a thrilling desolate world. This Autumn, the darkness will come!"
Andrew Gunn will be directing Devil's Playground based on a script by Bart Ruspoli (an actor in Band of Brothers and Rome) and the film will be produced by Jonathan Sothcott. Some big names are attached: Did I say Vinnie Jones? This'll be the second post apocalyptic film he's in by my count, the first being Tooth & Nail. Here's what producer Sothcott had to say about the film:
”Starring Vinnie (MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN) Jones, Danny (SEVERANCE) Dyer, Tamer (THE FERRYMAN) Hassan, Martin (EMBRACE OF THE VAMPIRE) Kemp, Jemima Rooper, Billy Murray and Lisa (PUMPKINHEAD: ASHES TO ASHES) McAllister, DEVIL’S PLAYGROUND details the plight of the last remnants of a civilization destroyed by an all-out zombie armageddon, following the misguided experiments of a presumed-dead Nobel Prize-winning virologist. In a bid for survival, a group of survivors seek safe haven on a coastal British island, where they hole up in a gas station. Joining them is Cole, a man Sothcott describes as having “little or no conscience, who was made to survive in a world such as this, and who is after someone or something. He will stop at nothing until he succeeds in his mission.”
The group’s sanctuary is compromised by a freak accident, however, and all hell breaks loose once they seek refuge in a house on the outskirts of a nearby forest. Channeling NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, the danger comes from not only the encroaching zombie horde, but also from within, as desperation and paranoia mount. Not in keeping with George A. Romero’s zombie oeuvre are the flick’s ghouls, which—like the infected in 28 DAYS/WEEKS LATER, are lightning-fast, and Sothcott reveals that they’ll be portrayed by “free runner” athletes. “I’ve seen the stuff these guys do and the way they move, and it will be more terrifying than any CGI trickery. These boys are going to be savage. Teaming tough-guy icons Danny, Tam and Vinnie, we need some pretty serious adversaries—and our monsters are as brutal as they come.”
And here's a synopsis I found on the production website:
"The undead swarm over the globe. One man's folly brings the dead back to life, dead that kill, dead that move with lightning speed. Michael Brooke, the great Novel Prize winning virologist responsible for this Armageddon is believed to be done, and hope is fading fast.
But one group of survivors seek to reach a mythical safe haven, an island to the east coast of England, where the remnants of the country's infrastructure are attempting to find a solution to the plague sweeping the earth. A petrol station attendant and a mechanic, a young girl and a reporter, a man who isn't what he seems and his neurotic sister. Thrown together by the horrific fate the world has encountered. All want to survive, and some will do anything in order to live another day.
Joining them is Cole, a cop. A man with little or no conscience, a killer, a man who doesn't care. But a man who was made to survive in a world such as this. When a freak accident leaves the petrol station unsafe and their only means of transport damaged beyond repair the group seek shelter in a nearby house on the outskirts of a forest. Time is running out. The undead approach. People are not who and what they seem. Some people will stop at nothing to survive. Some people will do anything to keep their loved ones safe.
AM 1200 is not your average low budget short. First off, I'm guessing that David Prior pulled in a ton of favors from his Industry mates to ensure this 40 minute flick enjoys a look every bit as professional as a multimillion dollar production. The story is a treat. We start off with Harry Jones (Ray Wise, it's great to watch his face) giving Sam Larson (Eric Lange, also strong) some worldly and drunken advice on how to cheat their uncaring financial firm out of a big chunk of change. It seems that they follow through on the plan but it ends badly as shortly after, Harry blows his own brains out and Sam drives out of town fast, and he's so scared of the cops that he pukes when he spots a patrol vehicle.
As night closes in on Sam, he happens on a weird call for help from God Squad radio station on AM 1200. Outside the station, which looks deserted, his car dies and he enters. Who knew that religion could be so dangerous? Well most of us really, but whatever. BTW, the sound FX in this short are amazing and really help amp up the fear. Overly loud footsteps and breathing, night insects that start and stop, the electric crackle as the station kicks in and out of broadcast, and a background noise that sounds like a cross between flies buzzing and power generators. Plus the odd sampling of Omen-style chanting. Most of the scenes are night interiors and reaction shots figure high.
I can't reveal why someone is insane enough to rip the skin off their hand to escape their handcuffs, but it's definitely worth seeing. Perhaps if I was a DJ stuck in a religious radio station I would do the same. Anyhow, David Prior has done a whole pile of Industry type video documentaries with famous types, but on this project he's let he's own creativity run free. He should do it more often because this is really a very cool film indeed. Loved the crazy ending, loved the saw. Next time you listen to that stuff on am talk radio, I strongly advise you not to because just look what can happen.
I LOVED this movie. That being said, there are several extremely bad scene choices that, when removed, would have made this the best horror movie ever made.
Scene with Anna and Luis taking a shower- The TV goes on the Emergency warning screen, wouldn't they have seen that before turning the TV off? Wouldn't you then start flipping channels to see what was going on?
Scene of everyone going to the mall- Sister #2 brought up a good point that in this kind of zombie situation it would happen so fast that there would be no way to travel on foot at all. You would have to be in a secure location as the plague starts.
The Mall itself- As a former make up artist I have been around malls for years and I know the doors could not take the constant beating of hundreds of hands for weeks and weeks (shatterproof glass or not). I would have played the scene like this- as they walk to the mall they notice that each entrance has a car parked sideways in front of it. C.J. could have had the guys move their cars in front of the doors when the news of the attacks started coming in. This would also account for Ben Cozine getting bitten.
The survivors- I just felt they were not freaked out enough, they all had lost loved ones and had went through a terrifying ordeal to get there while. They are surrounded by thousands of rotting, flesh eating zombies in a location with a million entrance points. I don't think they would relax in just a matter of days and start playing games.
Nicole going after the dog- Stupid, unbelievable, wouldn't happen in a million years in real life. 3 people going AFTER NICOLE. So unbelievable as to be ridiculous.
.....And the worst, most unbelievable plot point ever- Leaving the mall, the "I don't want to die here" scene. What the hell????? You couldn't have got me to set foot in one of those freakin' mall shuttle buses. How it could of played better- I would have had more characters in the mall and had the zombies pick them off one by one because they were finding ways into the mall. I would have made the mall situation so precarious that leaving was the only option.
(This fake PSA to promote Alive teaches "a better way to kill" zombies.)
Hoping to snag viewers and a network distributor, the creators of horror/sci-fi television series Alive launched a gory viral-marketing campaign -- before the series pilot was even produced.
Rather than spending several weeks and millions of dollars producing a full pilot, they put together a two-day shoot to assemble three fictional public service announcements with bloody, violent footage ripe for dissection and analysis on the web.
According to John Frank Rosenblum, Alive's executive producer and an executive at Epic Level Entertainment, today's cluttered TV world demands that a production develop a fan base quickly.
"Some shows are canceled before their first commercial break," Rosenblum said. "What makes a difference for a show is the fans.... We wanted our show to serve its audience first -- and then seek a broadcast partner to deliver it to them."
That's where the viral marketing comes in, with a stealth campaign that violates the standing laws of advertising by subjecting consumers to a striptease of clues about a production.
Alive's creators watched as this dirty trick of the information age, which makes interested viewers figure out details about a show for themselves, worked for movies and TV shows like The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield and Heroes. Then they hatched their own stealth-marketing plan, which might be the first time a viral campaign has been launched for a TV series that doesn't yet exist.
The producers established a small set of websites for the public service announcements, slowly unveiling the sites over the course of a four-week span. The hub of this project's wheel is the faux-military site for Falcon Rock Command, with similar imagery and editing techniques popping up on fightingthedead.com and sciencecannotsaveyou.com. The sites pack enough bloody photos, screams and gunshots to establish Alive's genre as a scary sci-fi mix of the military and the undead.
The next step was to "leak" the viral elements to horror and sci-fi fan sites and news sources like Ain't It Cool News.
"We're not doing this to trick or deceive anyone," said Rosenblum about the way the viral campaign was revealed to the sites. "We hope they like what they see and steer genre fans in our direction."
Co-creators and show runners Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens explained that shooting only the teaser PSAs allowed them to create their own Alive brand image for a fraction of the cost of making a pilot.
"With the buzz that's building online, we'll be able to show broadcasters the level of interest we've generated through word-of-mouth, based on only about eight minutes of produced material," said Garfield Reeves-Stevens.
But if the Alive producers want to whet genre fans' collective appetite for the series online -- without tipping-off exactly what's on the show's menu -- what's enough and what's too much to release as everything moves forward?
"There's a specific amount of story information we want viewers to have by the end of the campaign," said Garfield Reeves-Stevens. "With that as our goal, it became a question of how to order that content: What do we say first? What do we save for last?"
Mark Askwith, a producer for Space (Canada's equivalent to the Sci Fi Channel), said the initial reaction from genre fans was bafflement, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
"That's the usual first response to (viral-marketing campaigns)," said Askwith. "Same thing with Cloverfield. Now we have the advantage of other fans out there who did some work researching these videos -- and they see some clues. (Alive) involves zombies, and they're using some Star Trek actors."
Askwith said suspense is building on websites like TrekMovie.com as fans debate the show's content, cast, etc.
Such details will continue to appear in the weeks leading up to Halloween as the viral campaigners release new PSAs.
The Falcon Rock Command site is ticking down to the release of a new PSA this Friday before a final video premieres a week later, Rosenblum said. That last clip will pull back the veils completely, presenting the full show concept for fans and network execs.
Twisted Sister #1 is traveling to Ottawa Canada to interview the talented and nubile Matt Ficner, Master puppeteer and Zombie enthusiast. I will bring home lots of pics and video.
In late December of 2003, security cameras at Hampton Court Palace, a huge tudor castle near London, captured a startling image. Security guards were unsettled to repeatedly find a fire door open when no one was apparently around. Upon checking the security tape, they were shocked by a ghostly figure, said to closely resemble King Henry VIII (who died in the 1500s). Vikki Wood, a spokesperson for the Palace, said "We're baffled too--it's not a joke, we haven't manufactured it. We genuinely do not know who it is or what it is." A security officer, James Faukes, called the incident "unnerving," and said they'd ruled out their costumed guides. In fact, they don't even own a costume like the one worn by the figure on the video. "It was incredibly spooky because the face just didn't look human," Faukes said.
Something instinctively tells me this is not King Henry but Cardinal Woolsey, former friend, adviser and victim of the King and Anne Boleyn. Hampton Court was the Cardinals own palace until he was tripped of all money, property and power. I feel a sense of rage while watching this. This doesn't happen often to me but when it does it never fails to be right.
IN A NONDESCRIPT section of the Salt Lake City Cemetery lies a small gravestone that bears an inscription so unusual that it has for years aroused curiosity, rumor, speculation – even fear – within those who have encountered it. While surrounding grave markers are inscribed with such common inscriptions as “devoted mother,” “beloved husband” or simply “in loving memory,” the gravestone of Lily E. Gray is inscribed with the mysterious and highly provocative phrase: “Victim of the Beast 666.”
This is an allusion, of course, to the New Testament’s Book of Revelation, 13th chapter, which has been interpreted to refer to the Antichrist:
And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.... And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred threescore and six [666].
“The Beast” and “666” have henceforth become synonymous with Satan and the Antichrist.
Why, then, when other gravestones are inscribed with loving tributes, is Lily Gray’s engraved with this dark, enigmatic message? What does it mean? In what way was she a victim of the Beast? Who chose this unnerving inscription for her eternal resting place?
These questions and more have been the crux of the mystery surrounding Lily Gray’s grave for decades in Salt Lake City. No one seems to know what it means. And few have bothered to investigate to find out.
No one has done more to try to unravel the mystery, perhaps, than Richelle Hawks. A long-time resident of Salt Lake, Richelle has dug deeper than anyone to find out what the inscription might mean. “Salt Lake City is home of the massive LDS (Latter-day Saints)-operated Family History Library, and the world's geneaological research mecca,” says Richelle on her Cemetery Legends website. “Since the stone's erection in 1958, no one has dug deeply enough to uncover even a minimal account of Lily Gray's life and the origins of the inscription. When confronted with apparent true lunacy, evil, religious fervor, abuse, or implausible as it may be, ultimate victimhood at the hands of Satan (as the stone literally implies) do we collectively turn our heads?”
The Baker Sisters, Juni, Micki and Jen...always into adrenaline rushes brought on by scares. I am Micki the middle sister updating for your reading enjoyment.
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