We recently took a trip, back in time, to Salem, Massachusetts, circa 1692 - by way of Shreveport, Louisiana, circa 2014. In preparation for the debut of WGN America's first original series, Salem, we visited the set and chatted with stars Janet Montgomery, Seth Gabel, Shane West, Ashley Madekwe, Elise Eberle, Iddo Goldberg, Tamzin Merchant, and Xander Berkeley; series creator Brannon Braga; costume designer Joseph Porro; and director David Von Ancken. They told us why Salem is like no other witch project on television.

Salem premieres on WGN America on April 20th.

From the outside, the Holy Trinity Church in Marylebone, Westminster, London looks like any other church, and it's likely that you'd pass it by without even taking note of the building. But it's what's inside the church that makes it one of the most unique in the world...

As we spotted over on Roadtrippers, London's Holy Trinity Church was built in 1828 to celebrate the defeat of Napoleon, and it was in the 1930s that the building ceased to be a place of worship. It's been used for various different purposes over the years, including a storage space for Penguin Books as well as the home base for a Christian missionary organization.

More recently, artist Paul Fryer literally brought the Devil inside the church, hanging this incredibly creepy wax sculpture right in the center of the building. Titled 'Lucifer (Morningstar),' the statue depicts the Devil tangled in power lines, captured and on display inside the one place you'd never expect to find him on display. Nobody is sure exactly what statement Fryer was trying to make with the controversial piece of art, but there's no doubt that it makes a big time statement, to say the least.

Looks like a set-piece ripped right out of NBC's Hannibal, doesn't it?!

Check out Germany's golden skeleton jungle gym, for more creepy church fun!

One cannot let bad movies get in the way of being a horror geek. We struggle through tons of rotten movies (that usually have great promotional artwork) in order to locate the good and occasionally great pieces of genre cinema -- but sometimes a really bad horror flick is nothing short of mystifying. As in: not only is the new indie horror / thriller Jinn an outrageously bad film, but how does something so amateurish make it way into 150 theaters while great indies open in 16 theaters and VOD at the same time?

READ FEARNET'S PARTNER REVIEWS OF JINN

Making things on your own is always a lot more fun than simply buying things that other people have made, and we here on FEARNET are big fans of Do-it-Yourself projects that allow you to do just that. We've all seen those candles that 'bleed' as they burn, mostly popping up in stores in the months leading up to Halloween, and this fun - and easy - project teaches you how to make them for yourself, while at the same time saving you a whole lot of money.

As we spotted over on Savvy Sugar, all you need to make your own bleeding candles are cheap dollar store candles - both red and white - as well as parchment paper and things like nails, pins and tacks. How do you make the candles bleed? Well, it's a whole lot simpler than you might be thinking.

Head over to Savvy Sugar to find out how to turn ordinary candles into macabre, blood-dripping delights, and remember; it's never too early to start getting in the Halloween spirit!

Be sure to check out Horror Decor's new line of horror-inspired candles, which are equipped with scents based on films like The Shining and Ghostbusters!

Last week, legendary director John Carpenter made a special appearance at the second annual CineMayhem film festival in Los Angeles. The good folks at CineMayhem posted a highlights reel of Carpenter's Q&A session, and Carpenter proves he is just a kid at heart.

You love the Saw movies but the deliciously creepy Billy scares the snot out of you. What better way to face your fears than to beat the living hell out of them? Anime Chibi Sen is a family-owned company of traditional pinata makers who create beautiful works of art that you may want to think twice about bashing to bits. 

Anime Chibi Sen made us a custom Billy pinata - and showed us how they did it. 

Price available upon request. Check out their Etsy store for a selection of zombie and superhero goodies.

One of my personal favorite companies is Kyle Crawford's Electric Zombie, which has released some of the coolest t-shirts and products in recent years - including those horror icon Madballs we recently told you about. Like me, Kyle is both a huge fan of wrestling and horror, and in celebration of the WWE's 30th annual WrestleMania event - which took place last night (R.I.P. Undertaker) - he unloaded an entire line of timely goodies at the tail end of last week, which fuse together the worlds of pro wrestling and horror.

Dubbed 'Legends Never Die,' the line includes t-shirts, posters and even a special box set, with the highlight of the line being the two pillow pals you see pictured at the top of this post, depicting wrestling icons Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage as undead zombies. As fans of old-school WWF will pick up on, these 'Deadies' are of course based on the old wrestling buddies from the early 90s, and are without question must-own treats for all who love wrestling as much as they love horror.

Head over to Electric Zombie to see the full 'Legends Never Die' line, which sees many other wrestling icons depicted as horror villains, including Big Boss Man as the Maniac Cop and Mankind as Leatherface (below)!

Speaking of which, check out our list of 10 of the most memorable horror-inspired professional wrestlers of all time!

Adam Rehmeier, director of the controversial The Bunny Game (2010) and the acclaimed Jonas (2013), is ready to pull the trigger on his next film, Save A Bullet For Me.  This violent western / action / horror picture is slated to begin shooting later this year in British Columbia.

Rehmeier is no stranger to touching nerves and stirring outcry - The Bunny Game sparked protest worldwide, and was banned in the UK - and his new screenplay seems primed to continue the trend.   Set in the US during the 1800s, the blood-splattered film focuses on the aftermath of a brutal massacre, and two wounded frontiersmen who make a desperate last stand against a Native American war party.  Writer/director Rehmeier describes the movie as “a visceral, animal of a film, stripped down to the most primal fight-or-flight level possible.”  

Save A Bullet For Me is being produced by Shawn Williamson, whose numerous genre film producer credits include Apollo 18 (2011) starring Warren Christie and Ryan Robbins, The Wicker Man (2006) starring Nicolas Cage and Ellen Burstyn, Slither (2006) starring Nathan Fillion, and White Noise (2005) starring Michael Keaton.  Williamson is currently producing the Lifetime Television series Witches Of East End, starring Julia Ormond and Mädchen Amick.  He's also producing Skin Trade, starring Ron Perlman and Dolph Lundgren, and The Interview, starring James Franco and Seth Rogen - both feature films currently in post-production.

Joining Williamson in producing Save A Bullet For Me is Mark Sandell, producer of A Liar's Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python's Graham Chapman (2012), Believe (2013) starring Natascha McElhone and Brian Cox, and the currently-in-production Terry Jones comedy, Absolutely Anything, starring Kate Beckinsale and Simon Pegg.

Mark Sandell says, “It’s a great privilege to be working with Adam Rehmeier on this incredible project, and to team up with Shawn Williamson and Brightlight Pictures is the icing on the cake. I couldn’t put the script down and knew immediately I had to make it.”

Director Rehmeier states, “I have immense respect for Mark Sandell and it is an honor to have him on board for Bullet. He championed my first feature The Bunny Game in the UK despite a slew of controversy with the BBFC.”

The cast for Save A Bullet For Me has not yet been announced.

Axelle Carolyn's feature directorial debut will hold its North American premiere at the Etheria Film Night in Los Angeles. The female-centric Etheria Film Night screens only one feature-length film per year, and Soulmate is the pick for 2014.

Official synopsis: Audrey is a suicidal woman mourning the recent death of her husband. Isolating herself in an old country cottage away from friends and family, she soon develops a relationship with the ghost haunting the property. What follows is an atypical genre film in which love is not the ultimate cure-all.

The premiere will take place on July 12th at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, and screen with a selection of short films (to be announced). For more details, visit EtheriaFilmNight.com

The Following Episode 212
“Betrayal”
Written By: Lizzie Mickery
Directed By: Marcos Siega
Original Airdate: 7 April 2014

In This Episode…

Ryan is a bundle of emotions, staring at Claire. Once he accepts that she is there, alive and well, she gets down to what she is really there for: she wants to finish this by killing Joe. Her “brilliant” plan is that they can do it together. “I am the last thing he will see coming - we can surprise him!”

Pastor Tanner is doing an interview with Carrie, and Joe watches it, growing obsessively enraged. He rails against the hypocrisy of religion. When asked point-blank by Emma, Joe tells her, “No, I don’t believe in any god. I made that mistake once before, and I won’t do it again. Religion is only good for one thing: power.”

Joe’s next move is to send a van full of his psychos out to get a message to Carrie (one that is delivered with violence to her security detail, leaving Carrie untouched). The followers hand her a phone, and Joe, on the other end, instructs her to get his message out or he will kill her and her loved ones. (Same threat, different day.) A follower hands her a thumb drive and they take off. When cops arrive, Carrie turns the drive over to Ryan, but does warn him that she made a copy. She wants to stay with him tonight, but Ryan dodges the request by asking her not to air the video, at least not yet. Back at home, Ryan and Claire watch Joe’s video together. It is more ranting against religion, and his insistence that he will reveal the hypocrisy. Then Joe quotes a bible verse, which Claire finds curious: Joe’s family was very religious, which turned him into an atheist. Ryan is also an atheist, which surprises Claire; she believes in a god. (But how will they raise the children?) Whatever quote Joe recited made reference to children, and it wasn’t a far leap to figure out that the pastor’s only son, Preston, is in danger. Claire begs Ryan not to call the authorities in. She wants the two of them to go find him on their own. Ryan agrees, but he is just shining her on. She waits in the apartment while he “causes a distraction;” in reality, he is filling in Mike on the situation and heading towards the university with him while Max goes upstairs to do some research and keep an eye on Claire. Claire is pissed that Ryan left without her, and Max is uncomfortable babysitting the ex-wife of a serial killers.

The van of psychos gets to the university first. Preston lives in a frat house, so no one thinks twice when a pair of twentysomethings walk through the door and ask which room is Preston’s. They direct Lucas and Tilda upstairs, but find Preston’s roommate fooling around with a girl. Tilda wants to kill them, but Lucas holds her back - until they start insulting her weight. Then it’s on. By the time Preston arrives home, the house is dark and quiet. He enters with a girl, and the sounds of violence echo through the night. When Robert sees that Ryan is pulling up, he kills Preston’s girlfriend.

Mike and Ryan enter the frat house and creep upstairs. They follow a noise, and are initially attacked by a follower, wearing a mask. They quickly realize that the dozen or so people corralled in the bedroom are mostly hostages, the masks glued and stapled on to confuse the police. Ryan sees Robert and Tilda hustle Preston out of the house and he follows while Mike tries to sort out the hostages from the followers. They drive off in their van, and Ryan follows them. When Mike calls him later, after the rest of the cops arrive at the frat house, Ryan tells him he is following, and doing it alone. “I’ve got to get Joe. This is my chance.” He swears it has nothing to do with the Claire thing; “It’s about me ending Joe for good.” Ryan tosses his phone out the window. 

After airing the footage from Joe, Carrie goes to Ryan’s apartment to apologize for running the piece. Max and Mike hide Claire in the bedroom, and Carrie explains that she just didn’t know what to do. Claire reveals herself, which shocks Carrie. “You want to help Ryan? Help me.” Carrie is speechless.

Emma is getting nervous that she can’t find Mandy, but Joe brushes off her concerns; he is too obsessed with Pastor Tanner. Then Emma finds security footage of Mandy jumping the fence, and finds that she looked up Lily’s phone number in the classifieds. Joe is furious and his first instinct is to call Lily. Emma begs him not to, certain that she can track even a burner phone. So instead he calls Mandy’s phone, which doesn’t make Emma feel any better. But it is not Mandy who answers the phone: it is Lily.

So let’s back up a bit. Mandy meets Mark in the middle of nowhere. His first question for her is where is Joe, but she won’t spill. He takes her back home (hood over the head, of course) and Lily greets Mandy warmly. “We have Mandy; who needs Joe?” She seems genuinely pleased to have Mandy back in the family, and she is baking a cake to celebrate Mandy’s return. The conversation darkens when Lily tells her how hurt she was that Mandy chose Joe, and her family was destroyed. Mandy apologizes and promises she wants to be part of Lily’s family. Lily needs an assurance of loyalty, which she can prove by telling her where Joe is. Mandy still won’t tell. “Joe is like a father to me. I don’t want to be with him, but I don’t want to betray him.” Lily insists she just wants to make things right with Joe, but Mandy sticks to her guns. Lily backhands her and tries again. She still won’t budge. “I can’t tell you how sad I am to hear that.” Lily turns her over to the twins, who force her into a demented game of Truth or Dare. She won’t answer for Truth (“Where is Joe?”) so they make her do a Dare (holding her hand in a candle while asking “Where is Joe?”)

Okay, so Joe calls, Lily answers, and she lets Mandy “say hello,” which is just Mandy shouting into the phone that she didn’t tell them anything. She has been badly beaten by this point, which makes Joe’s warnings that Lily will kill her a bit gratuitous. Lily is touched by Mandy’s loyalty, and gives him a choice: come pick her up himself, or they will kill her. Mandy begs Joe to come for her. “I love you,” he says and hangs up. He’s not coming for her - but at least he seems broken up about it. Emma tries to get him back on track with their latest chapter, but Joe is crying over Mandy. Joe then turns his anger on Emma, blaming her for not trying hard enough to get along with her. Emma says he should have left her in Arkansas, and Joe lurches towards her. For the first time, Emma seems a teeny bit scared of Joe. “She was mine!” Back at Lily’s house, she and the twins are eating Mandy’s cake. They toast her, and we see Mandy is sitting at the table with them - but she is very dead.

The psychos in the van are really bad at what they do, because they don’t notice Ryan following them on the lonely roads. So they lead him right to Corbin. Tilda and Robert present Preston to Joe, who tells him it is time he pay for the sins of his father. Ryan watches all of this from the shadows.

Dig It or Bury It?

Some random thoughts about this largely average episode:

Lily and Joe officially have the worst “divorce” in history. Custody battles rarely end in this much bloodshed. 

Emma is really showing some surprising strength this season. She always showed more independence than the other followers, but she no longer seems like a follower at all - she is about as close to an equal as anyone will get.

RIP Mandy. She was sweet, and ultimately not a bad person; she just fell in with a bad crowd.

Prophecies?

Three episodes left this season. Looks like Joe and Lily are going to face off at some point - and Ryan may just be caught in the middle.

One of the more interesting fun facts in the history of horror cinema is that Jean-Claude Van Damme was originally going to play the title character in 1987's Predator, and he had in fact shot a couple scenes for the film, wearing a costume (above, left) that was eventually thrown out the window in favor of the much cooler one that we're all quite familiar with.

While it's likely that you've heard about this early incarnation of a pop culture icon, not much has really been said about the whole ordeal over the years, from the people directly involved in the production of the film. Which is why it's such a treat that the folks over at the Stan Winston School of Character Arts just uploaded a brand new video interview with effects artist Steve Johnson, at long last telling the story of Van Damme's days inside one of the goofiest costumes of all time.

Check out the hilarious video below, which is sure to make you glad that the Predator went through a big time makeover!

Check out a gallery of awesome behind the scenes photos from the set of Predator, right here on FEARNET!

Back in January we told you about a tattoo artist in Amsterdam who offers up a very unique service to his clients, where he promises to remove their inked skin, post-death, and preserve it as a macabre display piece. But Artur Mrozowski (above) isn't interested in that service. He wants to cut out the middle man, and sell his human hide directly to the public.

As reported by Metro UK, the 41-year-old Mrozowski has now listed his jaguar-printed skin on eBay on two separate occasions, with the most recent listing being pulled by the website just a couple days ago. Obviously, eBay doesn't condone the auctioning of body parts, but that isn't stopping the tattoo aficionado from searching for potential buyers, confident that someone will be interested in turning his skin into Ed Gein-inspired home decor.

"Human grain leather is the finest grain leather that is obtainable," wrote Mrozowski in his latest attempt to auction off his skin (above), which is 90% covered in a jaguar print - the result of 300+ hours in the tattoo chair. He says that his skin is in excellent condition, due to his vegetarian diet, and that it will be available to the buyer after he passes away.

How much is the jaguar man looking to get for his skin, which will measure approximately two square metres, when it's removed from his body? He wont accept any offers under £75,000, which translates to over $100,000.

Couldn't make this stuff up if you tried!

Last month, our own Rob Galluzzo took you inside of Burbank, California's Hyaena Gallery, where the walls were lined with art pieces paying tribute to Wes Craven, whose most iconic film - A Nightmare on Elm Street - celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. If you missed Rob's recap of the gallery's 'Legacy of Wes Craven' event, be sure to check it out, as the art on display was quite impressive.

This month, Hyaena Gallery turns their attention to another master of horror, as they're playing host to a John Carpenter art tribute, dubbed 'All Outta Bubblegum.' The group art exhibit is not only on display over at their Burbank location but it's also available for virtual viewing on their website, and today we wanted to show off some of our personal favorite pieces from the show.

So check 'em out below, and see many more over on the Hyaena Gallery website. While there, you can even bring the exhibit into your own home by purchasing original art!

The Dixie Square Mall is best known for its role in the 1980s Blues Brothers film. It is the scene of an epic car chase that sends Elwood and Jake Blues crashing through the interior of the mall in an attempt to evade police. However, the mall has a history that makes it more reminiscent of the Monroeville Mall in Dawn of the Dead.

Opened in 1966, it was your pretty standard suburban shopping mall, with over 60 shops and three anchor stores. But the town of Harvey, where the mall existed, was a failing suburb that became poverty-stricken, leading to an increase in crime. Countless robberies took place at the Dixie Square Mall, and gangs kept families away.  The first death at the mall came in 1968, when an elderly woman was killed in the parking lot in a hit and run accident. A woman was fatally shot in a botched robbery on her way to the mall in November 1972. Another robbery, with another fatal shooting happens on the mall property in April 1973. A young girl was abducted from the mall, tortured, and strangled to death by three teen girls in June 1973. Flagpole sitter Richard Blandy fell to his death near the end of his three-day stunt in the mall’s parking lot. This last death was the beginning of the end of the Dixie Square Mall, and stores began pulling out. By November 1978, the entire mall was closed down. The property was used as a temporary school while a new school was being built, but that lasted only two years.

Dixie Square’s “big break” came in 1979, when John Landis chose the mall to shoot Blues Brothers in. The production spent eight weeks filming at the mall, using it for both interior and exterior locations. As one might expect when shooting a car chase inside a shopping mall, there was a fair amount of damage. The movie crew never repaired the damage (after all, the city had been planning to demolish the building and start new) which led to a quickly-dismissed lawsuit.

Despite its newfound “fame,” Dixie Square was once again shuttered and sat untouched for years, until vandals decided to make it their playground. Every panel of glass was shattered; every piece of salvageable metal was stolen. It became a haven for gangs and an easy place to score drugs. Homeless people frequently broke in and set up camp. As such, the mall was left open to the elements, hastening its decay. A man named Raymond Eaves lured at least two girls to the mall where he raped them; the second girl, Denise Shelby, he also strangled to death. He is currently serving a life sentence.

Dixie Square Mall

The Dixie Square Mall sat abandoned for decades - more than twice as long as it was open - due to a variety of political red tape, EPA investigations, asbestos lawsuits, developer stalling, and accusations of city corruption. In May 2012, the final demolition was complete. Dixie Square is no more.

For a complete timeline of the Dixie Square Mall, check out the City Life Disco forum. For more photos, check out the Dixie Square Flickr Page and ifmuth’s stream.

Want more of our favorite, creepy abandoned places? Take a visit to Helltown, Ohio; the Farm Colony of Staten Island; or the Miracle Strip Amusement Park in Florida.

Is there intelligent life out there on other planets, looking down on us? It's a question that's been pondered by generations, and will continue to be pondered by generations to come. But astronomers Stephen Kane and Franck Zelziz aren't worried about intelligent life. They're worried about unintelligent death.

As reported by io9, the two astronomers recently published a study that suggests the possibility of over 2,500 zombie-infested planets, within 326 light years of our solar system. Yes, Kane and Zelziz believe in the potential existence of extraterrestrial zombies, and they've got the evidence to back up their wild claims.

The basic gist of the study is that since there's a high likelihood of life other than us humans out there in the universe, there's also a high likelihood that those forms of life have been hit by devastating pandemics, like the ones that have ravaged our kind throughout the years; smallpox, Black Death, etc. And so, following this line of thinking, the men suggest that it's possible that other lifeforms have been wiped out by something akin to a zombie apocalypse, which would explain why we've never made any sort of contact with them.

It's a stretch, for sure, but I suppose anything is possible. What do you make of all this madness? Comment below and let us know!

What about zombies here on our planet, you ask? Check out another interesting study, which determines the U.S. states most and least likely to survive the zombie apocalypse!