On this most delicious of holidays, give thanks for your friends, your family, and the fact that you are not in an Eli Roth movie...

Founded by the multi-talented Martin Bowes, UK-based experimental band Attrition has been crafting eerie gothic soundscapes for over 30 years in one form or another. While they've been considered pioneers of the darkwave music genre, they have never conformed to a single style, and their most recent dark ambient material has been highly experimental, ethereal and chilling. It's only natural that their music would one day find its way into a horror project, and that day has come with the feature film G.H.O.S.T, produced by indie horror film outfit Mutantville Productions and featuring a wall-to-wall Attrition soundtrack. That score has also been released as the album Invocation, which also stands alone as a dark musical tale similar in tone to their previous album All Mine Enemy's Whispers, which along with this release represents the  group's most haunting work. I recently had the good fortune to catch up with Martin, along with his wife & creative partner Kerri, to find out more about the film and soundtrack album, as well as their upcoming record The Unraveler of Angels.

Yarrr... that thar be a kraken in your ear. 

This awesome earring wraps up and around your ear, looking like some crazy sea monster is trying to drag you into the ocean. Bonus: only one standard piercing is needed to wear it. Non-bonus: it can only be worn in the left ear.

$34.99 from Think Geek

I had a chance to chat with Jesse Blaze Snider about his newest comic endeavor, a revamp of the classic ’90’s horror comic Evil Ernie. The iconic character, known more for his look and his talking smiley face button than the actual storyline, is getting a major overhaul with it’s new license owner, Dynamite Entertainment. Jesse Snider (son of Dee Snider of Twisted Sister and Holliston fame) took some time to talk with us about the comic. And after reading the first two issues, this is definitely a comic I think you will dig.

How did you get involved in the Evil Ernie project and with the publisher, Dynamite Entertainment? 

Dynamite has been wanting to work with me for a while and Alex Ross and Nick Barrucci read the whole comic that I worked on for Marvel and they wanted to work with me on a project that went on hiatus and I was waiting to hear from them about what they wanted to do. And while I was waiting for them I heard that they had acquired the rights to all the Chaos characters - minus Lady Death. 

I was never a big fan of the Chaos books, they were always style over substance, written by the seat of their pants which was just the nature of the company. Which had its charms, but I was the type of reader who followed writers. And Evil Ernie and Lady Death were a lot of cheesecake, it was a lot of shock and gore and art. So I always had a hard time getting into those characters even though I had a real soft spot for them. When I heard that Dynamite owned the characters I thought “They can’t do what they did before, it will not work now.” What worked in the 90’s does not work today and for all the reasons that I didn’t gravitate toward the Chaos comics at that time are all the reasons they won’t function today as what they were. But I think I know how to set them up for the modern way. I can set them up in a way that will satisfy the readers and satisfy those who felt that there was something really missing from those books from back in the day. 

So I immediately wrote up a pitch for Evil Ernie for Dynamite and I sent it their way. And they weren’t really sure what to do with the character, and with the line in general, and I think they pretty quickly saw that I had in inkling of what might work. And so far so good! It’s working so far.

It seems with this new approach to Evil Ernie that you’re giving the characters more substance, more legs to walk on.

It’s respect. And respect tends to be just taking something seriously. There’s things to not be taken seriously. In general our book is very self-aware. There’s a lot of ironic bits to it because you can’t avoid the fact that we’ve got this teenage zombie in a leather jacket with a talking smiley face button on his lapel. If you don’t acknowledge that that’s a little ridiculous your readers aren’t going to buy into everything else you’re selling. It’s like trying to sell them a broken car and you’re saying it’s not broken. We’re saying no, no, no, it is that. It is smiley button. It is zombie guy. But all the more reason to take it seriously. And people are responding to that.

What was the overall goal of revamping the comic?

I think we succeeded in what we set out to do which was to pay complete respect to what had come before but really organize it into a rules system. That’s the biggest thing. If there’s no rules while you[re dealing with the supernatural and magic and all this stuff, then you can do whatever you want and there’s no sense of danger, there’s no sense of anything. Because you know that anything could happen on the turn of a page. So it was very important to ground this in reality as much as I can while putting some rules on it. We’ve applied Dante’s Inferno in a big way to our heaven and hell structure. We’re trying to put as many blocks in place so it’s not this simple do-whatever-the-hell-you-want kind of thing. We actually have to figure out, within the rules we set up, how to achieve the things we want story-wise.

The original comic, especially towards its end, dealt with big themes of mass destruction and devastation. Are those themes that interest you in working with Evil Ernie again?

The devastation thing, there’s a lot of levels of devastation. Our opening origin story - there’s going to be devastation but by the end of the first arc it’s going to be Ernie who’s devastated. It’s really important when you have a character like Ernie who can survive anything, who is undead, the stakes for your average human is life and death. But really the most horrible pain you can experience isn’t life and death, it’s losing somebody. It’s experiencing that from the other side. Not actually being dead, that’s something that’s survivable: you’re dead, there you go. You don’t even know it happened, you’re dead. But somebody dies that I loved? Oh that’s horrible. That’s a story. That’s drama. For me, Ernie is ultimately a story about a kid learning that the world was really not as black-and-white as he thought it was and learning about it in ways that really break his soul and his spirit. Where he thought it was a good and evil sort of world and then he starts to see all the different shades of gray. It’s a really existential, internal sort of crisis that can’t be measured like “oh man, look Ernie got killed! Oh look he’s back again!” It’s way more important that he suffers in these really small ways, not the big ways.

How is the 1991 Evil Ernie different from what a 2012 Ernie has to be?

Back then there was no cohesiveness. I mean, there was, it was cohesive in that it was all kind of sloppy. But this is the reverse. This is not sloppy. This is very concise, very well thought out. This is the slow build with everything. I know where I’m going with this story in ten years, if we last that long. And the Chaos people, I’m sure they had no idea. They took turns all the time. They changed their mind. They went in different directions.

 Has the world of Evil Ernie changed in your take on the comic?

The Chaos universe is our universe. This is Earth. And on Earth, the good die young. Why is that? Evil Ernie’s story is trying to explain that. Basically, the good die young because that’s the way heaven and God want it. They’ve built a system. It works the way it works, and it works for them. The good die young heaven’s armies are nice and full with all these young souls. And it keeps hell at bay, and hell can never overtake heaven, and the balance of prayer is achieved and that’s it. God doens’t have to get involved in any of the everyday things that go on on Earth. It works. He’s not watching, he’s off doing whatever he’s doing, not having anything to do with Earth because it’s doing what it should be doing. So if that’s true, and there are these other hellish forces, they are taking God’s absence to get their own plans going, and in this instance it’s creating Evil Ernie, who is a one-man recruitment drive for hell. Because if Ernie’s off on Earth and killing all these evil people, then hell’s armies are growing and pretty soon they’ll be able to overtake heaven.

Finally, let’s talk about Smiley. Evil Ernie’s companion portrayed as a smiley face button pinned to the lapel of his leather jacket. Do you enjoy writing Smiley or do you feel he’s a character that’s chained to the franchise?

My Smiley makes perfectly good sense. In the first two issues you only see hints of who Smiley really is, but I can tell you right now he’s not the reincarnation of Ernie’s pet rat (the original, Chaos Comics explanation of the button-buddy - Editor’s Note). When you finally understand who Smiley is, what his function is, why he’s a part of the story in the first place, his part will become abundantly clear. One of my main goals in getting this thing off the ground was to rework Smiley and Ernie’s story as a pair. Because the Smiley backstory was just ridiculously stupid. 

I feel this way about comics a lot. An example I bring up a lot is a Punisher series written by Garth Ennis called Punisher: Born, (where Punisher is explained to have been kill-crazy all along, and that he used the death of his family as an excuse to go on killing sprees - Editor’s Note) that destroyed the character for me. What Punisher represented to me and what Punisher represented to Garth Ennis were two totally different things. And I just had to say “You know what? This never happened.” And I did the same thing with Smiley’s backstory. He’s important to Ernie, he should be important in the larger context of the story. And in our new story, without Smiley, there’s pretty much no Ernie.

Thanks for taking the time to talk with us.

Yeah, check me out, if you want to hear more about Ernie, follow me on twitter @TweetJesse. The first two issues of the book are out now, and we’re on the verge of selling out the first issue. So if you’re into it, try and seek out an issue!

Around this time of year, anything becomes festive if you put a Santa hat on it. Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, Wolf Man, the Mummy... slap a fluffy red and white hat on them and it's Christmas in Transylvania. So technically most of these aren't zombies, but they are still awesome and evoke the same feelings. Let's just hope this paper doesn't overshadow your gift.

$4.00 at Archie McPhee

$5.99 at Think Geek

$15.00 at Spoonflower

$4.03 at Archie McPhee

New comic book Wednesday has come and gone. The dust at your local comic shop has settled. An eerie silence descends as you finish reading your last superhero book of the week. Now it's time for something a little more sinister. Welcome to Bagged and Boarded: comic reviews of the sick, spooky, twisted and terrifying!
 

Hellraiser No. 20

The end of the world is upon us! A giant cenobite made of pure energy rambles to himself in the middle of the ocean while the crew of a navy ship work together with another female cenobite to thwart the end of all humanity. By saving Kirsty Cotton's life (who is now also a cenobite) the team is able to come up with a plan to stop the energy-bite.

Bag it or board it up?
This issue of Hellraiser, like most I've read, is baffling to behold if you haven't kept up with the back-issues. But, this issue is graphically beautiful and action packed. It's the end of a huge arc, so of course the book won't hold your hand as you stumble through its plot. If you're into Hellraiser enough to want to pick up this book, you've probably already read the comics that came before it.

The Goon No. 43
A traveling sideshow of "biological curiosities" comes to town with a living but mummified mutated baby. When the baby misses his fateful halloween feeding (a bottle mother's milk and goat blood) he comes to life, transforming into a terrible monster that The Goon and Franky must defeat or risk death.

Bag it or board it up?
I have a confession to make. I'm one of those horror comic readers who never read The Goon. I was aware of it peripherally, I knew they were doing a kickstarter to raise money for the movie, I knew it had a horror/supernatural slant. I just never gave it a shot. Damn! This is a fun comic. Funny, gory, sweet, nasty, it covers it all. It's like Bone with way more punching and guts and monsters! I feel foolish for missing out on this comic for so long, and I'll be coming back for each issue.
 

Dark Shadows No. 10

Barnabas wears an amulet that has taken away his vampirism. This is big news for the dark dude. He hungers for food and water. He can walk in the daylight. He is warm to the touch. But things aren't all roses and the promise of death for Barnabas. There was a cost to his freedom, and now he's out to set it right.
 

Bag it or board it up?
Though you wouldn't expect it from a Dark Shadows franchise, this comic is one of the most serious and straightforward vampire comics out today. It's very good, it's pacing and mood are pitch perfect, and it sets out to do one thing: tell a good vampire tale. If you're a fan of  bloodsuckers, you should give the Dark Shadows comics a shot.
 

Baltimore: The Play

This one-shot takes place in Verona, Italy in 1917. A theater director puts on a gory play about the plague that surrounds the city, and he casts real "revenants" (vampires) in many of the leading roles. Meanwhile the financier of the play is the leader of the undead, and discovers that the director has been getting his inspiration (and all the lines of the play) from a very surprising source! Spoiling it would ruin all the fun of the comic, but when the actual writer of the play is revealed it's quite the surprise.
 

Bag it or board it up?
I don't ask for much in my comics. Give me a little bit of gore, some interesting artwork, and a succinct story and I'll be good to go. Thank you, Baltimore: The Play, you've given me all I could ask for and more! The artwork in this book is so lovely, so stylized and precise, that I didn't want to stop looking at it. Too bad the words on the pages were so compelling that I had to keep turning. I'm not the type to gush, but check this comic out. Pick of the week, for sure.

As a child of the 1980s, I raised myself on a steady diet of terrible zero-budget cable slasher flicks. I would scour the TV Guide to check out what was playing that night, and keep my fingers crossed that my parents would go to bed before my movie would start, so I could sneak into the living room and watch it (at a very, very low volume, lest it wake them.) Brinke Stevens, one of the three "original" scream queens (along with Linnea Quigley and Michelle Bauer) was a frequent star of these cheap little flicks. With over 150 titles to her credit, picking out even a handful of her most well-known credits is tough, but let's try. Slumber Party Massacre, Sorority Babes in the Slime Ball Bowl-a-Rama, and Haunting Fear all spring to mind. After over 30 years in the horror industry, she, Linnea, and Michelle finally have a documentary, Screaming in High Heels. We spoke to Brinke about her humble beginings as a PhD candidate, and her expansive career.

How are you?

I'm so tired. I'm leaving tomorrow morning for another film shoot and I saw the movie last week. I've got another job ahead in two weeks. I just got the script for that. It's just like overwhelming. I haven't been this popular in 20 years.

What do you think the reason is behind that?

For one thing, there is an 80s revival that seems to be going on right now, where suddenly the nostalgia is popular again. The films that we [Linnea Quigley and Michelle Bauer] made were mostly horror comedies. A lot of people were young when they watched our films. They grew up loving us, we were their first crushes. They have a very fond remembrance of these movies. It was kind of a community thing where they would watch up all night and talk about it.

Besides the 80's revival where suddenly those movies are popular again, the fact is though, a lot of those young people grew up to be filmmakers. They all want to work with their idols. I'm working with a whole new generation right now like Chris Olen Ray, the son of Fred Olen Ray who made many movies in the 80s and 90s. The recession seems to be winding down where for many years recently, it was very weak. People just weren't making movies. Suddenly, this year, I have done 10 films. There was one year, I think it was 2008, where I worked one day on one movie. It was terrible. Now, people are feeling that passion to make films and willing to invest their money again.

I must admit that I was one of those kids who grew up watching your guys' movies.

You're so sweet. We don't have that many females fans.

I imagine so and I think it kind of weirded my parents out a little bit just … The fact that I was 10 years old and totally obsessed with horror movies. They never quite got used to it, and I have to say when I first started working for FEARnet, I was so excited to go them and say, "See? All of those slasher movies I watched, they're paying off."

Exactly. My parents didn't get it either. I would be telling them about my latest gruesome death and they'd look at me horrified and say, "Really, you like that stuff?" I'm like, "Yeah, I do. It's so exciting."

You didn't really set out to become a "scream queen," or I guess at that time a "horror movie actress," did you?

No. A lot of the girls came to Los Angeles from other places with the intention of becoming actresses. I had grown up in San Diego and was in the PhD program at Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Then, that career ended because of budget cutbacks. I left science with a Master's Degree and married my college sweetheart, Dave Stevens, who's a rather famous graphic artist and came to Los Angeles in 1980, thinking that I would find a science job.

Of course, Los Angeles is completely paved over. There is no biology here anywhere. Then one day, I walked past a casting office. I didn't realize what it was. I lingered at the doorway and was looking at all these colorful movie posters on the walls. Suddenly, there's this guy sitting behind the desk who's been watching me. He says, "You, come here. Show me what you got." I’m like, "Oh, no, no, I’m in the wrong place." "No, come here, show me." I sat down and talked to him and he put me in a movie the next day. That was All the Marbles, and I was an extra. It was like $45.00 a day and lunch. I thought, "Well, I'll just do this until I can find a science job."

That never happened. I kept doing movies. I soon got a leading role in Slumber Party Massacre in 1981. I was watching myself in the theater on the big screen because back then, it was before video. I thought, "You know, I’m not too bad at this. I kind of have a natural ability to run and scream and look terrified." One thing led to another and I just quickly got so much work. In the mid-80s, when the video boom hit, there were so many independent studios, like Roger Corman, Charles Band, Fred Olen Ray, Dave DeCoteau who were cranking out these low budget movies. I just worked constantly.

You sound like the modern day Lana Turner.

Yes, I was discovered. I had no intention of ever becoming an actress. It was never a desire. I feel like my career chose me. I didn't choose it. There's a sense of destiny as well to it, like I was meant to walk this path.

Do you miss science at all?

I do miss it, and especially now, science is so relevant because of global warming, pollution in the oceans and things like that. I still stay in touch with my scientist friends and am very much aware of things that are going on, like 750 dolphins dead in the Gulf Coast and seals with lesions on their faces and flippers, apparently from radioactive fallout from Japan. I am very much still involved in that sense, more as a spectator, but I try to keep an eye on what's happening.

Now, you and Linnea and Michelle have this new documentary. It seems kind of surprising to me, actually, that it took this long for there to be a scream queens documentary. Does that surprise you at all?
Yes, it was good timing. Earlier, Jason Collum and I had co-produced a documentary called, Something to Scream About, which featured popular actresses like Julie Strain and Deborah Rochon. It didn't include Linnea Quigley and Michelle Bauer. Jason caught some flak from the fans about that. Then, he decided to do this love letter to our trio which became Screaming in High Heels.

It is very weird. You have a career resurgence 25 years later, because we're all in our 50s now. Suddenly, we're as popular as we were when we were young, which I attribute to horror fans themselves. They are so loyal and devoted.

It's true.

They've loved and supported us all these years. In their eyes, we haven't aged at all. They still want to watch us.

Absolutely. Again, speaking as a horror fan, I’m totally in the same boat. There's a certain magic about the 1980s and early 90s horror and slasher flicks.

When we were working in the late 80s, early 90s, it was just a blue collar job for us. We had to earn a living, we had to pay our rent. We didn't set out to be scream queens. The fans labeled us that. We just wanted to work and make money. We never got the recognition that we might have deserved at that time. Now, all these years later, it's happening.

We just did a Burbank store signing for Screaming in High Heels, which was very well attended. So many young people came up to us and told us that they grew up watching our movies, and how much we influenced them, how much fondness and nostalgia they have for that. I really didn't know, I didn't realize that we appealed to several generations. In fact, we inspired some of these young people to become filmmakers themselves. Finally, we're getting that acclaim that we never got when we were actually doing the work.

Did you feel any pressure or derision from people who kind of thought, "Oh, you're window dressing?”

It was definitely a male-dominated field. If you look at horror before our trio in the 80's, most horror stars were men. Early on, it was Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. Then it became Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. Then it was Jason, Freddy and that gang. We were really the first noticeable female horror stars apart from Jamie Lee Curtis. Those films were like action movies, because you're literally screaming in high heels. You were running from a serial killer, you're slipping in blood, you got machetes and knives and things like that. It was very difficult work, being a horror actress.

Did friends and family, did they kind of pull you aside and say, "What are you doing? You're running around without your shirt on, you're getting hacked up to bits!” Especially coming from a more “prestigious” science background.

Yes, my family was very disappointed that I didn't complete my doctorate degree. I had to edit my movies when I showed them to my parents. I would cut out all of my death scenes and my nudity. They wondered why the movies were only 38 minutes long. I told them it was a new trend.

I have to say that, despite the success that we gained as "scream queens," it very much typecast us. To where I had started out doing small parts in big movies like Psycho 3, Spinal Tap, Three Amigos, Naked Gun. I thought I would become and A-list actress very soon, but I did so many low budget horror movies that casting agents thought that was all I could do. They wouldn't send me out for the other roles, which is ridiculous because I can play a teacher, professor, a doctor, an aunt, a mother. I can play all those things which I've done in horror movies. They just somehow have this terrible prejudice. It was a real glass ceiling for us.

Looking back, do you regret then making those decisions that would typecast you?

I sometimes wonder if my life could have been different. I've loved all the work I've done except that it's low budget. Our salaries reflect those low budgets. I don't have a retirement plan. I don't have a pension, I don't have health insurance.

I'm thinking, "Maybe it would have been better if I'd stuck with science and created a little more retirement security for myself," but what a ride, what a rollercoaster. It was so much fun, going to conventions, meeting the fans, doing television appearances like Jenny Jones, Vicky Lawrence, Phil Donahue, being driven in limos and being flown all over the place. It was an amazing life. For a young woman, living in the 80s - which was an incredible time to be alive: great music, great fashion, great hairdos. I can't complain. I do think that it was my destiny to walk this path and become a "scream queen." It's certainly better being a big fish in a small pond than the other way around.

Are there any projects that stand out in your mind as particularly fun or that you're particularly proud of?

I loved working with Fred Olen Ray. He always gave me great roles. My favorite is Haunting Fear, where I play a wife who is being slowly driven insane by her husband. He eventually buries her alive in a coffin. She goes completely mad, claws her way out and kills him and his beautiful mistress. That was fun, I was in every scene. I got to work with Jan Michael Vincent and Karen Black. That was probably a highlight of my career.

This year I directed my first film. It's called Personal Demons. I also wrote the script. I've sold several screenplays so far, probably six or seven including Teenage Exorcist, but I wrote this script, I directed it, I starred in it. I co-starred with Linnea Quigley and Debbie Rochon on my very first day of shooting. I had very supportive old friends to help me out. That was a big thrill for me. I'm surprised I haven't directed before now. I just really haven't had that opportunity. I hope to do a lot more of it in the future.

Are you still close with Linnea and Michelle?

Yes, especially now. We've been so busy. We had a store signing for Cougar Cult, Dave DeCoteau's movie in February. Then we had a store signing together for Screaming in High Heels. We were cast in a movie recently called The Trouble with Barry. We play ourselves in the movie, which is quite an honor. Suddenly, we've been thrown together a lot. It's just like old times. It is so much fun. We were very special. I think there was something so unique about our trio. We were true originals and we became great friends.

Nowadays, do you see a new generation of "scream queens" coming about?

Tiffany Shepis and Deborah Rochon have found their own path in this industry and have become huge stars which is deeply deserved. They are both talented and wonderful ladies. Otherwise, I don't think that a young actress today could follow in our footsteps. Back in the 80's, there were so many independent studios that were churning out products. Those studios don't exist today. It would be very difficult for an actress to accumulate a body of work in such a short time and become so well known to the fans.

What do you define "scream queen" as?

In the beginning, a scream queen was a horror actress who screamed and died horribly. I added up the actual numbers. Out of 150 movies that I've done, I've only died 32 times and I've murdered other people in 20 movies. I've been a predator almost as often as I've been a victim.

Ingrid Pitt, the Hammer horror actress said, "There's no longevity in being a victim. You don't become the queen of horror unless you're a predator." I think that our roles as villains were equally important. I've been possessed by demons, I've turned into vampires, I've gone insane and killed people in a lot of interesting ways.

I imagine also, it's more fun to play those roles.

It is. Villains are always much more exciting. Otherwise, you just run and scream. However, victims can be fun too. I recently did Lizzie Borden's Revenge, playing Abby Borden, the stepmother, so I received some axe wounds. That was kind of fun to be all done up in special effects makeup and hear them screaming, "More blood, more blood."

It sounds like you've got lots and lots of stuff coming up next.

Yes, I just finished a movie called The Silicone Assassin where I play the president of the United States. Tomorrow, I'm leaving for Big Bear to play a tough, small town southern sheriff in Axeman at Cutter’s Creek. I'm getting some very strong masculine roles lately which is a lot fun. I like playing authority figures.

Do you have any plans to direct again?

I hope so. There's nothing on the books right now, but I’m really hoping that I can keep that new career going and eventually find my place as a director in the low budget horror industry.

Back in the 1980s, even low budget movies required filmmaking knowledge. Nowadays, anyone is able to make movies on their telephones. Do you think that it has helped or hurt the creativity of the super low budget indie film?

You're absolutely right. It has changed so much. In the 80s and 90s, we shot on film. We had caterers, we had our own private dressing trailers, even on low budgets. At that time, a low budget was considered $300,000. That was almost the barest minimum you could make a movie for at that time.

After the video revolution, then we had the technology where anyone could make a movie in their backyard. The budgets have gotten even lower, like $10,000, $30,000, because there's such a glut on these films now. The new problem is distribution. There used to be a lot of distributors, but it's been consolidated into the hands of just a few now. Then again, that creates even more new technology, where people are finding other ways to get their movies seen, like direct streaming on the internet, or getting it to Netflix, or something like that. I've seen so many changes where Blockbuster put the mom and pop video stores out of business, then Netflix put Blockbuster out of business. Now, other things are going to  put Netflix out of business. It just keeps changing. I've seen a lot in 30 years.

With all the reality shows that we have these days, I think that it just brings a whole new dimension to filmmaking where you can get all these individual interpretations, very personal looks at what horror is to them.

Screaming in High Heels is currently available on DVD.

So this guy named Ed Bassmaster is a drive-thru prankster. Naturally, he thought it would be funny to dress up like a zombie and hit fast food drive-thru windows to see what the reaction was. You know what? It was pretty funny. Despite putting on minimal makeup, the reactions are great, and all the employees seemed really good-natured about the stunt. Enjoy two minutes of silliness.

What images are evoked by the words "Bollywood Jaws?" Probably cheerful singing interrupted by gloriously cheesy shark attacks. Well, that's what you get with Aatank, which is essentially Bollywood Jaws. Enjoy some clips from the film (none are in English but I think you can get the gist.) 

Kind of puts Spielberg's problems with his Jaws in perspective, huh? At least in his version, you couldn't actually tell that the shark was made of papier-mache.

The plot, according to IMDB: Jesu and Peter are childhood friends who live in a coastal village in India and depend on fishing as their livelihood. The community is oppressed by a powerful gangster named Alphonso. Jesu is an orphan, while Peter is brought up by his aunt and uncle, after the passing away of his mom. The community is all thrilled when Phillips finds black pearls off the coast. But then so does Alphonso, who asks his divers to get all the pearls, thus disturbing the ocean. Peter meets with Suzy D'Silva and they fall in love with each other, and get married. While enjoying a quiet swim on the sea-shore, Suzy disappears. A search is carried out, and a number of human body parts are recovered. With shock and horror this community finds that their livelihood is being threatened by a gigantic, virtually undestructible man-eating shark.

If I ever need a boat, I am going to Bill's Marine in Virginia.

Let’s face it, kids are scary. Kids + baby dolls who materialize in a moving elevator = terrifying.

Check out this horror-movie inspired prank pulled on an unsuspecting older woman and some other folks on an elevator in Brazil. It’s pretty amazing that none of them had a heart attack, or at the very least, asked the girl were her mommy was.

It’s kind of great to see how people react to this supernatural and extremely creepy situation – their responses range from complete paralysis to a lot of cursing.

If anyone out there speaks Portuguese I would love to know what the victims are saying.  Even if you don’t know Portuguese, it’s fun to guess their reactions. Write it in the comment box!
 

via Break

This guy clearly didn’t listen to his mom about the whole clean underwear thing.

Our friends over at Twitch have the first look at the next chapter in the V/H/S anthology series, S-VHS. Not sure why this man-boy is wearing bloody-soaked undies or why he’s welcoming someone with open arms who is brandishing what looks like a broken pipe, but Twitch tells us it’s from the Evans/Tjahjanto segment of the film.

To refresh your memory, The Hollywood Reporter wrote a while back that directors for this next installment of the found-footage anthology include “Gareth Evans, who directed The Raid, and Eduardo Sanchez, director of The Blair Witch Project and Lovely Molly."

"Joining Evans and Sanchez for V/H/S/2 are Jason Eisener, won directed Hobo With a Shotgun, Timo Tjahjanto (Macabre) and Sanchez’s producing partner Gregg Hale.

In the new movie, Adam Wingard, the helmer behind You’re Next and A Horrible Way to Die, is directing a full segment, while Simon Barrrett, the writer of Wingard’s pics who also penned two segments of V/H/S, will make his directorial debut.

Sanchez is co-directing his section with Hale and also co-wrote it with his Lovely Molly scribe Jamie Nash. Evans is co-directing his segment with Tjahjanto.”
 

via The Hollywood Reporter,Twitch

They’re not out until next year but here’s a look at the awesome Friday the 13th Series 2 action figures from NECA.

They stand 7 inches tall and show Jason, with surprising realism, as he slices, dices, and takes what looks like a machete to the face.

More details from the source:

Part 4: The Final Chapter Jason assortment. The definitive versions of Jason in action figure form are upon us. This assortment includes both regular and battle damaged versions of Jason each with a unique mask and head sculpt.

Masks are removable and weapons include machete, double headed axe, and knife. Jason stands approx 7.5″ tall and has over 25 points of articulation.

Watch the video and check out the detailed images below.
 

via NECA

"Feed me Seymour" takes on a whole new meaning with these Audrey II earrings. Celebrate that Little Shop of Horrors! Handmade from clay, these earrings take a nip out of your earlobe and hold on for dear life.

$20.00 at Etsy.com

Trusted companion and confidant of youth, the doll takes on an evil twist in genre film, using its position of power with the children to its advantage. It’s the perfect reliquary for all types of demons, witchcraft and general malice, dolling out punishment with a sweet giggle and slash of a knife.  

FEARnet is paying tribute to the best of terrifying toys that haunt our dreams. First up in our series, Stuart Gordon’s frightening ‘80s fairy tale about what happens when parents don’t show kids the affection they deserve.

Film:Dolls
Director: Stuart Gordon
Year: 1987
Lies They Tell: Well, they aren’t really dolls in the traditional sense.  They are people who have visited the home of elderly toy makers Gabriel and Hilary Hartwicke and made a misstep. Stealing, fighting and a generally bad attitude are all strikes against humankind, and the perpetrators are made to pay when they are transformed into the Hartwickes’ devious army of imprisoned souls. These dolls lay in wait for the next visitors who will eventually become their victims.
Devilish Dolly Moment: There are some great moments of humans transforming into dolls, I especially like when dad becomes a Punch doll. But in terms of straight-up death scenes, well, my favorite might be when the absurd punk girl (there’s always a punk girl in ‘80s movies) gets her head bashed against the wall as comeuppance for stealing from the house. Those dollies sure are strong. Unfortunately, I can’t find the full clip, but you can get a taste of the madness below. Watch out for the giant teddy bear, it’s a Furry’s worst nightmare.
 

Jack Ketchum has long made a name for himself by delving into the darkest regions of human sexuality.  His first novel, 1980’s Off Season, was so horrifically visceral that its publisher, Ballantine, opted against a second printing (it was later re-published in an unexpurgated version in 2005).  His novel Ladies’ Night, featuring several sequences of sexually violent women attacking men and boys, was initially deemed too graphic to publish.  In Right to Life, a pregnant woman is kidnapped at an abortion clinic and is assimilated into slavery and torture.  What may be his most harrowing book, The Girl Next Door, fairly revels in the depiction of a teenage girl repeatedly brutalized by her so-called caretaker … not to mention the reluctant good-guy protagonist.  Ketchum rarely sensationalizes his violence, instead opting to simply report it: every demeaning act, every rape, every murder, simply is.  His seeming inability to shy away from trauma is what has always made his work so at-the-core disturbing … and so compulsively readable.

Which makes his and co-writer Lucky McKee’s new novella, I’m Not Sam, immediately surprising.  It is not, on the surface, a particularly gruesome tale.  Certainly there are hints around the edges: Patrick is a graphic novelist specializing in sordid horror stories (“Splash page indeed,” he comments after completing a particularly splatterpunky image); Sam, his wife, is a medical examiner.  They discuss the details of their work over breakfast, as if autopsies and brain spatter were cordial mealtime topics.  Most palpable is how in love they are.  We are treated early on to a sexual sequence far removed from Ketchum’s and McKee’s previous collaboration, The Woman (whose scenes of degradation and associational evil are nearly on par with those in The Girl Next Door).  Sam and Patrick’s sexual life is at once tender and explicit.  It’s always refreshing in horror when sex is presented as normal, uncomplicated fun, especially when it’s between a married couple in love.  

There’s fallout, however; the next morning, Sam wakes up … and she’s not Sam.  While she has the same body and some of the same memories as Sam, the personality inhabiting her is a little girl named Lily.  Somewhat unusually for a horror story, Patrick responds rationally, immediately seeking medical attention.  When nothing seems to be physically wrong with Sam/Lily, Patrick dedicates himself to becoming Lily’s caretaker.  Until things start to go wrong.  

While the dénouement of I’m Not Sam is genuinely shocking, it is so through buildup and inference.  There’s a scary bit of foreshadowing in an incident involving a water-snake.  The symbolism of the sequence is inescapable, but it’s so well executed that the Freudian trappings never bog down the power of the surface events.  A call from Sam’s office and Patrick’s reaction not only reveals Patrick’s state of mind, but also recalls Ketchum’s earlier work (especially Right to Life, The Woman, and The Girl Next Door).  Ongoing reminders of Sam’s/Lily’s state of regress continually underscore the queasy nature of the situation: Lily’s toys, Lily’s eating habits, and especially the state of Lily’s underwear (and the fact that Patrick keeps noticing it) keep the reader on edge, even as Patrick grows uncomfortably accustomed to his shifting responsibilities to the woman/girl in his house.  What’s happening to Patrick’s work is perhaps most interesting.  Does Patrick cast himself as the villain intentionally, or is it an inevitability he simply accepts?  There aren’t answers.

It has always been to Jack Ketchum’s credit that even his senseless brutality has repercussions, physical, psychological, and emotional.  Here, even though the most shocking incidents are performed off-page, the aftershocks are immediate and just as horrifying as if they were as in-your-face as in Ketchum and McKee’s first work together.  Even Zoey, Patrick and Sam’s beloved cat, understands the uncomfortable truths at the heart of I’m Not Sam: how a single selfish act can destroy the things we care about the most, and how, despite assurances to the contrary, those things can never be repaired.  

***

I’m Not Sam will be published December 2012 by Cemetery Dance Publications in three states: a trade hardcover edition, a signed limited-edition hardcover, and a deluxe signed and traycased lettered edition.  Visit CemeteryDance.com for details.

Kevin Quigley is an author whose website, CharnelHouseSK.com, is one of the leading online sources for Stephen King news, reviews, and information.  He has written several books on Stephen King for Cemetery Dance Publications, including Chart of Darkness, Blood In Your Ears, and Stephen King Limited, and co-wrote the upcoming Stephen King Illustrated Movie Trivia Book.  His first novel, I’m On Fire, is forthcoming.

Last week we got a taste of what Bates Motel had to offer. The unofficial "prequel" to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho is set in modern day but follows Norman Bates's teenaged years, and the mother who loved him too much. Hollywood Reporter snagged over a dozen stills from the upcoming A&E show, which is set to debut in "early 2013." It stars Freddie Highmore as Norman Bates and Vera Farmiga as his mother, Norma. 

Bates Motel

This baklava is the stuff dreams are made of. Sweet and just a little bit sour, with layers of phylo oozing with lime-curd puss and covered with bloody slashes, it’s the perfect treat for any Nightmare on Elm Street fan, or even a Freddy with a sweet tooth. We know it's totally irresistible, but, please try not to end up like Greta Gibson.

The recipe comes from the blog Tissupapers where the creator explains, “I came up with this recipe that was inspired by my childhood arch enemy Freddy Krueger. He was the terror in my dreams when I was younger, chasing after me with those razor sharp claws. I took a spin on the basic recipe for baklava. It reminded me of skin with its many layers of phyllo dough. Once baked it has the crispy look of baked skin!!”

Here’s what you will need:
1 (16 ounce) package phyllo dough
1 good amount of mixed chopped nuts
1 cup butter
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup water
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup honey red and black gel food coloring
lime curd - for puss (optional)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F(175 degrees C)

Proceed as follows:
1. Chop nuts and toss with cinnamon in a bowl then set aside.
2. Boil sugar and water until sugar is melted. Add vanilla and honey. Simmer for about 20 minutes. Turn off heat then set aside and let cool.
3. Melt 2 sticks of butter. Once melted completely, butter the bottoms and sides of a 8x8 inch pan.
4. Unroll phyllo dough. Cut whole stack to fit the size of the pan. I just set the pan on top of the dough and cut around it to get the shape. Cover phyllo with a dampened cloth to keep from drying out as you work - per the manufactured directions. Place two sheets of dough in pan, butter thoroughly. Repeat until you have 8 sheets layered in the bottom of the pan - this will be the base for the baklava.
5. Sprinkle 2 - 3 tablespoons of nut mixture on top. Top with two sheets of dough, butter, nuts, layering as you go. I had about 4 layers before I got to the last layer.
6. My last layer I used Craisins Dried Cranberries to give a tart flavor.
7. The top layer should be about 6 - 8 sheets deep. Using a sharp knife cut into the skin either in a diamond or square shape all the way to the bottom of the pan. I cut the baklava into 5 long rows then turned the pan and cut again for a rectangle shape.
8. Using the same sharp knife - in each section make deep cuts or slashes on the tops of the baklava.
9. Your oven should be ready now to put your skin in. Bake for about 50 minutes until baklava is golden and crisp. Watch it about every 15 mins so you do not burn the dish.
10. Just put some lime curd in a plastic bag with the end cut off very small - my cheap version of a pastry deco bag. This can be the puss if you desire.
 

11. With a plastic knife and the gel food coloring, add some blood along the cut lines. I used black in the very center of the cut for a more dramatic look.
 

And the final touches, straight from the source:

"Lastly, I made the basic blood recipe out of karo syrup and red food coloring for the blood splatter on the plate. I placed the plate on the ground and stood on a chair letting gravity take over. With a spoon I just let the blood fall on the plate and splatter - super easy."
 

I'm psyched for The Collection, which opens in theaters November 30th. The sequel to 2009's The Collector stars Josh Stewart, Emma Fitzpatrick, and Christopher McDonald in the story of The Collector, a vicious psychopath who kidnaps victims and forces them through his homemade maze of torture. He has kidnapped a young woman, and her wealthy dad has hired, among others, The Collector's only living victim to get her back.

To get you excited for the film, we've - ahem - collected some of our favorite sneak peek clips from The Collection, as well as FEARnet's review.