In the age old battle between God and Satan, God appears to have won the latest round in Boston.  A reenactment of a “black mass” was scheduled to take place the evening of May 12^th on Harvard’s campus.  The event was sponsored by the Harvard Extension Cultural Studies Club in association with the Satanic Temple. The school came under intense fire from students and religious groups for their involvement.  Nearly 60,000 signatures were collected from undergrads, alumni, and faculty.  A Eucharistic procession also took place, starting at MIT’s chapel and ending at St. Paul Church in Harvard Square.

Presumably it was this outpouring of concern within the community that lead the club to move the mass from a campus run building to a local nightclub, The Middle East.  In the hours leading up to the planned event, negotiations with The Middle East broke off and the cultural studies club pulled their sponsorship.  
The loss of venue and sponsorship did not deter the Satanic Temple.  They reportedly moved the ceremony to the second floor of the nearby Hong Kong Restaurant & Lounge.  The purpose of the re-located mass was to “reaffirm their respect for the Satanic faith and to demonstrate that the most powerful response to offensive speech is to shame those who marginalize others by letting their own words and actions speak for themselves.”

If the name 'Satanic Temple' sounds familiar, they are also the group behind the Oklahoma satanic monument controversy.

Hot on the heels of the news that Magnet/Magnolia Pictures will be handling the release of V/H/S/ Viral in the US, we now get our first look at the film via the just released sales trailer. The third installment involves tales of a deranged illusionist, a homemade machine that opens a door to a parallel world, teen skaters involved in a Mexican death ritual, and a sinister organization tracking a serial killer.  Enjoy.

Sony has just released a new trailer for their upcoming thriller 'Deliver Us From Evil'.  This gives us our best look at the movie that they had so much confidence in that its release was moved up 6 months to a prime 4^th of July spot. 

In Deliver Us From Evil, New York police officer Ralph Sarchie (Eric Bana), struggling with his own personal issues, begins investigating a series of disturbing and inexplicable crimes. He joins forces with an unconventional priest (Edgar Ramírez), schooled in the rituals of exorcism, to combat the frightening and demonic possessions that are terrorizing their city. Inspired by the book, which details Sarchie’s bone-chilling real-life cases.

Also starring Oliva Munn, Joel McHale, and Sean Harris.  Directed by Scott Derrickson.

In theaters July 2nd.

TNT has announced their upcoming slate of new shows and among them is a Firestarter sequel.  The new series, titled The Shop, will take place 20 years after the events of the film (2004?) and focus on Department of Scientific Intelligence.  Here is the full synopsis:

Based on characters created by Stephen King, this supernatural thriller centers on The Shop, a mysterious organization that once exploited the pyrokinetic abilities of a young girl named Charlie McGee. Twenty years after bringing the organization to its knees in a blaze of fire, Charlie has been tracked down by one of its former members, Henry Talbot. Talbot introduces Charlie to a group of people just like her, all products of The Shop with their own unique abilities. It turns out The Shop is very much alive, bigger and badder than ever, and its dark experiments are unleashing terrifying new entities on the world. It's now up to Talbot, Charlie and the rest of the team to find The Shop and destroy it for good.

The series will be produced by James Middleton (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronincles), James Paglia (Eureka), and Robbie Thompson (Supernatural). A premiere date has yet to be announced.

The US government has a plan for everything it would appear, including zombies. No, they don’t actually believe in the walking dead.  CONPLAN 8888 is a product of planning exercises held in 2009 and 2010 at the Joint Combined Warfighting School and is only meant for training purposes.  The unclassified document provides the military guidelines for Counter-Zombie Dominance Operations.  The plan was developed to accomplish 3 goals: 1) maintain defensive perimeter to protect human life; 2) conducting operations that will eradicate zombie threats; and 3) aiding civil authorities in restoring law and order.

Check out the full plan embedded below. 

CONPLAN 8888 by JDStuster

As a professional concept artist, Dan Luvisi has worked on films such as Kick Ass and with DC Comics but it is his more twisted creations that caught our attention.  Dan has taken some of the characters we know and love and re-imagined them as mentally ill, murderous, and psychotic (often from films and video games).  And we love them.  He has even written backstories to accompany a few.

Enjoy your childhood being perverted.

The Muppets - Kermit (story)

The Muppets - Fozzie & Gonzo

The Simpsons - Homer

The Simpsons - Otto

Sesame Street - Cookie Monster

There's more over at Dan's deviant art gallery as well as his blog.  Go check them out.

(H/T EliteDaily.com)

Currently being shopped around to distributors in Cannes, the new indie film Lost After Dark has just released a trailer.  According to the filmmakers, the movie "pays tribute to iconic horror classics like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween and Friday the 13th. Its unique selling point is that the story is a homage told in a retro style that takes audiences back to 1984, when the slasher film ruled the box office." Check out the trailer and let us know if you think they hit their mark.

Synopsis:

Lost After Dark follows a group of teenagers who sneak out of a high school dance, and head out to party at a friend’s cabin. Along the way their ride breaks down, stranding them near an abandoned farmhouse. After the brutal murder of one of their friends, their quest for help becomes one of survival

Gareth Edwards burst onto the scene in 2010 with the indie film Monsters (our review).  Made for under a million dollars, the movie was so impressive it made him Warner Bros. choice to helm their blockbuster/franchise building reboot of Godzilla.  Now, just a day before that film opens wide across the US, a trailer has been released for a sequel Edwards debut film, Monsters: Dark Continent.   However, he is only involved with this project in an executive producer role.

Synopsis:

Seven years on from the events of Monsters, and the ‘Infected Zones’ have spread worldwide. Humans have been knocked off the top of the food chain, with disparate communities struggling for survival. American soldiers are being sent abroad to protect US interests from the Monsters, but the war is far from being won. Noah, a haunted soldier with several tours under his belt, is sent on a mission: an American soldier has gone rogue deep in the Infected Zone, and Noah must reach him and take him out. But when Noah’s unit and transport are destroyed, he finds himself with only a young and inexperienced cadet for company – the brother of the man Noah has been sent to kill. The two soldiers must go on a life-altering journey through the dark heart of monster territory, accompanied by a young local woman to guide them. By the time the three of them reach their goal, they will have been forced to confront the fear that the true monsters on the planet may not be alien after all.

The problem with "simple pleasures" is that they generally remain simple, whereas human beings grow older, learn things, expand their horizons, and grow a bit cynical as time progresses. This means that a simple pleasure like, say, a monster movie used to work well enough with a guy in a suit or some masterful stop-motion animation, but nowadays has to find an appropriate style, tone, and demeanor for a "blockbuster"-sized world audience. Audiences won't go for "a guy in a suit," which means your monster movie is suddenly a $200 million tentpole release that has to appease as many moviegoers as possible.

All of which makes Gareth Edwards' sober, sincere, and surprisingly humane rendition of Godzilla such an unexpected treat. Sure, the new version has a slow start and a few editorial missteps throughout, but if you consider what most Godzilla films look like (aside from the classic 1954 original), Godzilla 2014 gets an impressive amount of things right. (Fair warning: if you want non-stop action, stick with Pacific Rim.) The new Godzilla is virtually humor-free, almost bereft of color, and simply intent on making you look up the screen and say "whoa."

Anchored by a dad/estranged son plot construction that you've seen before, Godzilla focuses on a pair of giant arachnid-like mega-beasts who rise from the ocean, raise holy hell, and generally make humanity really angry. With help from heroic men like Aaron Taylor-Johnson (former soldier), David Strathairn (boss soldier), Bryan Cranston and Ken Watanabe (as scientists nobody listens to), humanity strikes back against the horrific invaders... and that's pretty much when Godzilla awakens from his ancient slumber and begins beating the snot out of anyone who bugs him.

None of this is brain surgery. Actually, a good portion of the "plot stuff" borrows rather liberally from any number of "aliens attack" movies, but screenwriters Dave Callaham and Max Borenstein manage to inject a few moments of legitimate humanity into a film constructed almost exclusively of CG landscapes. The new Godzilla movie is a modern technical marvel with an old-fashioned attitude. This is not a stark metaphor about man's cruelty (as the original film was), nor is it a kitschy piece of tongue-in-cheek pop culture silliness. 

Particular highlights include Alexandre Desplat's consistently rousing score, some special effects work that is simply staggering, and several good moments from a decent ensemble that often seems well aware that it's being upstaged by three giant monsters and more wide-scale destruction than most films even attempt. But the coolest thing about this film is its size, scale, scope, however you want to put it. As we get older, movies seem to get a little smaller. It seems pretty damn obvious that, despite a few flaws, Godzilla wants to make your jaw drop, and anyone who grew up on the films of Ray Harryhausen can back me up on this: trying to make a moviegoer's jaw drop is an admirable goal these days.

READ FEARNET'S PARTNER REVEIWS OF GODZILLA

We are back with another round of horror icons reimagined as Garbage Pail Kids (or garbage pail-like kids). In the past we have brought you the works of artists Mark Pingitore, Brent Engstrom, and Omar Hauksson (click their names to see their work). Today we look at the art of Luis Diaz.

Luis has worked as an illustrator and graphic designer for companies such as IDW, Devil’s Due, Topps, and WWE. Check out the gallery below and be sure to head over to his flickr page to see more of his work.

Luis Diaz GPK

A trend that seems to be building these days is turning feature film properties into tv series.  This year we have seen From Dusk Till Dawn and Fargo premiere, we just got the announcement that their will be a show based on Firestarter, and there will be a 12 Monkeys show next year. Today we are getting extended look at SYFY's Legion based show, Dominion.

While the film Legion wasn't exactly reveived warmly by many fans or critics (our review), the story had potentional.  Will you give the show a chance even if you didn't like the movie? Check out the trailer below.

Sure we have the the battles on film, but what about real life?  The shark is built for the hunt. The octopus is a master of escape, the Houdini of the ocean if you will. It’s impressive abilities are on display on the videos below.  Will they prove enough to protect it from a shark? 

And now to put these skills to the test

Did that go who you thought it would?

While horror fans frequently bemoan the painfully toothless state of modern vampire cinema (aka Twilight, Vampire Academy), the sub-genre's popularity has allowed some very good filmmakers to acquire funding for movies that deal with the bloodsuckers. Neil Jordan's Byzantium and Zoe Cassavetes' Kiss of the Damned are great examples: what's profitable for the big studios can sometimes lead to good things for independent productions. Which brings us, quite neatly, to Jim Jarmusch's frankly excellent vampire story called Only Lovers Left Alive.

The formula of {Jim Jarmusch + vampires + Tilda Swinton + Tom Hiddleston} should be enough to entice any half-literate horror junkie, but as a film freak who has been a Jarmusch fan since the 1980s, it's exciting to note that Only Lovers Left Alive is the writer/director at the top of his game. (If you're not familiar with his work, I'd start with Stranger Than Paradise (1984), Down By Law (1986), and Dead Man (1995), and then just keep going.) Suffice to say that Mr. Jarmusch is a unique, confident, and rather eclectic filmmaker, and while he's dabbled in dark themes here and there (check out Ghost Dog!), this is his first film about vampires. And it's a lush, poignant, intelligent piece of horror poetry.

The story is simple: Adam (Tom Hiddleston) is a very old (but very handsome) vampire who lives in seclusion. In Detroit. (The city almost become a member of the cast.) Eve (Tilda Swinton) is his longtime lover, only they seem to have spent an inordinately long time apart. She leaves her refuge in Tangier to reunite with the generally very glum Adam, an action that kicks off a ripple effect that may lead to the end of their long (very long) love affair. Toss in a few wrinkles from an unwelcome sister (Mia Wasikowska) and a sweet but clueless human (Anton Yelchin), and it soon becomes clear that the modern world is a very scary place for vampires.

John Hurt's small but important role as a very ancient vampire is so cool it deserves its own small, special paragraph. Good lord is John Hurt a great actor.

As is often the case with hands-on indie filmmakers who really know what they're doing, Jarmusch makes the most of every moment. For example, we get a rough idea of how old "Adam" and "Eve" actually are, but the actors have a great time teasing us with specific details. Further, Adam is an ethereally gifted musician, while Eve seems to have an innate connection to all things organic in nature. This material works resoundingly well as simple character development, but it also speaks to Jarmusch's skills as a screenwriter; virtually everything the characters say offers some interesting insight to the story.

Full of calm, quiet moments and occasionally quite darkly amusing when it wants to be, Only Lovers Left Alive could possibly be described as "Before Sunset with vampires." A simplistic comparison, probably, but an appropriate one, and more importantly, it's a very large compliment. We should always take note when a good filmmaker uses the horror genre to say something sad, sweet, or touching about humanity, and Only Lovers Left Alive does so in restrained yet vibrant fashion.

READ FEARNET'S PARTNER REVIEWS OF ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE

In what was described by the local press as a “chamber of horrors”, 250 bodies and body parts were found in the basement of a University in Spain. Luckily there is an explanation for the gruesome scene, albeit not a very good one. The school that the corpses were found in was Madrid’s Complutense University. They had been used for teaching purposes with anatomy students.

As many as 50 bodies a year are donated to the university’s medical school for study. Their storage and disposal is where they have run into an issue.  The director of the anatomy department, Roman Merida, gave following statement regarding the “chamber of horrors”:

"The member of staff charged with operating the incinerating took early retirement in December and we haven’t been able to fill the position because of a dispute with the union"

So there you go, the guy that was supposed to take care of this retired. And the dispute with the union is over the working contions. They claim the oven emits poisonous gases and is dangerous to use

They also wanted to clear up what they believe is a misrepresentation of the scene. "The cadaveric remains were undergoing a drying process necessary prior to incineration," the statement explained. "They cannot be disposed of while they contain the chemical products used in order to study them." The initial report had claimed the bodies appeared to be stored haphazardly. You can judge for yourself by clicking on the video player below.

A couple weeks back we brought you the trailer for the horror movie version of Frozen from youtuber Billy Burns. Well Billy is back again with his take on the classic Pixar film Toy Story.  In this re-cut trailer we find Woody decending into madness upon the arrival of Buzz.

This isn't the first time we have seen the dark side of Toy Story. The beloved childrens franchise has also been mashed up with The Walking Dead and The Shinning.

IDW Entertainment, the new tv production arm of IDW Publishing, has announced that they are teaming up with Entertainment One on their first series,  V-Wars. 

V-Wars is based on the acclaimed IDW Publishing property written by New York Times best-selling and multiple Bram Stoker Award®-winning author Jonathan Maberry. It debuted as a collection of prose stories that chronicles the first Vampire War, and a second volume is scheduled for release this July. IDW Publishing also launched an ongoing monthly V-Wars comic book series in May. The first issue was critically acclaimed and is already headed to a second printing.

V-Wars is set in a world transformed by a catastrophic environmental event that releases a millennial-old virus that once triggered, affects individuals differently depending on their DNA. The result is vampires as unique as their cultures and a response from those unaffected humans like never seen before.

Adding to that synopsis, writer Jonathan Maberry has said “V-Wars is a head-on collision of real-world science, terrorism, special forces action, ethics, politics and an exploration of what defines us as human.”

IDW offered V-Wars earlier this month on FREE COMIC BOOK DAYand also made a preview available on-line.  Check It out below.

Coming on the heels of Hannibal being officially picked up for a 3^rd season, and on the eve of the 2^nd season finale, Mondo has announced that they will be selling these two gorgeous limited edition posters tomorrow, 5/23/2014.

How do you get one of these?  Well, you will need to be following Mondo on Twitter as that is where/when the on sale time will be announced.

It’s always fun when we get a chance to see the things that didn’t make it into our favorite movies, be they alternate endings or deleted scenes.  Even better is when things assumed lost to time are rediscovered like Clive Barker’s intended version of Night Breed or Fritz Lang’s full Metropolis.  Then there are the things that we knew existed, but just assumed we wouldn’t see.   An example would be the recently released footage Jean-Claude Van Damme as the Predator.  Adding to this last category over the weekend was Rick Baker.   The effects master took to his twitter account and provided us with some of his creature work on the Steven Spielberg project Night Skies.  That film was ultimately scrapped but some of the pre-production work made its way into E.T.

As requested The Night Skies alien. Not finished, no eyes. Cover the top of his head and tell me who he looks like. pic.twitter.com/r3PxK1T98A

— Rick Baker (@TheRickBaker) May 22, 2014

He does look like Edward G and the others.But painting out the top of the head, adding eyes,and small tweaks.ET"S dad pic.twitter.com/XOdbSNDmAd

— Rick Baker (@TheRickBaker) May 23, 2014

Here was a quick clay sketch that I did in 1980 for one of the nicer younger NIGHT Skies aliens pic.twitter.com/NKHVXrGNLu

— Rick Baker (@TheRickBaker) May 23, 2014

Unhappy days,film shut down. I wanted to change the body of the ET,the mantis like arm placement just didn't work imo pic.twitter.com/mNMEAP9yem

— Rick Baker (@TheRickBaker) May 26, 2014

I was so excited to be working on this project,to be able to design different alien characters of the same race. pic.twitter.com/3uxwikTHRB

— Rick Baker (@TheRickBaker) May 27, 2014

Film Legend Sir Christopher Lee turns 92 today and he is celebrating just as anyone one his age would…by releasing a heavy metal album.

'Metal Knight' is a mini album featuring 7 tracks, two of which are covers from the ‘Man of La Mancha’ musical, based on the character ‘Don Quixote’.According to Lee “Don Quixote is the most metal fictional character that I know. Single handed, he is trying to change the world, regardless of any personal consequences. It is a wonderful character to sing”.

You can preview all 7 tracks right here:

This is by no means Sir Christopher’s first foray into the world of metal. He has contributed quite a bit of voice work to projects by Manowar and Rhapsody of Fire, as well as releasing his own work. Check out our full reviews of his previous albums Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross and Charlemagne: The Omens of Death.

For more information on Metal Knight, visit Charlemagne Productions website

"It looked like it was from a horror flick. I couldn't believe it."   That was what one eyewitness had to say about the terrifying incident in New York City. 

A woman was struck by a giant buzzsaw that was being used to cut up a Manhattan street by a city sub-contractor Tuesday morning.  The 3 foot saw broke loose from its machinery, tore up the sidewalk, traveling nearly 100 feet through a crowd before taking out the female pedestrian.  Miraculously, she was not seriously injured but did need to be taken to a nearby hospital to have her wounds tended to.

It was all captured on the security cameras of local businesses. Check out the amazing footage below:

(H/T NBC New York)