A wise man (OK fine, it was me) once said that, as far as indie horror films are concerned, originality is frequently overrated. The seasoned genre expert has seen dozens of zombie films, haunted house horrors, and home invasion thrillers by now, and what separates the quality from the crap is not originality. It's presentation. Of course it's important to add at least a few new wrinkles if you're going to tell a familiar tale, and the nifty little British import called In Fear manages to pull off the feat with crisp efficiency.

READ FEARNET'S PARTNER REVIEWS OF IN FEAR

As February draws to a close, so does the official Women in Horror Month. Started a few years back, the month of February has been dubbed a special time of year, where horror fans are encouraged reflect on final girls, vixens and villains, and appreciate the evolution of females in the genre. Knowing that, what better time to pay tribute to the unsung heroes of the horror world? Unfortunately, some girls are overlooked either because they aren't the main character, or they just aren't in a movie that became as popular as its predecessors. In my opinion, everyone who helps save lives is warranted some reward. Therefore, I've decided to provide a list of some of my favorite females to spread the word about some contenders that deserve a little more recognition. Without further ado, here are the ten most overlooked horror heroines!

10. Sam - Attack the Block

Sam makes the list because she overcomes her fear of her tormentors for the greater good: saving the world. When aliens attack London, Sam teams up with her co-inhabitants of the block, despite the fact that they robbed her earlier in the same evening. To help the fate of humanity, she puts her preconceived notions aside, and fought alongside the kids she feared the most to kill the aliens, to try and stop them before they spread and take over the planet.

9. Laura - The Orphanage

When a child disappears, most parents could only bear to live with the sorrow and anger for so long before they would have to move on. Although this is completely understandable, what makes Laura so remarkable is her refusal to give up on her son Simon, despite the fact that he's been absent for so long. Even after Laura experiences frightening disruptions in her house, is paid a visit by an old criminal, and her husband moves out to avoid painful memories, she refuses to cave. Instead, she stays in her haunted orphanage-turned-house, and faces the spirits that inhabited its walls. Her bravery and devotion to her offspring makes her an inspiring and hauntingly beautiful character that deserves much praise.

8. Angela Vidal – [Rec]

Angela Vidal is a natural born leader. When she unknowingly enters a contaminated building that is later sealed off from the public, she takes charge the situation, and guides her comrades to safety. She may have started out the night as a news reporter, but by the end, she proves that any woman with a plan and the endurance to execute it can survive a zombie outbreak as long as her male counterparts, and perhaps even longer.

7. Dr. Dakota Block - Planet Terror

In Robert Rodriguez’s hilarious grindhouse spoof Planet Terror, a quiet town quickly becomes overrun by zombies. As the population is picked off one by one, a random group of townsfolk gather their resources and work together to survive the outbreak. Most people remember Rose McGowan's sultry portrayal of Cherry Darling, but what about Marley Shelton's steamy depiction of her "friend?" Dr. Dakota Block is not a woman to be messed with, as she's just as tough as she is smart. Put her in a crisis, and she'll attack it with confidence and precision. And she won't be afraid to break a few bones, either, if it means getting the job done -- or getting the car door open.

6. Ami Hyuga - The Machine Girl

Ami lost her parents, her brother and her arm, but that's not going to stop her from becoming a fierce female warrior. Proving her bravery, Ami seeks vengeance on the same people that took her livelihood -- the Yazuka clan. After she escapes the clan’s hideout, Ami seeks shelter with two strangers who nurse her back to health and replace her amputated arm with a high power machine gun. From then on, it’s a blood-soaked massacre, headed by one of the sweetest faces in horror.

5. Annie - The Pact

After her mother's death and the disappearance of her sister, Annie has no choice but to stay in the home that's filled with so many horrid memories from her youth. Vowing to stay until her sister's whereabouts are revealed, Annie soon finds that facing the rooms that highlight her childhood blunders is the least of her problems. During her investigation, Annie confronts some of the scariest situations I've seen on film in years.  Not only is she far braver than I could ever be, but she carries the movie with ease, setting a confident mark for a rare one-woman-show, that will hopefully happen more often in the future.

4. Christine Brown - Drag Me To Hell

When Christine Brown evicted an old woman from her home to get ahead at work, she thought she’d made the right decision. However, as she starts experiencing demonic activity in her home, she soon finds that her job status is the least of her worries. What makes Christine so meaningful amongst the others in her category is her ability to be strong while remaining who she is inside. She'll sacrifice small animals and participate in séances, but she's still a sweet, untainted, morally founded person underneath her questionable actions. Being true to yourself in the face of danger is any hero's biggest challenge, and she executes the task well. Plus, you have to respect any woman who could put up such a fight against a vicious psychotic gypsy.

3. Mercedes - Pan's Labyrinth

When it comes to Pan's Labyrinth, most people think of Ofelia, and rightfully so. However, there is another woman in the background that is just as courageous and morally grounded as the young princess: Mercedes. While Ofelia tends to her atrophied mother and plays out her real life fairytale, Mercedes tiptoes around the man of the house, and the officer in the WWII Spanish army, Captain Vidal. While she attends to every one of the Captain's needs, she uses her free time to sneak supplies to the rebel soldiers waiting nearby in the hills, one of whom is her own brother. While Ofelia faces the challenges of a supernatural world, Mercedes secretly wages an even risker struggle in reality, in the Spanish Civil War.

2. Brigitte Fitzgerald - Ginger Snaps

It's easy to reminisce about the brilliant metaphorical transformation of Ginger Fitzgerald in Ginger Snaps from a shy, adolescent human to a raging hormonal beast, but Ginger's sister Brigitte plays a critical role as well. While Ginger is having mood swings that cause her to eat people, Brigitte goes through changes, too. At the beginning of the story, Brigitte is even more aloof than her older sister, but as the unpleasant high school days roll on, she evolves into a self-sufficient background hero, who cleans up her sister's messes, and searches for a cure for her condition. Brigitte proved that it wasn't her who needed Ginger, but Ginger who needed Brigitte to survive.

1. Taylor Gentry - Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

Intelligent, driven, and determined; Taylor Gentry represents everything a female lead needs to survive a horror movie. While she believed that she was merely documenting a real life protagonist, she accidentally walked right into his trap. What stacks the odds against her even higher is her knowledge of what's to come. Fighting to survive is difficult no matter what, but knowing what lies ahead can render a scared person paralyzed. How does one endure such torture when one is aware of the entire detailed bloody process that lies ahead? Not Taylor, though. This final girl goes down guns blazing, phallic weapon in hand, ready to send the ghost of Leslie Vernon back to his grave. Even if it means losing everything she holds dear (including her sanity), the thought of running away wouldn't enter her mind. Taylor rests comfortably at the top of the list of horror heroines because she made the choice that all heroes must face: to stay and fight her demon, simply because it was the right thing to do.

In Cheap Thrills, Ethan Embry and Pat Healy play Vince and Craig, two estranged friends, each down on their luck, who run into each other at a bar. While there, they meet Colin and Violet (played by David Koechner and Sara Paxton), a wealthy married couple who are celebrating Violet's birthday. Their idea of a good time is to offer money to Vince and Craig for dumb bets and stupid tasks: who can hold their breath the longest; who will punch a dude at the bar in the face. Of course, these thrillseekers are easily bored, so the bets get more and more insane...

We chatted with the lively foursome about what drives their characters to do increasingly stupid things for increasing amounts of money, and how far they would go - if the price was right.

Cheap Thrills is currently available on VOD and in a limited theatrical release.

Cat photos have taken over the Internet. It’s virtually impossible to scroll through one’s Facebook or Twitter feed without happening upon a meme featuring Grumpy Cat mean mugging the camera or Lil Bub doing something impossibly cute. It is a scientific fact that the Internet is in love with cats. We love them when they are nice; we love them even more when they are naughty. Perhaps the reason we adore our feline friends can be attributed to their aloof nature. They make us feel like we are special just because we are being graced with their presence. Or maybe it’s the fact that our cats can always be counted on to silently pass judgment on us for spending the entire day watching House of Cards (without taking time out to bathe or change out of our PJs). Whatever the reason, we couldn’t be more pleased that kitty friends have become the Internet’s most popular animal, even if they are slightly selfish and purely diabolical.

As FEARNET contributor Sara Castillo once astutely pointed out, “Cats are Satan’s furry minions.”  So, to illustrate just how wicked our feline counterparts can be, we are spotlighting several of the most evil kitty photos from around the net.

Hey, at least these cats aren't turning into werewolves. For more adorably creepy critters, check out pets dressed as Freddy Krueger.

Tomorrow, right here on FEARNET, we're going to be bringing you a list of 10 recent giant monster movies that you need to watch, on the road to Godzilla 2014. Today, we whet your appetite for the list with a particularly badass short film, which packs a whole lot of monster-sized action into a mere eight minutes, and is guaranteed to get you even more excited about the havoc Godzilla is getting ready to wreak on the big screen.

Titled Giant God Warrior Appears in Tokyo, this tale of abbreviated Kaiju terror was directed by Studio Ghibli's Higuchi Shinji. Though the title pretty much explains the plot, I nevertheless feel the need to tell you that it's about a giant monster that attacks Tokyo, laying waste to buildings and citizens alike. Oh, and did I mention that this particular Kaiju beast is equipped with a massive death ray gun in its mouth? Yea. You need to watch this. Like... yesterday.

Check out the destructive live-action short below, which is the perfect primer for Godzilla's return!

Bates Motel Episode 201
“Gone But Not Forgotten”
Written By: Carlton Cuse and Kerry Ehrin
Directed By: Tucker Gates
Original Airdate: 3 March 2014

In This Episode…

Season two opens the morning after last season’s finale, with Norma getting a phone call about Miss Watson’s death, and Norman waking up to the news. Norman takes the news really hard. He sobs uncomfortably loud during her memorial, and in the privacy of his room clutches her pearls like a rosary. 

Bradley is too lost in her own downward spiral to know or care about Miss Watson. She is drinking and driving recklessly, finally pulling off the road when a big-rig nearly hits her. She considers things for a moment - then throws herself off a bridge, into the icy water below.

Four Months Later…

Norma has a new haircut and a new outlook on life. Business is doing very well at the motel. Emma is still working there, but things are icy between her and Norman. Bradley is not dead, but she is in a mental institution. Norman has been writing to her, but every one of his letters is marked “return to sender.” In addition to pining for Bradley, he is obsessed with Miss Watson and still mourns her, four months later. Norma is worried about him - between Miss Watson and his taxidermy, he needs to “spend time with living organisms.” She is thrilled when he asks her to take him driving - his driver’s test is coming up and he needs to practice. Finally, a “normal” request! Unfortunately, Norma is overbearing and Norman is a nervous driver. He drives to the cemetery, which launches them into a huge fight about about his obsession with Miss Watson. Driving lesson over, Norman makes his mom drive home. On the way, a construction site makes Norma swerve to a stop. Construction on the new overpass has begun, ahead of schedule. Norma thought she had more time. “This is the road that will ruin our lives,” she bemoans.

That night, Norma is preparing to take her fight to the city council. Norman tells his mom that he is headed into the village for a little bit. Shockingly, she does not fight him on this. He stops by Bradley’s house to see how she is doing and to offer his support. Bradley is cold, distant, and not interested in Norman’s friendship. Norman returns home and gets into bed with Miss Watson’s pearls and obituary. He dreams flashes of his night with Miss Watson, stopping short of remembering anything violent.

Norman goes to visit Miss Watson’s grave the next day. While there, he sees a mysterious man at the grave site. Norman snaps his photo and the guy angrily chases Norman off. Norman takes this photo directly to Sheriff Romero, who fails to see the significance of the stranger. He thinks this might be the mysterious “Eric,” whom Miss Watson argued with over the phone the day she was killed. Romero turns the focus back on Norman, wondering why he is so consumed by Miss Watson’s death.

Norma heads to the council meeting, where she is roundly dismissed. They close the meeting without hearing her, despite the fact that she was on the agenda, and when she does force her way to the podium, she is greeted with condescension and ridicule. The council dismisses the meeting, but Norma has to get the last word in: “You’re a dick.” Everyone freezes, and Norma has a mini-meltdown about being underwater on her mortgage and the town being built on drug money. The meeting is still adjourned. As she leaves, Romero sees her and warns her about Norman’s continuing obsession with Miss Watson.

When Norma gets home, she takes out her anger and frustration on Norman. “This has to stop! You are obsessed with Miss Watson! Why?” Norman finally admits everything - at least, what he remembers. He was at Miss Watson’s house that night, and didn’t tell her because she would have been angry. Norma softens a bit and sits beside him. He tells her that Miss Watson cleaned up his eye, and admits that he found her attractive, but it also felt wrong. Yet not wrong. Norma can’t hold out another second: “Did you sleep with her?” He didn’t, of course, but when she went to change he could see her undressing and he got scared. Norman starts sobbing, and Norma comforts her boy. “She tried to seduce you, and it wasn’t appropriate. You knew that, and ran away because you are a good boy.” Norman’s obsession stems from his guilt. He feels like he should have been able to prevent Miss Watson’s murder.

Bradley is pretty fucked up. After four months in a mental institution, she is cold, distant, and obsessed with her father’s murder. She plays with her father’s gun, and might have shot herself had her mother not interrupted. She pays Gill a visit, demanding answers to who killed her father. All Gill will say is that Jerry was out for himself and didn’t help anyone. He offers to tell her more if she comes inside, but his licentious looks scare her away. We later find out, after Dylan chats with Gill and some other guys at work, that Blair Watson was Gill’s girlfriend, and he wasn’t too happy to discover she was sleeping with Jerry Martin. Dylan meets Bradley out in the middle of nowhere and warns her to stay away from Gill and the whole operation. “I’m pretty sure your dad was having an affair with Gill’s girlfriend.”

Defying Dylan’s advice, Bradley goes back to Gill’s house. But this time she is going to seduce the info she wants out of him. Wearing a very short skirt, she sashays into the house and pours herself a drink, then starts kissing him. He sits, and she nuzzles him, then does the sexy little girl thing while gyrating on his lap and begging for someone to explain things to her. She takes off her jacket, unbuttons his shirt, and asks if Miss Watson was sleeping with anyone else. “I dunno, maybe,” Gill grunts. Bradley sinks down between his legs, but quickly reappears - with a gun. She doesn’t hesitate and pulls the trigger, blowing his brains out all over the window behind him.

Norman wakes to find Bradley in his room. “I need your help.”

Dig It or Bury It?

Well, Norman is no longer the craziest person on the show! Bradley has gone off the rails. I have a hard time believing that a father’s indiscretions could have such a powerful effect. I have to assume that is just a trigger. There is something else going on with her.

Norma and Norman’s relationship seems to have really evened out. Nothing particularly inappropriate happened tonight. Hell, even Dylan is growing up a little bit! I assume this won’t last much longer.

Is it possible that Bradley killed Miss Watson? That would certainly put her over the edge, make her try to kill herself. To me, it is more logical that Bradley would kill her father’s lover, then try to kill herself over the guilt, than it would be to simply try to kill herself because daddy had a mistress. Norman can’t remember what happened, and I don’t think it is an act. When he runs home, I don’t remember him being bloody. The more I think about this, the more I am thinking that Bradley killed Miss Watson.

Prophecies?

There is a lot of talk about what Norma would do if Norman left her. Seems kind of sudden, but okay.

While I may be the resident video-game guy for FEARNET, there are plenty of non-horror titles that I can't get enough of.  Capcom's Ace Attorney series is a prime example, blending melodramatic visual novel storytelling with high-pressure courtroom drama in a way that scratches two itches: Japanese weirdness and my unhealthy love for Law & Order.  Unfortunately, the lack of any real horror elements has kept my love for this fantastic series unspoken.

Which is why I was so excited for Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc from Spike Chunsoft and NIS America.  It took the legal cues from Ace Attorney and dropped it into a bizarre tale of a hellish high school that's unique, engrossing, and oddly vicious in spite of its overt silliness.

You play as Makoto, who was recently accepted into Hope's Peak Academy, a private school for the best of the best.  While his other classmates represent the peak of their particular specialty (the Ultimate Baseball Star, The Ultimate Martial Artist), Makoto won his entrance via a lottery, making him feel inadequate in the presence of such overachievers.

Once in the school, things clearly become even more bizarre: the fifteen students are revealed to be trapped inside the prison-like school by a sadistic bear named Monokuma, who explains that they are to spend the rest of their lives inside the academy.  The only way out is to become "blackened," by murdering one of their classmates.  Once a murder is discovered, a kangaroo court is held to try and determine the killer's identity: if the rest of the students guess right, the "blackened" is executed poetically.  If they guess wrong, they are all executed for their error and the "blackened" is allowed to leave the school.

This ever-so-slightly Battle Royale­-inspired setup is  shockingly intriguing, which is a good thing as the game is heavily story-driven.  You spend your days interacting with your classmates, which can net you some special abilities to use in the Class Trials, and trying to uncover the mysteries contained within Hope's Peak Academy.  However, once a corpse is discovered, the game turns into an investigative search for clues, leading up to the Class Trial where the oddly deliberate pacing of the game quickly becomes an arcade-fast blaze of questioning, evidence presentation, and eventually a rhythm game (yeah, Japanese games can be weird) to determine the identity of the Blackened.  Once you've got your final argument figured out, you then have to re-enact the murder in a manga-style comic, making sure that the Blackened is found guilty and executed in the appropriately gruesome-yet-goofy fashion, be it "The 1,000 Blows" from a pitching machine, reduced to human butter by G-forces, or burned at the stake before being crushed by a fire truck.

Through all of its weird pacing and odd gameplay cues, Danganronpa never lets up on its level of drama and intensity.  You start to like and admire its weird cast of characters, and your daily interactions with them make it a tragedy when you inevitably find their mutilated corpses.  The murders are never pleasant, and the sight of a gore-soaked body is oddly made more disturbing by the decision to color all of the blood in a neon pink.  Whether someone's been bludgeoned, stabbed, or crucified, their frames are always doused in this strange fluorescence.  These murders are wrapped up in scads of mind-blowing twists and turns in the plot that keep you guessing the whole way through to the end, with themes like gender identity, a mysterious sixteenth student living in the walls of Hope's Peak Academy, and the final reveal of Monokuma and the enigmatic "Ultimate Despair."

Danganronpa is not a universally appealing game.  Its arrhythmic gameplay pacing, weird blend of visual novel with courtroom drama and arcade elements , and overbearing sense of Eastern oddness will turn off many who play it.  However, for those who choose to enroll in Hope's Peak Academy, there is a wealth of brilliant story and human brutality on display that will keep you on your toes all the way to graduation.

Teen Wolf Episode 321
“The Fox and the Wolf”
Written By: Ian Stokes
Directed By: Tim Andrew
Original Airdate: 3 March 2014

In This Episode…

Kira’s mother, Noshiko, finally reveals the whole truth about the nogitsune. First, she is about 900 years old. There was an internment camp at Oak Creek, but it was covered up and evidence and records from the camp destroyed. All because of Noshiko.

It was 1943, and Noshiko (as a young woman) is in the Oak Creek internment camp. She steals supplies, which is covered up by MP Reese - her secret boyfriend. Things seem to be going okay until a pneumonia outbreak ravages the camp. Noshiko saw three boxes of medicine in the supply barracks, but the camp doctor insists that they only received one. He has been selling supplies on the black market with the help of another MP, Hayes. Unrest among the interned becomes a full-on riot when a young boy dies and the missing medicine comes to light. They take the riots to the streets of the camp, where the camp doctor is trying desperately to get out of there. Hayes, his driver, gets out to try to calm the group, but they are too riled up. Reese, as an MP, has to jump into the fray - and he jumps into the path of a molotov cocktail. An older woman, one who always focuses on remaining calm and level-headed, finally reveals her true self: she is a werewolf, and she starts attacking. All hell breaks loose and the MPs start shooting. Those that aren’t shot run for cover. 

When the dust settles, dozens of the interned are dead. Noshiko has been shot nearly dead. Her kitsune side fights desperately to heal itself, but in doing so makes her extremely weak, with a pulse that has slowed to being virtually undetectable. As such, she is tossed in with the dead bodies, who are transported out to the desert to be burned. Reese, who died in slow agony from his burns (the doctor also sold all the morphine) was tossed into the truck, right beside Noshiko. Despite the fact that he is heavily bandaged, she knows it is him and clutches his bandaged hand on the drive.

Noshiko is getting scared. She is still weak, but she can’t bear the thought of these men getting away with all that went on at Oak Creek. She knows they are nearly done with the coverup, but all she can think about is comeuppance. She knows it is a bad idea, but she is heartbroken and desperate, so she summons forth a nogitsune to possess her and give her the strength to take vengeance. But calling a trickster demon is dangerous, and sure enough, it possessed Reese, not her. So when they arrived at the would-be funeral pyre, Reese - now the nogitsune - leaps from the truck and starts killing the MPs. Noshiko is finally regaining her strength, but by the time she makes it to her feet, she is too late - the nogitsune has taken the truck and driven off.

Noshiko starts on the long walk back to Oak Creek. When she arrives, she finds nearly everyone dead. A handful of prisoners are still hoping to escape, but the nogitsune takes care of them pretty fast. Now it is just Noshiko and the nogitsune. She grabs a special katana from under her bed and battles the nogitsune. They are pretty evenly matched, until the werewolf woman shows up, impales the nogitsune on her claws, and holds him in place while Noshiko kills him with the sword. The sword breaks into a million pieces, and a single fly rises from the corpse. Noshiko collects it in a jar and leaves.

She heads to Beacon Hills, and where she buries the jar deep within the roots of the nemeton. As she explains to Scott and Kira, to whom she is telling this story, it is the kids’ fault. Their sacrifice for the nemeton was what released the nogitsune. Way to pass the blame, mom. Anyway, she insists that her sword (which she pieced back together and fused with Kira’s lightning power) is the only way to defeat the nogitsune - but it will also kill Stiles. Scott is not ready to give up on Stiles.

Sheriff Stilinsky has some kind of plan. He enlists Argent, Derek, and Allison to help. When their search for Stiles leads them back to his bedroom, they discover his chessboard set up (the same one he first used to explain all the supernaturals in Beacon Hills), with names assigned to different pieces. Sheriff is a bit concerned that Derek is listed as the king - and is only one one move away from checkmate. The sheriff points out that they are dealing with someone who lacks motive. He is not a killer; the killing is just a byproduct of being a trickster. It wants irony, a joke. “All we need to do is come up with a new punchline.” Sheriff finds Stiles waiting for him in Derek’s loft. It might be a trap, but he has to try.

Dig It or Bury It?

I love that we finally have the history of the nogitsune, but what a bitch Noshiko is for trying to blame Stiles, Allison, and Scott for resurrecting it. Also, that internment camp seemed awfully nice for what I learned in history class. Sure, they weren’t quite Auschwitz, but in this version, all the prisoners were clean, well groomed, and they had basic comforts. I forget, though: this is MTV. Everything has to be sexed up.

Prophecies?

Stiles is still evil. His dad and Scott still think he can be saved; Argent and Melissa are losing hope.

No horror movie to come along in recent years has been more talked about than Tom Six's 2009 film The Human Centipede (First Sequence). With a brilliantly bizarre concept, which sees human beings stitched together ass-to-mouth, The Human Centipede become a bonafide pop culture phenomenon, spoofed on South Park and watched even by those who normally wouldn't expose themselves to such grotesque cinematic imagery.

Six followed up the controversial film with a sequel in 2011, which upped the gross-out factor, and centered on a fan of the first film, who decides to build himself an even larger centipede than the sinister Dr. Heiter constructed.

As reported by Entertainment Weekly, Six is turning the sensation into a trilogy, and The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence) is soon going to crawl its way into our lives. He's remaining fairly quiet about the plot, but the first image reveals that the stars of the first two films, Dieter Laser and Laurence R. Harvey, will be returning - though they'll both be playing far different roles than Dr. Heiter and Martin Lomax.

"Dieter Laser and Laurence R. Harvey play very different characters that will put Dr. Heiter and Martin in the shade,” says Six. “They are both brilliant actors with their own style. Laurence played a mute in Part 2; now he is a smart guy with a whole lot of dialog. Dieter played a cold, restrained doctor in Part 1; now he is a loud, racist, sadistic a–hole."

Tom Six himself and Eric Roberts will also star in the film, which Six describes as being quite unlike anything we've seen thus far. "THC Part 3 will be totally different from Parts 1 and 2 and certainly not as gross,” explains the director. “But it will be the most controversial one politically-wise. It will have a lot of self-mockery and will be the most darkly comical of the three."

All we know for now is that the second sequel takes place in a maximum security prison, and it will feature the construction of a larger centipede than we've ever seen before. No release date has been announced, but we'll be sure to keep you posted, as we learn more! Don't forget to check out our own spoof with our Human Centipede 30 Second Bunnies.

Not long ago we got two very cool genre films that had very similar stories. They were the British sci-fi film Dredd and the Indonesian action flick The Raid. Some fans think it's obvious that one group of filmmakers stole the "lone hero battling his way up a building that's absolutely packed with vicious henchmen" concept from the other group, but given how simplistic that premise actually is -- and given that both films were in production around the same time -- it seems unlikely that there was any intentional thievery afoot. (Plus both movies kick ass, so there's your happy ending.)

Back in November of 2011, engineers drained a hydroelectric dam in Brazil that spans a river connected to the Amazon, and discovered six particularly unusual looking snakes, at the bottom of the river-bed. With wrinkly flesh-colored skin and no eyes, immature folks like myself have had no choice but to dub the newly discovered creatures 'penis snakes,' but the scientific name is a bit less giggle-inducing; Atretochoana eiselti.

Several months after the discovery, scientists determined that these slithering oddities are actually not snakes at all but are rather more closely related to salamanders and frogs. As reported by the UK Daily Mail, they've confirmed that they're rare creatures that have been spotted very sporadically over the years, after first being sighted way back in 1968. Biologist Julian Tupan believes that the animals probably breathe through their skin, and feed on small fish and worms. However, "there is still nothing proven," he says.

Of the six phallic creatures discovered, two have been kept for studies, three were released back into the wild and one unfortunately died.

Makes ya wonder how many strange creatures are lurking under the water that we've still yet to discover, doesn't it?

Earlier this year we told you about Hidden Horror, a new book that celebrates 101 of the most overlooked and underrated films in the history of horror cinema. The book is currently available through Amazon, as well as select brick and mortar retailers, and it's proven to be quite the success in the horror community, introducing many fans to gems that they've either never heard of, or were simply never urged to seek out.

As a celebration of the success of the book, a special signing event is being held this Saturday at Burbank, California's horror shop Dark Delicacies, with several of the authors stopping by to sign copies and discuss the book. On hand will be FEARNET's editor-in-chief Lawrence Raffel, who wrote an essay in Hidden Horror on 1979's Fascination, as well as fellow contributors Nate Yapp, Paul Hough, Michael Klug and Molly Celaschi.

If you're in the LA area, be sure to head over to Dark Delicacies to take part in this exciting event, which kicks off at 2pm PST. And no matter where you are in the world, I encourage you to pick up a copy of Hidden Horror, which also includes essays from yours truly and FEARNET's own Kristy Jett. You can learn more about it, and the event, over on the Hidden Horror Facebook page!

There is a house in upstate New York known as the John Lawson House. This house's only inhabitants seem to be mannequins.

The John Lawson House (I have not been able to figure out who John Lawson is) was built in 1845. In 1871, a train crashed less than 200 feet away. All 22 passengers were killed. In 1877, a fire swept through the streets and the John Lawson House was one of the few structures to survive.

Mannequins are always seen on the front porch, having tea, but no human residents have ever been seen. Some locals think the mannequins are trying to convey a message - maybe mourn the train crash victims - but no one really knows. The mannequins might face the crash site, or may be looking towards the only other historical (and long-since abandoned) house on the street. Each day, the number of mannequins, their position, and their attire changes. Sometimes they hold props, like cups of potpourri or hair brushes. If it is raining, the mannequins don't come outside. 

Locals have reported that, sometimes at night, a light can be seen flickering behind heavy drapes that line the windows.

Perhaps weirdest of all is the fact that, even in this internet age, I cannot find any information on who John Lawson is, or any other details on this house. A search on Zillow shows the house last sold in 2011, so maybe these are old photos? Maybe it is all an elaborate hoax? Or maybe - just maybe - mannequins are far scarier and more devious than we ever thought?

For more creepy towns, pay a visit to Helltown, Ohio and Stull, Kansas; or find out what happened when a mansion's occupants disappeared without a trace. (Maybe mannequins invaded?)

After impressing with his short film The Legend of Beaver Dam, which won a Fantastic Fest award in 2010 for Best Horror Short, Jerome Sable makes his feature debut with the slasher musical Stage Fright, set to make its world premiere next week at the South by Southwest Film Festival.

Starring Minnie Driver and Meatloaf, the film centers on starry-eyed teenager Camilla Swanson, who desperately wants to become a Broadway superstar, just like her deceased mother. After landing a role in a play, Swanson comes face-to-face with the dark side of musical theatre, when a masked maniac targets her and her fellow cast members.

Stage Fright gets a VOD release on April 3rd, courtesy of Magnet Releasing, followed by a limited theatrical rollout on May 9th. While we wait, check out the gory new Red Band trailer, exclusively posted over on Yahoo! Movies, which accompanies the slick new piece of retro-style poster art seen above, spotted on Ain't It Cool News!