Cabin in the Woods (2012)

Despite being sick on The Cabin in the Woods’ opening night, I still bundled up and trooped out to the theater because there was no way I was missing catching this flick on Friday the 13th! It has been one of my most anticipated movies of 2012 as 1.) I’m a big fan of Joss Whedon and 2.) it actually looked like it would do something fresh and different with the horror genre.

There has been a lot of hype and build-up surrounding this film, and just today I saw tons of Twitter and Facebook updates proclaiming how "______" Cabin in the Woods was. I hate when flicks get spoiled by too much hype, so I tried to put myself on a social media lockdown for the day to avoid any spoilage.

I avoided any spoilers, made it to the theater and decided for myself just how "______" Cabin in the Woods was...

In the film, five college kids head to a remote cabin for some weekend relaxation, but soon find that things aren’t exactly what they appear. Together, they must discover the truth behind the cabin in the woods.

The best way to see this movie is with little or zero knowledge of it, so I'll keep this review short and to the point (and spoiler-free). The film is pretty much a horror fan's wet dream, as it cleverly plays with expectations, toys with horror clichés, tips its hat to many horror films AND adds something quite different and unexpected to the horror movie formula.

I laughed, I jumped, I rooted for both sides and completely reveled in the sharp writing by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard (who directed as well). The Cabin in the Woods is one heck of an entertaining time from start to finish and left me with a big goofy grin on my face hours after I watched it. That's pretty much all you need to know, besides the fact that it has many different facets to its seemingly simple story.

If you’re a horror fan that enjoys smart, original and witty horror films, then I highly encourage you to check it out ASAP! It was totally worth avoiding the hoopla on Facebook and Twitter all day and sucking up a fever/sore throat to watch it opening weekend. Believe me, this is one film that actually lives up to the buzz surrounding it and is definitely one you don't want to miss!

Team Mer-Man! (You'll understand when you see the flick...now go see it!!)

Book Review: Grave Humor by M.T. Coffin

I love frequenting cemeteries. They are so peaceful, so beautiful and so…funny? If you’ve ever taken the time to read headstones, you know exactly what I mean. There are some pretty amusing epitaphs and unfortunate names that grace the tombstones of cemeteries out there. And now you don’t even have to step foot in a cemetery to get a good laugh out of them!

The new book Grave Humor: A Photo Tour of Funny, Ironic and Ridiculous Tombstones by M.T. Coffin is a creepy-cute book that will tickle your funny bone! It’ll delight you with its witty jokes, quirky gothic illustrations and funny photos!

Check out the official description:

People act like being dead is so serious.

But if you’ve spent any time in a cemetery, you know a lot of those dearly departed have to be rolling over in their graves – with laughter. This collection of ironic, comic and just plain ridiculous tombstones proves that it’s possible to have a sense of humor about kicking the bucket. Just be careful you don’t laugh yourself to death.

Who says death is a serious subject? From amusing epitaphs (“I knew this would happen”) to comical burials (the Maxwell-House plot), this irreverent anthology of cemetery humor proves there is humor even in death. This book celebrates the lighter side of death through photos capturing amusing and ironic monuments to the dearly departed.

Sections include: “The Last Laugh: Funny Epitaphs”; “True to Form: Snapshots of Humorous and Oddly Designed Headstones”; “Dumm and Dummer: Rib-Tickling Eternal Pairings”; and “Die Laughing: Monuments to Utterly Unfortunate Names”. Readers will get even more laughs from the irreverent captions and illustrations.

This book is perfect for the morbidly inclined, taphophiles, goths, or those that like to poke a little fun at Death. I also think it’s a perfect book to purchase for Halloween! Grave Humor’s bold, eye-catching design will certainly make for a conversation starter among guests…just make sure they don’t die of laughter!

Buy it on Amazon!

Make-Out with Violence (2010)

Zombie movies are usually brainless (ahem, pardon the pun) but fun romps in the horror world. However, lately many have become disenchanted by the subgenre, usually forgoing seeing a zombie film with the assumption that it’ll be like all the rest, with nothing new or interesting to contribute. For most films, these assumptions would be correct. However, the zombie film Make-Out with Violence is an entirely different animal and takes the zombie film to amazing emotional depths.

Make-Out with Violence tells the story of twin brothers Patrick (Eric Lehning) and Carol Darling (Cody DeVos), newly graduated from high school and struggling to come to terms with the mysterious disappearance of their friend, the bright and beautiful Wendy Hearst. When a drive through the countryside surrounding their posh suburban community leads to the discovery of Wendy’s mysteriously animated corpse, the boys secretly transport the zombie Wendy to an empty house in hopes of somehow bringing her back to life. As the sweltering summer pushes on, they must maintain the appearance of normalcy for their friends and family as they search for ways to revive the Wendy they once knew, or, failing that, to satisfy their own quests for love amongst the living and the dead.

Make-Out with Violence feels more of like a drama rather than a horror film, and in fact focuses more on the trauma of growing up instead of inundating us with blood, guts and hordes of zombies. In fact, there is only one zombie in the movie, the lovely in life and death Wendy, and there are only a few instances where she is really scary. In fact, most of the time she just lays there, staring at nothing with her glazed-over eyes (until she tries to move, and then her jerky movements will send shivers up your spine).

You might be thinking that the plot line of teens keeping a pretty girl zombie as a “pet” sounds an awful lot like Deadgirl, which is what I thought before viewing the film. However, Make-Out with Violence takes an entirely different route than Deadgirl. The boys don’t ever sexually exploit the living corpse, but instead take careful care of her and try to get her to do normal things, like sit at a dinner table and eat some birthday cake. Instead of being shocking, vulgar and offensive like Deadgirl, Make-Out with Violence is a much more subtle film on the loss of innocence and growing up, with no less traumatizing results.

I also thought that all the actors did an amazing job. You really believed what they were going through and came to relate to them, especially through their unrequited loves. Eric Lehning and Cody DeVos were the standouts as the Darling twins. They expressed so many different emotions as their characters went through so much. Special mention must also be made of Brett Miller, who played the twins younger brother Beetle. For his young age, he was very impressive! Leah High was commendable as Addy, the twins long-time friend and Carol’s love interest. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the lovely Shellie Marie Shartzer, who played Wendy. Though she is silent and still most of the movie, she does an excellent job conveying the hopelessness of her situation and just how truly changed she is from when she was alive.

This is the first feature film from the Deagol Brothers, which I never would have guessed from watching Make-Out with Violence because it looks so stunning and polished. The visuals perfectly captured the bittersweet feeling of summertime, from singing cicadas to melty milkshakes. The melancholy feel and dreamy-like visuals reminded me of the film The Virgin Suicides, which also explored death and the malaise of summertime.

Make-Out with Violence isn’t for everyone, and if you go into it expecting a regular, run-of-the-mill zombie flick you’ll probably be disappointed. However, if you don’t mind introspective and intelligent films that are beautifully haunting and heartfelt, you just might want to cozy up with Make-Out with Violence.

Available from Amazon!

Book Review: A Boy Born from Mold and Other Delectable Morsels by Lorin Morgan-Richards

Following his unique first book, Simon Snootle and Other Small Stories (which I absolutely adored), author Lorin Morgan-Richards has released another delightfully delectable collection of illustrated short stories in A Boy Born From Mold. In this, the author’s second pocket-sized, handmade and handbound book, he returns with quirky stories of fantastical characters, from the titular boy born from mold named Ruin (or Rune proper) to a young vampire named Zoog whose parents are distressed at his distaste for blood. The small tome boasts seven new tales, each a delight to read!

Just like the first book from Morgan-Richards, A Boy Born From Mold boasts a very high quality with the handmade craftsmanship. This book’s longevity is ensured with the high quality of its faux leather, black ribbon and acid-free blue linen paper used. Only 400 copies of the book were handmade by the author, so these are definitely a collector’s item!

A Boy Born From Mold and Other Delectable Morsels from Lorin Morgan-Richards is a fun collection of stories for those with darker sensibilities. Fans of Edward Gorey and Tim Burton are sure to fall hopelessly in love with Morgan-Richards’ unusual characters and their disturbing situations. Plus, it’s the perfect size to fit in your pocket so you can take it with you during your daily stroll through the cemetery!

Available from Amazon!

Visit Lorin Morgan-Richards’ Official Site!

Screamplay (1985)

Screamplay has got to be one of the most unique films I’ve ever seen. It is filmed like a washed-out, grainy black and white movie from the silent era mixed with sparse, geometric set design of German Expressionism and all pulled together by a murder mystery. I’m surprised more people don’t know about this film because it’s a very creative and mesmerizing effort from filmmaker (he co-wrote, directed, edited, did the visual effects, etc. for the whole film) and actor (he also plays the lead!) Rufus Butler Seder.

It has been released by Troma, the only studio that would pick up the film (originally, New Line expressed interest but pulled out when the film received a bad review from the Boston Film Festival). However, it is definitely not a “typical” Troma blood and boobs B-movie and I don’t think it was fairly marketed back during its release. So since then, the film has pretty much languished in obscurity…

I happened to chance upon it while browsing through Netflix and decided to give it a shot. The premise sounded pretty interesting:

“Aspiring screenwriter Edgar Allen (Rufus B. Seder) works as a janitor for room and board at the Welcome Apartments, a run-down building filled with freaky characters and bizarre plot twists that wriggle their way into Edgar’s horror movie script. Reality blurs with Edgar’s vivid imagination, driving him into a state of creative madness.”

So, I decided to give the film a whirl and had no idea how intriguing it would turn out to be…however, within the first few moments of seeing the simple sets and stark black and white film I was hooked. Screamplay has its faults and isn’t the best film out there, but its artistic merit more than makes up for its few problems.

Let me just say that I love the story (ok, that’s not a problem, but give me a minute…), written by Ed Greenberg and Seder! Basically, the writer’s creations on the page on coming to life and all the murders look like he perpetrated them. Great premise, right? Right. However, the interactions between characters feel a bit stilted and the dialogue doesn’t really grab you, causing the pace to drag at times. Even Seder admitted his film was “kinda boring” and that “When it gets to the point where the actors are acting, just sitting talking in a room, the scene pretty much goes dead” (from an excellent Movieline article on the film).

However, the film does have some very memorable lines (“You f*cked Karloff?!”), kooky, well-written characters and a storyline that speaks to every struggling creative talent in Hollyweird. In fact, anyone who has ever had any experience with the fickle entertainment industry can appreciate the many clever jabs the film makes at the expense of “the industry”.

The film’s biggest draw besides its fun storyline is its aesthetic. Filmed in washed-out black and white, with the appropriate scratches added to make it look even more vintage, the film reminded me of silent classics like Nosferatu or The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. In fact, the sparse, simple and inexpensive (they used Plexiglas to mimic a pool) sets, with their sharp corners and minimalist decoration, tended to echo German Expressionist films like Caligari. In short, the visuals of the film were entirely mesmerizing and Seder did an astounding job with the art direction (yup, another task he took on!).

Further cementing the comparison to silent films were the melodramatic performances from the oddball characters that included a sleazy landlord (played by underground film legend George Kuchar), an aging but lustful actress, a starlet, a prophetic ex-rock star and a couple of noir-like gumshoes tracking down the killer. I especially liked Seder’s performance of the manic screenwriter, who looks like he would fit perfectly with any of the silent film stars with his over-exaggerated facial expressions!

Though Screamplay won’t be a film everyone will enjoy, those that appreciate a good surrealist slasher with silent film-like aesthetics will no doubt fall in love with the underrated and little-know Screamplay. Go check it out!

Available on Amazon!

Every Other Day is Halloween (2010)

In C.W. Prather’s documentary Every Other Day is Halloween, viewers are taken on a nostalgic and whimsical trip back in time to the golden age of television horror hosts, a time when local TV’s witching hour was ruled by ghouls and boils introducing old black and white movies for a generation of delighted fans. Prather focuses on one of the most well-known and longest running horror hosts, Count Gore De Vol, played by Dick Dyszel, as we are given a glimpse into his wacky world.

Though Count Gore De Vol is a very recognizable horror host and still makes regular appearances at conventions and hosts his own online horror show, I wasn’t that familiar with the character’s creator, Dick Dyszel. This documentary does a wonderful job at connecting the audience to the kind man behind the well-known cape! From his beginnings as playing Bozo the Clown and Captain 20 for local kid’s shows on Channel 20 in Washington D.C., we see Dyszel’s growth and desire to do something for the adults – hence Count Gore De Vol’s first show in 1973!

We are shown lots of vintage footage of Dyszel as his different characters, with the focus of course on the Count. We also see interviews with people Dyszel’s show, Creature Feature, influenced, including writers like Steve Niles (30 Days of Night), filmmakers such as Jeff Krulik (Heavy Metal Parking Lot), Scream Queens Leanna Chamish (Stakes) and Eleanor Herman (Night Beast) as well as a new generation of horror hosts including John Dimes (“Dr. Sarcofiguy”) and Jerry Moore II (“Karlos Borloff”). There are also lots of nostalgic recollections from regular old horror fans who watched his show when they were kids as well as from the man himself, Dick Dyszel. In one touching segment Dyszel recalls having Forrest J. Ackerman on the show and we are treated to rare footage of the interview.

Much of the footage shown in this documentary is rare or has never been seen before, adding to the deeply nostalgic feel of the documentary. Though I was too young to recall Count Gore De Vol’s long-running TV show Creature Feature, I still deeply appreciate the era of horror hosts and especially pioneers such as Dick Dyszel. When horror hosts seemed a thing of the past in the early ‘90s, Dyszel resurrected Count Gore De Vol and decided to host his show on the Internet (and this was back when people were still on dial-up). He is considered the first ever Internet horror host!

Nowadays, we are seeing a resurgence of horror hosts, many who claim Dyszel and his Count Gore De Vol character were huge influences on them. Many of these modern horror hosts are interviewed, including Penny Dreadful, The Bone Jangler, Karlos Borloff and more! It’s amazing to see what a gigantic impact horror hosts like Dyszel made on today’s performers and it’s pretty heartwarming to see such a great guy like Dyszel still getting adoration from fans!

Hard-working horror hosts like Dyszel basically reared a generation of horror fans and influenced a whole new breed of horror hosts to go on and inspire another generation of horror fans. Since many horror fans have horror hosts to thank for introducing them to the genre, it’s quite a treat to watch this documentary and get a behind-the-scenes peek at Dick Dyszel’s long (and still going strong) career as Count Gore De Vol!

If you are looking for a superb documentary that takes you down memory lane, check out Every Other Day is Halloween. It’s a fascinating and fun look at horror host Dick Dyszel’s life and will make you nostalgic for the golden years of horror hosts as well as make you excited for the horror hosts in years to come!

Available from Amazon!

Flicker (2009)

“When all hope is lost, there’s always a flicker.”

This is the basic premise behind the independent horror film, Flicker, for when there is the tiniest bit of hope there is a possibility of a way out from any horrific ordeal.

Of course, the film’s other tagline is “Keep your friends close and your enemy’s shovel”, which shows some of the dark humor that is injected into an otherwise depraved and hallucinagenic journey of survival against the odds.

Flicker is about a weekend camping trip to a small mountain town that goes horribly awry. Pretty (Katy Houska) and her boyfriend Jack (Babak Tafti) wake up in the middle of the night to discover that their friends are missing and have only left behind a bloodied tent. Their horrific journey leads them to discover maniacal cops, homicidal locals and an unforgiving landscape – all which stack the odds against their survival. Somehow, though, Pretty must find a way to cope with the terrifying elements surrounding her and figure out a way to escape the twisted situation.

Flicker is an extremely interesting indie film that stands apart from typical “survival horror” films because of several artistic and creative aspects its story is infused with. First off is the Grand Guignol way the film and Pretty’s mind are introduced. The opening scene features a demon-like announcer, called Pixie (played magnificently by Courtney Bell) on a stage. Her malevolent presence seems to inhabit Pretty’s mind and dreams and her exaggerated painted mouth, makeup and movements make her appear very threatening. Later in the film, Pretty dreams that Pixie is cutting her in half with a massive whirling saw on stage. These scenes give the film a much more whimsical, yet no less menacing, feel. These Lynchian touches really make Flicker stand head and shoulders above most indie horror flicks.

Also on the positive side are all the amazing performances given in Flicker. Kudos to director and writer Aaron Hendren for getting the actors to give it their all! Katy Houska is perfect as Pretty, who starts off as a normal girl but after her harrowing ordeal starts to fray at the edges until she triumphantly is reborn as an ass-kicking machine (and kudos for the actress for shaving her head for part of the role!)! Houska gives a very strong, commanding performance. As mentioned above, I adored Courtney Bell’s performance as the malicious Pixie. Also on the villain side, Kevin R. Elder gave a very eerie performance as the sadistic and sociopathic cop Buck. All of the members of the weirdo family that kidnapped and tortured people by putting them in an itty bitty wood box were phenomenal as well! In fact, there wasn’t one bad performance in the entire film, something a low budget film should be commended on! Plus, you can tell that the cast involved had a lot of fun making the film. There is an adorable lip synch reel that runs through the end credits with most of the cast bloodied up and singing along to the closing song – it’s hilarious and just makes you love the film even more!

For a low-budget film, Flicker looks pretty damn great. Hendren has a great directorial style that really pulls you into the story and his writing makes you care about the characters. The overall look of the film is very crisp, clean and professional and looks close to theatrical quality. There are some truly gorgeous shots of the forest, lake and surrounding countryside. I also loved the grain and color used and even the special FX look realistic and seamless.

My only complaint with the film is that it had a few pacing problems. I think it needed more padding and more going on in the middle, because things got repetitive with watching Pretty stumble through the woods. I also thought that the Pixie character should have been utilized a bit more towards the middle and end, because her character kind of just drops away with no explanation. I also thought the inclusion of another victim, Misty, was unnecessary and most of the action should have focused on Pretty, her boyfriend and their two friends instead of introducing other victims.

However, besides these few flaws I wholeheartedly enjoyed Flicker and loved its odd, hallucinogenic feel. I especially appreciated that filmmaker Aaron Hendren did something different with the whole “survival horror” subgenre and didn’t give us just another Texas Chainsaw Massacre retread. Flicker comes highly recommended!

For more info on Flicker, visit Egg Murders Productions Official Site!

Book Review: The Death Panel - Murder, Mayhem and Madness edited by Cheryl Mullenax

Comet Press follows up its fantastic short story collection Vile Things: Extreme Deviations of Horror with The Death Panel: Murder, Mayhem and Madness. Like Vile Things, The Death Panel is edited by Cheryl Mullenax and she definitely knows how to pick ‘em! The Death Panel is chock full of vicious, ultra-violent and hardboiled short stories from authors Randy Chandler, Tim Curran, John Everson, Brandon Ford, Kelly M. Hudson, David James Keaton, Scott Nicholson, Tom Piccirilli, Zach Sherwood, David Tallerman, Fred Venturini, Erik Williams and Simon Wood.

The collection starts with a bang with Randy Chandler’s Lipstick Swastika, a story with a ‘40s noir feel about a hotel security guard that suspects a buxom German blonde to be an escaped Nazi war criminal. The story is full of smoky rooms, irresistible broads, hard men and steamy sex contrasted against explosive violence.

The violence continues with Blood Sacrifices & The Catatonic Kid by Tom Piccirilli. This is about an older gentleman in a mental institution and the “The Catatonic Kid,” who one day snaps and escapes the institution, leaving a bloody wake behind him. Things aren’t always what they appear though, and the story features a you-will-never-see-it-coming twist!

One of the most imaginative of the stories is Kelly M. Hudson’s What Makes An Angel Cry, which creates a world where angels run Queens and Satan runs Brooklyn and the two sides are always fighting like rival gangs while humans try to steer clear. I really enjoyed this one, just for the sheer whimsy and creativity of the author, but there is also plenty of bloody fighting in it for the gorehounds out there. Hudson really develops the main character, a human named Billy who runs a bar, and the story has a gruff, New Yorker feel to it that just rang true.

In Brandon Ford’s disturbing tale The Neighbor, he keeps us on our toes as a trailer park wife suspects her neighbor may be a serial killer. This is a nitty-gritty tale that ratcheted up the suspense and kept surprising me with its many twists and turns.

The hits keep on coming with The Name Game by Scott Nicholson, about a snitch that loses his new identity only and the only way out from the mobsters he’s running from.

Next is one of my favorites, Fly by Night by Tim Curran, about some criminals who picked the wrong truck to hijack…and now must pay a very pissed creature of the night with their lives.

My absolute favorite of the collection, though, is Fred Venturini’s Detail. Precise and perfect, this short story had me by the short hairs. It’s about a car detailer that cleans up after people’s “accidents” and is known for being discreet, yet he keeps evidence against his clients in case he ever needs it. A fiber here, a blood sample there, all stored in a safe and carefully filed for potential future use. When he falls in love with a client who had been cheating on her husband, though, things take a tragic turn. Just like the stories title, it’s all about the details in this one and Venturini fits them together beautifully.

Parental Guidance by Simon Wood is about the perfect all-American family, the Barnes, and father Preston Barnes’ secret and extreme method of keeping his kids in check. Rindelstein’s Monsters by David Tallerman is a murder mystery filled with supernatural beasts confined to a mental institution. The Hooker in the Backseat by Erik Williams is about a grim father/son reunion after the son gets out of prison for covering for his pop.

The most shocking story of the collection is John Everson’s The Mouth, about a prostitute whose mouth is a vagina and whose vagina is a mouth. Apparently it gets pretty confusing for a john and he sticks it in the wrong place and impregnates her neck. Things don’t end well…

Nine Cops Killed for a Goldfish Cracker by David James Keaton is a surreal urban tale about a junkie trying to pay rent on time but having to face innumerous obstacles. I loved the inventive writing style of this one, but it’s definitely not for everyone.

Zach Sherwood’s Board the House Up end the collection with an uneasy story about a cop on suspension that decides to check out a burglary in progress but finds something much more horrifying than robbers.

There is not one bad story contained between the pages of The Death Panel: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness. I eagerly read the noir-tinged and hard-boiled stories of crime, violence and horror and eagerly await Comet Press’ next release, because they and editor Cheryl Mullenax are really making a name for themselves in the horror community!

Buy it on Amazon!

Book Review: The Black Act by Louise Bohmer

The Black Act by Louise Bohmer is a novel that opens a brand new whimsical world for fantasy and dark literature lovers. This novel establishes a whole new exciting mythology full of new creatures in a unique world.

The book explores the themes of forgiveness vs. condemnation, the strength of family vs. the strength of fate and doing what is right vs. the pull of the forbidden. The black acts discussed in the book span many generations of a particular witch family and show how one particular “black act” has cursed them.

The present day story opens with young witch, or Wise Women-in-training, twins Anna and Claire. They are being raised in the sacred valley of the mythical Wood People to learn how to use their inherited magical gifts for good. Yet a shocking ancestral secret threatens to unravel their peaceful existence. Anna starts having violent visions of her past kin while Claire starts acting out more and more and even starts secretly seeing a satyr in the woods.

As Claire threatens to bring the era of the Wise Women to a violent end through her actions, we get the backstory of the twins’ ancestors and see what black act marred their lineage and what exactly must be done to stop the curse.

Bohmer has created an enchanting and intriguing new world with the novel The Black Act. I love how she revisited many mythological creatures, like satyrs, and magically inclined humans, like witches, but added her own unique spin on them. The satyrs became these mysterious creatures literally made out of the elements of the earth, like bark, vines, dirt, moss and mushrooms. The witches had their own complex history of how and why they came to be and their own set of sacred oaths. I particularly loved the history of the whole land and how the Wood People (the mythological creatures) and the Dalthwein Clans (the humans, including the Wise Women) had fought many battles because of the hatred from a long ago human king before forming the fragile peace they have now. The rich history really wraps the story together and pulls you further into the complex mythology.

The novel is written deftly by Bohmer and she enthralls you with not only her unique mythology but also her engaging writing style. Her highly detailed descriptions of the Wood People make them both fascinating and frightening and her human characters are so developed that you feel like you know them. The book pulled me in from the opening pages and I finished it in merely two sittings!

The only thing I wasn’t too fond of was the last part of the book, where the two main characters of Anna and Claire, whom I cared about and emotionally invested in, are suddenly dropped and the rest of the tale is told by their descendant. Plus, the villains of the book, the ghosts of the two evil men who committed the first black act and started the curse, just don’t suffer enough for all the turmoil and death they’ve caused. I wanted their ends to be sweetly satisfying, but they get off far too easily and didn’t satiate my hunger for their blood!

Despite this issues, I still thoroughly enjoyed The Black Act and think that fantasy and dark literature fans will be enthralled with Louise Bohmer’s debut novel. I cannot wait to see what Bohmer does next with the memorable mythology she has created!

Order it on Amazon!

SyFy's Alice miniseries (2009)

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass have always fascinated me and I’ve always wanted to take the tumble through the looking glass and down the rabbit hole to explore Wonderland. So when I heard an adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s classics was being done by the SyFy Channel, I was excited…as well as a little nervous. We are all familiar with SyFy’s uneven record when it comes to their films, but trailers for Alice actually looked pretty interesting and promising. And you know what? After catching the miniseries on SyFy the past two nights I was left pleasantly surprised! Alice has a great vision and gives the Alice in Wonderland story a marvelous modern twist!

Writer/director Nick Willing has modernized Alice, making the titular character a woman who chases after her mysterious love interest, Jack, after he gives her a mysterious ring and is shortly thereafter kidnapped by the sinister White Rabbit organization. She ends up falling through the looking glass and ending up in the strange world of Wonderland. Here, The Queen of Hearts rules with an iron fist and is kidnapping humans so they might be drained of their emotions, which are then used as liquid currency among the populace. The Queen uses the humans’ bottled emotions to control her populace and make them complacent. As Alice tries to hunt down the man she loves and return home, she encounters many different personalities that try to help or hinder her quest. On her side are Hatter and The White Knight, as well as “The Resistance” that wish to stop the Queen. Against her are The Queen of Hearts, her minions called “Suites”, evil Doctors Dee and Dum and many others who seek the ring that Alice possesses. Can Alice find Jack and return to her own world or will she lose her head in the process?

This was a delightful adaptation of a classic! I especially enjoyed the clever placement of characters from the original book and how they were updated for this modern take. For example, The Caterpillar is actually an old man (wearing a green coat that closely resembles the original Caterpillar’s skin) who is a leader of The Resistance against the Queen. We even get the flamingos from the book, but this time they are mechanical flying machines that look like a flying Vespa. The infamous Jabberwocky even makes a memorable appearance in its full glory! I loved the modern take on all the characters and appreciated how Willing kept them in the story while still twisting their appearances and characters.

The world that Willing has created is absolutely stunning – from the Queen’s casino where humans are being drained of their emotions to The White Knight’s fallen kingdom and everything in between, Alice is a visual treat! Sure, the CGI is a bit hokey-pokey when Alice is falling towards Wonderland or when they are riding the motorized flamingos, but none of it really affected my overall enjoyment of the miniseries and overall, I think they did a pretty decent job with all the special effects. I thought the Jabberwocky was especially impressive!

The story has a lot more going for it than one would think, too. With corrupt corporations, a wicked Queen, refugees and humans being basically milked of their emotions, not to mention all of the emotional turmoil Alice goes through with her family history and her long-lost love betraying her, this is one story that has quite a bit going on. Yet, it never once feels convoluted or weighed down. On the contrary, all of these different aspects make it feel more cohesive and seamless. Willing did a fantastic job updating the story for modern audiences and adding many pertinent, modern-day issues to it. Plus, he also kept the original humor and absurdity that laced Carroll’s original work.

Of course, the acting assisted in getting me invested in the story. Caterina Scorsone was fantastic as a modern-day Alice, kicking butt and taking names. She also showed the perfect amount of vulnerability without ever losing her edge. Kathy Bates was perfectly cast as the hot-headed Queen of Hearts, Andrew Lee Potts was adorable as Hatter (and a bit more helpful and even-keeled than Carroll’s Mad Hatter), Matt Frewer was entertaining as the cavalier yet confused White Knight and all the other actors did equally amazing!

I had my hesitations about watching SyFy’s Alice, but Willing has created a delightful yet dangerous Wonderland that’s all grown up. I dare say it might even turn out to be better than the wildly overblown look Tim Burton is going for in his adaptation (I still love you, Burton!). So have your own tea party and try to catch a repeat of the miniseries when it plays again on SyFy or when it is released on DVD!

Check it out on Amazon!

Book Review: Simon Snootle and Other Small Stories by Lorin Morgan-Richards

In this tiny tome, author Lorin Morgan-Richards has woven the most whimsically woeful stories this side of Edward Gorey! While the seven stories and their accompanying illustrations are sure to delight, the binding and the outside cover of the book are sure to thrill as well. For, you see, the book is all hand-bound by the author and has the look and feel of a book that will be treasured for many years to come. In fact, it feels more like an heirloom art piece from the Victorian era than a book, but then that would discount its many imaginative stories contained inside!

Book Description:

Simon Snootle and Other Small Stories describe seven misguided tales of humorous woe by several downtrodden characters that are simply looking to be themselves. The book begins with Simon Snootle, a meager young man who lived most of his life at the bottom of a cistern with neighborhood cats. He is not aware of any tragedy of the situation, but rather makes the best of it, knowing that eventually more things will fall in as he did.

Simon Snootle is a unique and peculiar book and those with an appreciation for darker literature and odd tales in the tradition of such Gorey classics as The Gashlycrumb Tinies will no doubt cherish this pocket-sized collection of “small stories”. Its hopeless gothic romantic stance coupled with dark satirical humor and whimsical illustrations will definitely appeal to kindred spooky souls of mine who don’t take themselves or life too seriously.

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Visit Lorin Morgan-Richards’ Official Site!

Mad Monster Party (1967)

Looking for something ooky and spooky to watch this Halloween? Look no further than the kooky Mad Monster Party! Created by the same folks that brought you stop-motion animation Christmas specials like Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Mad Monster Party is a howling good time for the whole freaky family!

After finding the secret of life, Baron Von Frankenstein (voiced by Boris Karloff) has finally discovered the secret of destruction (“I, Baron von Frankenstein, master of the secret of creation, have now mastered the secret of destruction”)and is inviting all his favorite monsters to his castle for a celebration! He also plans to announce that he is retiring and bequeathing all his secrets to his (gasp!) human heir, the clueless Felix Flanken (voiced by Allen Swift, who also voiced most of the monsters). The Baron’s assistant, lovely redheaded Francesca (voiced by Gale Garnett), doesn’t take too kindly to the news. She and the other monsters, including Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster and his Mate (voiced by Phyllis Diller), The Wolf Man, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, The Hunchback, The Creature from the Black Lagoon and so on, plan on taking Felix out before he inherits the Baron’s secrets!

Mad Monster Party is a mad, mad, mad little movie that is a joy to watch around Halloween! With newly restored editions, I really think they should play this on television around Halloween just like they play all of the other stop-animation movies around Christmas! It’s got some spiffy musical numbers, lots of adult humor and overall just looks amazing!

The character design is amazing, especially considering how many monsters are running around. Besides those mentioned above, there is also the hilarious Chef Mafia Machiavelli (“Here we have the antipasto – black widows pickled in their own poison, smoked lizards and snakes, and marinated mice.”), Yetch, the creepy, Peter Lorre-inspired servant (Yetch: “It’s me, your Don Juan.” Francesca: “I Don Juan to look at you”.), a groovy skeleton band called Little Tibia and the Fibulas (“It’s the mummy!”) and, of course, the uninvited It that crashes the party later in the film!

The scope of the film is very ambitious, and seems much bigger than other Rankin/Bass productions like The Year Without Santa Claus or Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer. The setting of Baron Von Frankenstein’s towering castle, with its crocodile-filled lagoon and man-eating flora and fauna, is absolutely stunning and really invokes nostalgic feelings from childhood, especially when accompanied by the stop-motion animation! This is definitely one for the spooky kid in all of us!

If you are looking for some light-hearted fare this October, Mad Monster Party is one classic film to check out! Even though they slip some decidedly adult humor in there, it is still suitable for young tots, too! Anyone looking to regain some Halloween spirit should definitely watch Mad Monster Party – it never fails to put me in a kooky mood!

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Book Review: The Dark Verse, Vol. 1 by M. Amanuensis Sharkchild

The Dark Verse, Volume 1: From the Passages of Revenants is a collection of 26 fantastical short stories from the darkly imaginative mind of author M. Amanuensis Sharkchild. Sharkchild’s stories were first featured on his self-produced podcast “The Dark Verse” where he would release a fantastically horrific story every two weeks.

The podcast developed quite a following and led to the stories being collected into The Dark Verse Volume 1. This is a beautifully black-bound book with a silver foil cover and black dusting that contains some of the most bizarre and engaging stories I’ve ever come across. The tales tell of distant dimensions and unbelievable beings all the while oozing with an otherworldly atmosphere.

Each and every one of the stories drew me in with the eloquent and sophisticated writing of Sharkchild. Delving deeper and deeper into the great unknown, Sharkchild conjures visions of horrifying monsters and mysterious worlds beyond our own. He creates a window that peers into the black abyss, and the result is that things from the unknown start to look back.

Some would be quick to point out the similarities between Sharkchild’s esoteric style and H.P. Lovecraft’s writings, but though they appear similar I would argue that Sharkchild has a very distinct and unique way of unveiling his mysterious stories. I will say that like any good horror author, Sharkchild’s stories will leave you unhinged as you get a glimpse of the strange species that permeate his imagination and have scrawled themselves into this book.

For example, in the short story What the Flesh Cannot Keep the “Haunter Behind Space” is described by the poor mortal who sees it as “eyes that covered every surface, the souls within them, and the vulgar, detestable complacency of existence that saturated every ounce of its being”. Of course, seeing such a creature would prove fatal to any mortal…

One of my favorite stories is The Changing of the Feyth, told in two parts, about feyths, which are regarded as demigods in their realm. The feyth protagonist describes his race as such: “Our flesh is ash gray and its texture is that of leather. Our eyes are as black as coal and our teeth are as sharp as swords. Our ears are large and so are our noses. We grow to be tall as giants, but our bodies always keep the same slenderness, no matter what our strength or what we consume. Our only master is the Almighty of Shadows…” The story is about how one feyth turns against his brethren and is filled with bloody battle, ghosts and even fairies.

In the story titled Between the Corridors, a small child is haunted by the “Midnight Apothecary”, a nightmarish vision that invades his very mind. It perverts childhood innocence and memories of balloons and ice cream with a menacing and sinister parasitic creature that invades the child’s mind and won’t let go until he relinquishes it.

The book is filled with excellent stories such as those mentioned above, so it is hard not to talk about each and every single one as there is not a bad one in the entire collection. For space sake, I’ll have to keep it down to those mentioned above with hopes they give you a general gist of the fascinating tales told by Sharkchild.

All of Sharkchild’s stories are inhabited by grotesque yet sometimes wondrous beings who have managed to break forth into our own world. These unimaginably horrific monsters populate these short stories, and Sharkchild’s writing brings them to startling and shocking clarity. His stories exist on a different plane, a dimension where unspeakable horrors lie in wait, ready to assault and invade our own existence. These are tales that could reduce you to madness as you marvel at their complex simplicity. Horror lies in fearing the unknown, and boy, does Sharkchild ever have a grasp of how to scare us!

Besides the articulate and intelligent way Sharkchild tells his stories, I must also comment on the overall aesthetic of the book, which is absolutely gorgeous. The outside of the hardback book is wrapped in a faux leather with silver foil stamping adorning it, as well as black dusting on the edges of the pages. Its presentation is impeccable, but only gets better when you open the tome, for inside is stunning artwork by John F. Stifter. Truly, this is one of the most beautifully books I’ve ever reviewed and Armored Books did a fabulous job with its design. This book, though no doubt well-read, will adorn my bookcase for a long, long time.

The Dark Verse, Volume 1: From the Passages of Revenants is an elite collection of fascinating and frightening stories that is sure to impress any horror aficionado who is looking for more peculiar tales rather than the standard slasher/zombie/vampire/serial killer novels that tend to permeate horror fiction. Its high quality is a rarity and I, for one, will treasure this book for a long while.

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Big Man Japan (2007)

We all know and probably love Japanese Kaiju flicks. Giant monster films like Godzilla, which feature men in suits stomping cardboard cities, have a special place in many a horror fan’s heart. So when I heard about Big Man Japan, a Japanese film that promised to both pay homage and spoof Kaiju films, I knew I had to see it. Surprisingly, Big Man Japan has a lot more heart than I expected, but definitely doesn’t hesitate to also include some odd-looking monsters and preposterous situations.

A camera crew follows around and interviews the seemingly ordinary Masaru Daisatô (Hitoshi Matsumoto), an unkempt man scorned by the populace who lives in a dirty bachelor pad with only his cat for company. He has his quirks, like having a penchant for both dehydrated seaweed and pocket umbrellas, but what really warrants a camera crew documenting his every move is that he is Big Man Japan, the only superhero left to fight the ginormous monsters that attack the country from time to time. When Masaru gets a call, he rushes to the nearest power plant where he is zapped with electricity and transforms into the humongous big man himself.

Even though Masaru or “Big Man” protects the country against monsters, most people hate him for all the disruption and damage he causes. He has a TV show, but his ratings are horrible and not even his agent can help boost his popularity. People make fun of him and his fights with the monsters.

Besides dealing with being unappreciated and battling strange creatures, Masaru also must deal with family issues, including his senile grandfather, who used to be one of the more famous superheroes, who periodically escapes from his nursing home to wander the streets after zapping himself into a Big Man. He also must deal with an ex-wife that hardly ever lets him see his daughter, whom he hopes to hand down the family tradition to.

No matter his problems, Masaru must protect the country and defeat the monsters that threaten his homeland.

Told in faux documentary style, Big Man Japan’s focus on Masaru’s life as a normal, yet scorned, man surprised me. That’s not to say that there weren’t many monster-fighting scenes, but I found myself enjoying the scenes with Masaru as an everyday man more. The humanity he exhibited and his perseverance to keep doing his job even when everyone hated him for it, kept my eyes glued to the screen.

The story, written by Hitoshi Matsumoto and Mitsuyoshi Takasu, is both hilarious and somber. There are many winks and nods toward Japanese Kaiju films, but the real enjoyment of the story came from seeing Masaru’s struggles in everyday life, whether they were with his deteriorating family, greedy agent or general public. The monster battles were fun and the monsters themselves inventive, but the action got repetitive pretty fast. I will probably be the only one who actually liked the documentary aspects more than the monster battles, which I found a bit too silly and out of place (even for this film). And the nonsensical finale just didn’t make a lick of sense!!

The CGI fight scenes were, for lack of a better word, colorful, with numerous zany monsters for Big Man to fight against. Among them was a zebra-striped monster with elastic arms that picked up skyscrapers, flipped them over its back and deposited them upside down before adjusting its comb-over. Other monsters included a giant Hellboy look-alike, a one-eyed monster (no joke), a stink monster in the middle of mating season, a one-legged monster and even a baby monster. The weirdest thing about the monsters was that no matter how otherworldly their bodies looked, most of them had human-like faces, making them awkwardly creepy! Plus, everytime one of them dies they get beamed up to “monster heaven”. The live-action finale, which was more faithful to traditional Kaiju as it had people dressed up in monster/superhero suits smashing up a cut-out city, was just weird and wacky.

I was expecting Big Man Japan to be just another homage to Japanese Kaiju flicks, but while it has its fun spoofing them, it also has a lot more heart than I first gave it credit for. Truth be told, though the monster battles were amusing, I wasn’t too into their style and they got repetitive pretty fast. I was much more interested in the documentary aspect of the film where we learn about the lead character more as a human being than as a superhero.

Big Man Japan certainly isn’t a film for everyone, but those with an appreciation for giant monster films will probably get a kick out of it!

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Fever Night aka Band of Satanic Outsiders (2009)

Have you ever been so blown away by a film that it left you at a loss for words? That the film was just so rad that to try to describe it in words would do it a disservice? For a reviewer like myself, this can be quite problematic. On one hand, I got to see an amazing film that melted my face off with its awesomeness, but on the other hand its hard to describe to others just how good it was, leaving me with a bit of writer’s block.

Well, Fever Night definitely leaves me feeling inadequate in the face of its genius.

Fever Night (or Static Age aka Band of Satanic Outsiders) is an acid-trip, psychotomimetic horror film about three Satanists who are faced with serious repercussions after going into the woods one night and worshipping the Devil. The trouble starts when Terry (Melanie Rose Wilson) is accidentally run over as the three try to get their car out of some mud. This leaves Elliot (Peter Tullio) and Warren (Philip Nolan Marlatt) to traipse through the dark woods towards a bright light hoping to find help…

As their desperation to get out of the forest increases, they come across foreboding signs like dead birds, animal skulls, anthropomorphic foliage…and Satan himself. Will they be able to survive their descent into Hell or are their fates already sealed?

Fever Night is an independent, low-budget production that took over two years to make. As filmmakers, writers and directors Jordan Harris and Andrew Schrader say themselves on the film’s Myspace page:

“This truly independent production – lit primarily with portable work lamps and shot by a crew of three [Jordan Harris, Andrew Schrader, Steven Getz] – launched pre-production from a parent’s floor with stolen grant money from the filmmakers’ alma mater.

The shoestring budget increased gradually over the two-year production; as the two directors pooled every dollar they could from odd jobs like writing final exam papers for lazy college students.”

Considering this is the filmmakers’ first film (not to mention their meager budget), I am absolutely blown away by the high quality of the film in everything from the directing to the writing to the acting to the cinematography to the score! Absolutely every single piece of the film fits beautifully into the overall picture and everything comes together to form a top-notch film. This is the kind of film most first-time filmmakers (or hell, even experienced filmmakers) WISH they could make!

The film’s look is very retro, right down to the opening titles and the trippy music by the band Thee Oh Sees. The film itself is slightly grainy, giving it that grindhouse grit of films from the ‘70s. Though the film is set at night, there is an impressive use of psychedelic colors used throughout that just adds to the retro atmosphere and makes you feel as if you are running through a Dario Argento color palette (think Suspiria psychedelics). Though the primary lighting equipment was merely work lights, I loved the lighting in Fever Night. It adds to the dizzyingly disorienting atmosphere of the film and really makes it feel like you are alongside Elliot and Warren, trying to find your way through the hellish forest with just a pair of flashlights.

Besides the hallucinatory look of the film, the special FX are also top notch. We are treated to many freaky instances, including bloody bird carcasses, a goat skull that bleeds and floats on its own before morphing into Baphomet, bloody wounds, someone that comes back from the dead to haunt the remaining friends (with some killer makeup effects to match) and so on. All of the effects used were believable and looked real, a feat that most independent productions have a problem pulling off. This may not be a gore-drenched picture, and it doesn’t need to be. The effects used throughout are enough to jar the viewer.

Now, one thing that indie productions usually lack is good acting…but again, Fever Night succeeds where most others fail! The three lead actors, Melanie Rose Wilson (“Terry”), Philip Nolan Marlatt (“Warren”) and Peter Tullio (“Elliot”) do an amazing job of bringing their characters to life and making them believable, especially after encountering all the crazy satanic stuff they see. Some actors may have been tempted to play their characters as over-the-top, but these three “keep it real” and rein it in to give credible, strong performances. I especially liked Marlatt’s portrayal of the meek Warren, who slowly but surely loses his innocence as the night progresses.

Fever Night is a mind-blowing acid trip of a film that takes you through themes of life and death, good and evil with a healthy dose of disorientation and debauchery. This is one of the best independent films I’ve seen this year and I definitely see it making my “top 10” list at the end of the year. I could try to sing its praises all day long, but in the end it truly must be seen to be believed…

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Book Review: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith

Did you ever had to read Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice for English class? Did you find yourself snoozing away while Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy slowly but surely fell in love? Did you wish that zombies, ninjas and bloody battles were a part of Austen’s novel? Well, wish no longer because author Seth Grahame-Smith has tweaked Austen’s classic book to include walking corpses, Shaolin-trained assassins and some sure-fire slaughter!

Grahame-Smith, who wrote the excellent How to Survive a Horror Movie, has injected a lot of action into Austen’s tome and this monster mash-up is perfect for romantics who like a little blood with their love. Grahame-Smith cleverly inserts zombie attacks, ninjas and the “unmentionables” into the polite English society of the Bennet’s and heroine Elizabeth Bennet isn’t just a smart, witty girl anymore…now she also kicks ass against hordes of zombies! She and her sisters have all been trained in the “deadly arts” of Shaolin and are relied upon to protect the countryside. An English regiment has also arrived in town to try and squelch the undead menace (as author Grahame-Smith says in an interview, “…we arrived at Pride and Prejudice and Zombies because, when you take a look at the original book, it’s almost as if, subconsciously, Jane Austen is laying out the perfect groundwork for an ultraviolent bone-crushing zombie massacre to take place. For instance, there’s a regiment of soldiers camped out near the Bennett household. In the book, they’re just there for characters to flirt with. But it’s not that big a leap to say, Okay, they’re there because the countryside has been overrun with what they call the ‘unmentionable menace.’”). Of course, lets not forget the societal mishaps the Bennet family experiences at the hands of the rakish Wickham, the amiable Mr. Bingley and the mysterious and misunderstood Mr. Darcy.  I loved how Grahame-Smith slightly changed Austen’s characters while still retaining their core personalities and actions. He made Elizabeth a highly trained zombie killer and gave other characters varying degrees of skill in fighting the undead. Even after all these changes the characters were still believable as “Jane Austen characters”.

I also loved the violence and gore that Grahame-Smith added! Talk about grabbing your attention! We’ve got half-decomposed corpses stumbling around that the Bennet sisters must dispose of…which usually results in a bloody, gory mess that stains their pretty gowns, not to mention the scandal it causes within the neighborhood! Not only are there zombies, but ninjas also stalk the pages of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Elizabeth has to battle several to prove her worth to Mr. Darcy’s aunt, the Lady de Bourgh. There are lots of wonderfully brutal and bloody scenes and Grahame-Smith really delivers on the gore! And yet, it seems to fit so seamlessly into the original context of the novel!

For Austen or classic literature fans that bemoan that this mash-up tramples all over their much cherished Pride and Prejudice, have no fear. Grahame-Smith masterfully combines his new vision with Austen’s classic. The result is subtle but startling and one thing is for sure…you’ll never look at a Jane Austen novel the same again!

I really can’t recommend Pride and Prejudice and Zombies highly enough. It still retains the biting wit of Austen’s classic work, but it also contains quite a few biting zombies. Seth Grahame-Smith has started an amazing new trend here, and I can’t wait to see where it takes us next! Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is an absolute delight to read…perhaps high school students will be able to get away with reading this instead of Austen’s original!

Available from Amazon!

Book Review: The Good Humor Man by Andrew Fox

In 2041, the government, or what’s left of it, has banned all fatty foods, making a pound of real chocolate worth more than a kilo of cocaine on the black market. Groups of Good Humor Men, government-sanctioned vigilantes, patrol the country and destroy any illegal contraband foodstuffs they find. Meanwhile, shady nutraceutical company MannaSantos controls the market with genetically engineered foods, but people and animals are still wasting away from a mysterious, quick-spreading disease that is a result of a MannaSantos experiment gone horribly wrong.

Only Dr. Louis Shmalzberg, a fallen Good Humor Man and plastic surgeon, begins to uncover the evil behind MannasSantos and holds the key to humanity’s salvation – in the form of Elvis’ liposuctioned belly fat from a surgery his famous plastic surgeon father performed. Yet, Dr. Shmalzberg must travel across the country, getting entangled with an assassin who wants the Elvis fat for a foreign dignitary, a cult evangelizing anorexia, clones from MannasSantos, a voodoo queen, hit-men dressed as Elvi and a woman addicted to liposuction, to hunt down the preserved Elvis fat.

Will Dr. Shmalzberg track down the Elvis before he is captured, killed or before it becomes too late for humanity?

The Good Humor Man is an amazing novel that tackles serious issues like obesity, nutrition, genetically engineered food, the agricultural business, body image and many, many other important topics in a very entertaining, darkly humorous way. In the tradition of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, The Good Humor Man makes us question just where we are headed as a nation and what we can do to prevent author Andrew Fox’s vision.

We all know that America as a country is F-A-T. We are one of the most obese countries in the world and in September 2008, the World Health Organization named the United States as #9 in a list of the most obese countries, with 74.1% of adults, or 237 million Americans, being overweight. So, what if all fatty foods were outlawed in the U.S.? What if a huge agribusiness like MannasSantos took over and made genetically engineered foods like “Leanie Lean” meats for the masses? Sure, the nation’s overall health would probably improve and people would lose weight, but at what cost? What if some genetically engineered experiment went awry and millions of people and animals began to waste away? This is the kind of catastrophe Dr. Shmalzberg must deal with in The Good Humor Man, but the threat of this happening in real life is definitely a possibility. Which is why the book is so engrossing and entertaining. It may be fiction, but author Andrew Fox weaves enough facts and “what if’s” about the possibility of this really happening to the U.S. to completely capture the reader’s attention.

Fox also captures the reader’s attention by giving them a wild ride with The Good Humor Man. Though he puts Dr. Shmalzberg into impossible after impossible scenario, you can’t help but keep reading to see just how he’ll get out of his next scrape! Fox deftly writes the character of Shmalzberg, along with the multitude of other colorful characters, so that they are all believable.

The book is also extremely fast-paced, though it took me a few chapters to really get into it. As soon as Shmalzberg hits the road in search of the Elvis, though, I was hooked. Shmalzberg deals with so many different characters, settings and predicaments on his journey that at times I felt too much was crammed into the book, but Fox somehow makes it work and continues to entertain the whole way through.

My only complaint was towards the end when the book did begin to drag, weighted down by too many old characters that decided to pop up for one last showdown with Shmalzberg. I felt that the ending was drawn out and could have been pared down for a smoother ending.

Other than that minor issue, The Good Humor Man is a very satisfying read that gives you plenty of food for thought!

Available from Amazon!

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (2008)

If it’s one thing I’ve learned about myself that surprised me is that I like musicals. I was never a My Fair Lady-type of girl, but with more horror films featuring song and dance numbers (Sweeney Todd, Repo!, Poultrygeist) I’ve discovered I’m a sucker for these kind of productions!

So you can imagine my delight when I watched Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, a short film by creators Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly), Jed Whedon, Zack Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen. Dr. Horrible was an internet sensation last summer, crashing the site on the release of the first installment after generating more than 1,000 hits per second. Well, I’m here to tell you it sure does live up to the hype and praise it has generated! It’s top-notch performances, quirky characters, catchy songs and overall fun atmosphere make this a must-see for all Whedon and musical fans alike.

Dr. Horrible is about a wannabe villain, Dr. Horrible (Neil Patrick Harris) who is trying to get into the Evil League of Evil but not having very good luck, even though he claims he has a “Ph.D in horribleness!!” By day he is the mild-mannered Billy and hopelessly in love with Penny (Felicia Day) whom he admires every Wednesday and Saturday at the Laundromat. By night (or whenever he slips into his doctor’s coat and evil-scientist goggles and gloves) he’s Dr. Horrible, who has plans to use his freeze ray to re-structure what he sees as a crumbling, corrupt society and eventually rule the world. One thing that stands in his way is arrogant hero Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion), who always swoops in to thwart his plans.

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog was conceived during the writer’s strike and financed entirely by Whedon’s own production company, Mutant Enemy. It’s a pretty low-key, low-budget affair, but this actually works in its favor and lets the performances from Harris, Fillion and Day and the writing from the Whedon’s and Tancharoen really stand out).

The film has a decidedly light-hearted tone, but it really shines when it delves into the darker themes of lost innocence and the villain-as-the-hero and the hero-as-the-villain motifs. The ending is also decidedly down-beat, but this being a Whedon project it is to be expected that the characters don’t exactly get all they wanted.

All of the actors do a fine job in their roles. Nathan Fillion really nails the cheesy yet cocksure Captain Hammer. His performance brings to mind his character from Firefly, just with a slightly more crooked moral compass. Neil Patrick Harris is a delight to watch as the bumbling Dr. Horrible as he grows more and more evil and determined to succeed every time he is undermined by Captain Hammer. Comedic relief is found in many places, one of those being Dr. Horrible’s useless sidekick Moist (Simon Helberg) who says, “At my most badass, I make people want to take a shower.” All characters are larger than life and played with bombast, with the exception of Penny, played by Felicia Day, who is just your everyday sweetheart. Surprisingly, all of the actors also sing (and quite well, I might add), belting out Broadway-worthy tunes.

The songs themselves are witty and extremely catchy, covering many different genres from rock to soul to just straight showtunes! I dare you not to get them stuck in your head…

If you’ve already seen the show online, you might be wondering what the draw of the DVD is. Well, let me tell you that the DVD is worth its price for the commentary alone!! One of the commentary tracks, called Commentary: The Musical! is just that – a commentary done completely as a musical! For the entire running time of the film, the movie’s dialogue is muted and there are entirely new songs that tell us about the making of the movie during the writer’s strike (“Strike!”), the price of fame (“$10 Dollar Solo”), how the cast got along (“Better Than Neil”) the actor’s process (“The Art”), writing the script (“Zack’s Rap”), how the cast passed the time on-set (“Ninja Ropes”), racial tension (“Nobody’s Asian in the Movies”) and much, much more! Of course, just like the movie these are all done very tongue-in-cheek, if you couldn’t guess that already! The special features also include a behind-the-scenes featurette and a more straightforward commentary that is spoken, not sung.

If you haven’t had the pleasure of seeing Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog yet, I highly recommend this whimsical and fun musical. Even if you don’t like musicals, give it a whirl – you might surprise yourself like I did.

Available from Amazon!

Book Review: Dragging Wings by Jennifer Caress

Jennifer Caress’ new novel, Dragging Wings, is a hypnotizing blend of dark fantasy, sci-fi and horror that is near impossible to put down once you start reading. The novel’s main strength is its fantastical characters, who are all wonderfully unique and who the reader comes to care so much about. Not only that, but Caress’ story is surrounded with an air of mystery that adds to the ethereal quality of the book.

Dragging Wings features several different stories, though each are anchored by an over-arching storyline about alien conspiracies and the secret society that seeks to stop them as well as two characters named Sammy and Frankie. In each story Caress does an amazing job at making us care for each new character in a short amount of time, even if a character only appears for a chapter. Besides the memorable duo of Sammy and Frankie, there’s the wounded and confused Dandi whose past just keeps haunting her, the stern and lonely Thomas Manner who opens the book with a bang, the intriguing Iliad Strange with all his tricks, the brave Bodhan who embarks on a journey of self-discovery and so many, many more! Each new character is a delightful discovery and you wish that they were actually real so that you could befriend them.

Each story offers something new, but every one goes back to the principles of sharing, caring and love. Without those things, as you will see in the book, people tend to fall apart. Some stories skew on the more surreal, while others contain a slowly creeping dread and still others feature a more sci-fi feel, but all seem to end in the conclusion that individuality must be celebrated and people should love on another no matter their differences. Don’t be fooled, though…this book is far from being a touchy-feely love fest. There are some sinister things that happen here and many people lose themselves to the darkness rather than finding love in the light. Dandi must (literally) fight the demons haunting her, Bodhan loses his sister and his journey is fraught with peril and people who are trying to kill him and Sammy and Frankie try to come to understand what is happening around them.

The atmosphere of the story is very mysterious. We are never told much about the secret society and the alien conspirators it is trying to battle. One thing is clear, though, that if you join the fight for either side it will open your eyes and change your life. The main setting of the quaint town of Arcacia also lends to the air of mystery and fantasy…though in appearances the town seems like any regular ol’ place. The unique characters and strange stories make it feel otherworldly, though.

Dragging Wings is an entirely unique book that will appeal to the freaks ‘n’ geeks that are different but stand by who they are. It spellbindingly blends horror, dark fantasy and sci-fi into an irresistible mixture of ethereal fiction. I hear Jennifer Caress has a previous novel, called Perverted Realities, that features the characters of Sammy and Frankie and if Dragging Wings is any indication, it should be just as enjoyable!

Dragging Wings is available on Amazon.

Death Trance (2005)

Death Trance is an outrageously fun and visually stunning martial arts/fantasy flick. I am by no means a martial arts or even a fantasy fan, but the film’s fast pace, excellent cast, flair, impressive action sequences and amazing visuals really got me hooked!

For years, people have been after an enchanted coffin that is said to grant wishes by whoever opens it in the Forbidden Forest. No one has ever been able to steal it from the monks, who guard it carefully in a remote monastery. Nonetheless, mysterious warrior Grave (Tak Sakaguchi) manages to snatch the coffin and begins lugging it towards the Forbidden Forest to cash in on its promised wish. Little does he know that the coffin is actually the resting place of the Goddess of Destruction, and, if opened, she’ll, you know, destroy the world.

As Grave marches on towards his prize, a strange little girl (Honoka Asada) and coffin in tow, he faces off against others who would like nothing more than to take the coffin from him to have the wishes for themselves. An apprentice monk named Ryuen (Takamasa Suga) is dispatched from the monastery to stop Grave, or at least find the “Chosen One” who will be able to fight off the Goddess if she is unleashed. The monk and Grave are joined by punk wanderer-warrior Sid (Steven Seagal’s son Kentaro Seagal) and mysterious woman named Yuri (Yuki Takeuchi), both who have different motivations for acquiring the coffin.

Will Grave reach the Forbidden Forest and have his wish granted? Can Ryuen stop the coffin from being opened? Who is the adorable little girl that tags along after the coffin? What do Sid and Yuri have to do with the coffin? Who is the Chosen One and how will he or she stop the Goddess of Destruction if she is unleashed?

These questions and more are all answered in the quirky, action-packed and fun Death Trance! The film blends styles from the past, present and future to create a crazy atmosphere where anything goes! For example, old-fashioned medieval samurai costumes and swords are used alongside modern motorcycles and guns, creating a fantasy world removed from our own. The costumes themselves are impressive, from the two gothic Lolita warriors to the bad-ass feudal Japan samurai robes that mix leather, studs, satin and metal. Not only are the costumes over-the-top, but so are some of the characters, including a pair of blood-sucking ninja spiders and a group of zombies!

The amazing fight scenes only add to the wild and fantastical edge of the film. Considering Death Trance is from the same people that brought us Versus, it’s easy to see why it is such a fast-paced, action-packed film. The fight scenes are absolutely flawless, packed with energy and carefully framed with the camera, giving you the impression that you are actually there. The final battle alone, featuring the Goddess of Destruction and Grave suspended in mid-air as they hack and slash at each other, is a special FX marvel. As they fight, their droplets of blood float around them like blooming red flowers, creating a truly mesmerizing set-piece.

As for the acting, Tak Sakaguchi (who also starred in Versus and Battlefield Baseball) does an amazing job as the bad ass Grave. Girls, get ready to swoon because the combination of his fighting skills (he does all his own stunts) and high cheekbones make Sakaguchi a real lady-killer! The rest of the cast, including Takamasa Suga, Kentaro Seagal and Yuki Takeuchi, do a wonderful job as well, both in the fight scenes and with the humor sprinkled liberally throughout the movie.

Some may complain about the overly simplistic plot that doesn’t delve too deep into the mythos of the coffin or the “Chosen One.” I was a little let down that the film lacked in the story department, but that didn’t really dampen my love for this film at all. The rest of the film is so bombastic and bad ass (yes, I realize I’ve now said “bad ass” three times in this review!) that it can withstand the lack of plot.

I really am at loss for words to describe just how awesome Death Trance is. Whether you are a fan of martial arts films or not, Death Trance will impress you with its fast-paced action, cute humor, heart-pounding fight scenes and beautiful visuals.

Don’t miss out on the entrancing Death Trance!

Available from Amazon!