Man, this season of Dexter has gone in some pretty unexpected directions, and now that one major threat to Dexter is out of the way, where do they go with these last 3 episodes of Season 7?! Well, there's the Phantom still out there - the arsonist killing innocent people in Miami. There's a tease of that in this first clip below, along with another clip where Dexter talks to Hannah about his "dark passenger" which she argues doesn't really exist. You can catch up with Alyse's TV Recap of 709 'Helter Skelter'. Episode 10, 'The Dark... Whatever' airs this Sunday December 2nd!

Most people associate December with good cheer, family togetherness, piles of gifts, and other feel-good crap. FEARnet fans know that what invokes warm fuzzies in us includes killer Santas, dysfunction, and torture. Luckily, FEARnet has you covered with some awesome December programming highlights.

Start off the holiday season with our Holliston marathon on December 18th. The season one marathon will be capped off with the all new Holliston Christmas special. We usher in Christmas with a "Killer Kringle" marathon on December 24th: The Traveler, Saint, Santa's Slay, and A Christmas Tale. Then ring in the New Year with the emcee of chills, the Cryptkeeper, with our Tales From the Crypt marathon. Twenty-four hours, twenty-four tales, and all-new interstitials with the Cryptkeeper begin on December 31st.

Other goodies to stuff in your stocking this month include the FEARnet premiere of the critically-acclaimed District 9on December 9th; the world television premiere of Hostel: Part III on December 16th; and the broadcast premiere of Frankenfish on December 23rd.

Don't have FEARnet? That's sad - but fixable. Check out our handy-dandy guide to finding FEARnet in your area.

College is expensive and you suck at football. How are you going to pay for your tuition? What most people don't know is that there are tons of smaller, more obscure scholarships out there. And now, one of those scholarships involves the zombie apocalypse.

ScholarshipExperts.com is offering a $1,000 Zombie Apocalypse scholarship - and you don't actually need to survive the zombie apocalypse. Just write a super-short (250 words or less) essay in response to this writing prompt:

 

Imagine that your high school/college has been overrun with Zombies. Your math professor, the cafeteria ladies and even your best friend have all joined the walking dead. Use your brain to flesh out a plan to avoid the Zombies, including where you would hide and the top 5 things you would bring with you to stay alive.

Hurry - essays are due by December 31st.

Source: ScholarshipExperts.com via io9.com

First there was Seal Team Six and Zero Dark Thirty. Now there’s Osombie, which features a zombified Osama Bin Laden leading a hoard of undead terrorists. Sure, why not? It's a reason for zombies and a lot of shirtless fighting.

Here’s the synopsis straight from the Entertainment One press release and a teaser trailer:

Just when you thought it was safe to be a Westerner, Bin Laden rises from the grave to finish his jihad as a flesh-eating zombie in OSOMBIE, a “mayhem-filled[1]” horror flick arriving in the home entertainment marketplace as the world continues to be infected with love for all things undead.  For fans of “The Walking Dead”, “World War Z” or anything that shambles, Entertainment One debuts this highly anticipated release on Blu-ray and DVD for the collectible price of $19.98srp.

Dusty is a yoga instructor from Colorado who is on a desperate rescue mission to save her brother, Derek, a conspiracy theorist who is convinced Osama bin Laden is still alive.  After arriving in Afghanistan, Dusty falls in with a team of NATO special forces on a secret assignment and soon discovers that Derek is not so crazy after all: Osama has in fact returned from his watery grave and is making an army of zombie terrorists!  When the soldiers crash headlong into the growing zombie apocalypse, Dusty and the troops must find and destroy the root of the zombie insurgency before it infests the rest of the world.



While the jury is still out on the actual quality of this zombie flick, I think you’ll agree Osombie wins points for good use of wordplay in the tagline, “Axis of Evil Dead.”

The DVD will be on shelves just in time for Christmas, December 11, 2012.

Actress Juliet Landau is lending her support to the Sophie Lancaster Foundation, a group established by Sophie’s mother after her daughter's horrific murder.

Landau donated personal items including some super-rare comics, and signed Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel memorabilia.  You can see the full list of items and bid on them over on ebay.

The donation is a reminder of something we sometimes forget in an age where there’s a Hot Topic in every mall and vampires on TV: There’s still a great deal of intolerance around personal creative expression and violence against people who choose to represent themselves outside mainstream ideals.

Landau made the following statement via the foundation:

“I am horrified by what happened to Sophie Lancaster and Rob Maltby. It seems unfathomable to me that people can be this evil, hateful, ugly and violent. I’m moved beyond words by Sophie’s spirit and loving nature. She protected her boyfriend during the attack. Sophie’s mum, Sylvia is an inspiration. She founded this organization as a legacy to her daughter, with the aim of providing education about prejudice and intolerance by going into schools, youth groups and prisons. People’s creativity and individuality is a thing to celebrate and nurture not to destroy.”

FEARnet reported way back when that a private security group was planning zombie readiness training for the U.S. military at their counter-terrorism summit. Now, you can get the same training soldiers receive straight from the source with the U.S. Army Zombie Training Manual.

The gist is, you don’t need to kill a zombie. Instead, consider training your undead for a combat role.

“The manual in your hands is the Department of Defense's principle source of information on care, conditioning, training, and operations of our Army's Working Zombies. From basics, such as ‘HEEL’ and ‘STAY; to negotiating obstacle courses, to tracking, searching, attacking, and even Zombies working undercover in the real world, this manual shows readers how our military trains zombies to be soldier zombies.”

$14.95 at House of Mysterious Secrets

Adam Cesare wrote two of the best books I’ve read this year – Tribesmen and Video Night.  Video Night in particular struck a chord with me by perfectly capturing that mid-’80s vibe when tons of horror movies, good and (mostly) bad, were being churned out and could be easily found at your local video store. After finishing it, I had to pick author Adam Cesare’s brain about the influences behind Video Night and his love of horror films in general.

Video Night takes place in 1988, which was a great period for horror film fans. The home video market was out of control and you could find just about any horror movie because there were video stores everywhere. Did you experience this period first-hand, and if so, how did it play into the book?

I’m a little bit younger, so I actually saw another distinct era of the VHS boom: the rise of Blockbuster.
 
My town had a ma & pop store (it was called Mr. Video) and I used that as the basis for the store in Video Night. But during my peak-renting time, those stores were on the decline. The independent stores around me were ailing, so I wanted to turn back the hands of time for the book. It always made me kind of sad, because Mr. Video always had the weirder stuff on their shelves, which in retrospect was probably only because they couldn’t afford to replace all their stock regularly.

Things work in cycles, though. Purists used to hate Blockbuster, but the generation after mine is going to have a serious nostalgia jones for those blue, white and orange boxes.

There are too many horror film references in Video Night to mention here. Tell us about some of the main influences, both on the creature in your book and on the plot itself.

There are a lot of references, but I wanted to make sure they all come from Billy’s chapters, because that’s kind of important to the way that he sees the world. I didn’t want it to feel like that laborious “wink wink, look how well-read I am” kind of thing that annoys me as a reader.
 
One of the first movies I can remember truly disturbing me was the 1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the one with Donald Sutherland. It was the idea that a completely benign character could be completely evil in the next scene that scared me. That movie also had a good deal of gooey creature effects to balance out how cerebral it was. I felt like it was the best of both worlds.

I have a HUGE affinity for the films of Stuart Gordon and Frank Henenlotter, not only for the creatures but also for their humor, so those were inspirations too.

I wanted to have my cake and eat it, thus I ended up with a creature story that also had a body snatching component to it.

Literary-wise, as non-horror as it probably sounds (although it’s totally gruesome and awesome), my favorite novel is William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying. I wanted to wind some of that into there too. That’s how you get the multiple perspectives and end up with a character named Darl.

I hate to ask the stale old "where did the idea come from" question, but I'm curious as to what set you on the path to writing Video Night.

I like period pieces, but I wanted to write about a period that I felt I had half a chance of getting right. I know about Long Island and horror movies, so once I knew the threat that my characters would face, it all kind of stitched itself together.
 
When I was very young, I was fascinated with the Alien movies. Whenever I would sit down with crayons to draw monsters, I would ensure that it was not just one monster or alien, but that it had a lifecycle. Like egg→facehugger→chestburster→alien. That love is where the creatures in Video Night come from. I wanted monsters that don’t just appear out of a vacuum, but they grow up and have a coherent biology to them.

Of the two main guys in the book - the cockier, more outspoken Tom and the more reserved, humble Billy - who is the most like you?

Ha! I feel like you already know the answer to this one. I’m more of a Billy. But not 100%, I didn’t want to have him be a 1:1 copy of me, so I gave Tom some of my qualities too. Neither of them is me, they’re both kind of bits and pieces of different people I know. The girls, too.

Tom is a character type that I feel we don’t see a lot of, a cool guy that walks that line between bully and best friend. But I feel that that’s a huge proportion of high school kids. There’s a tendency towards meanness in adolescents that gets over-simplified sometimes.

You were a film major in school, and both this book and your 2012 novella Tribesmen have a very lean, cinematic quality to them. Any thought of branching out into screenplays or other aspects of filmmaking?

In undergrad I wrote a bunch of short scripts and one feature. Some of the shorts were horror, but the feature was kind of a buddy road comedy about a has-been rock star that goes on a revenge quest against the petty criminals that killed his dog.  But in actuality I was a film studies major. I wrote papers about movies. Kind of like an English major with less reading.

I love film so much. But I also understand the realities of how difficult it is to make it in that arena. Would I like to be involved with films? Of course.

We’re at a really difficult time in horror film fandom. Look on any forum or Facebook thread. Everyone’s so negative, condemning Hollywood for having remake-itus (which is untrue, look at Kill List or Martha Marcy May Marlene and tell me that there are no great original horror films being made). The problem is that most of these people complaining are missing an absolute genre golden age because they don’t read.

If they were into literature you could hand them a book by Laird Barron, Sarah Langan, Stephen Graham Jones, Jeff Strand, Jack Ketchum, John Skipp & Cody Goodfellow, Jeremy Robert Johnson, Laura Lee Bahr, or Aaron Dries and watch them lose their minds when they realize what they’ve been missing.

I know Video Night is not out until January so I don't want to go into spoilers, but the ending is open-ended enough to suggest that a sequel is possible. Thoughts?

If people read this one, that would be cool. I’ve got a vague idea for it. It would pull a Texas Chainsaw Massacre II and go in a completely different direction from the first one, both in tone and plot.

What are/were some of your favorite horror flicks to rent?

That video store I mentioned had a ton of Full Moon releases, Puppet Master and stuff, but what I was always most interested in were Troma movies, of which they had perilously few. Evil Dead II was on heavy rotation, as were the first two or three Critters movies. If I’m being honest, I’m pretty sure there was a time I rented Mom and Dad Save the World and Jason Goes to Hell on the same night. That should give you an idea what questionable taste I had.

Visit Adam Cesare online and order Video Night.

Blu Gilliand is a freelance writer of fiction and nonfiction. He covers horror fiction at his blog, October Country and contributes interviews to the Horror World website. Follow him on Twitter at @BluGilliand.

 

The clock is ticking down to Guillermo del Toro's upcoming epic Pacific Rim. Up to this point, details on the film were slim, but the general consensus was that it would be giant robots vs. giant monsters. A viral marketing campaign launched today tells us... well, it's going to be giant robots vs. giant monsters.

Coming from the Pan Pacific Defense Corps, we have an "Emergency Broadcast" test, a terrifying news report, and blueprints so that you can build your own Jager robot and defend yourself against the Godzilla-like creatures that have run amok.

In a recent interview, director Guillermo del Toro promised we would see the full trailer for Pacific Rim with a movie coming out this holiday season (The Hobbit, anyone?) Hopefully you can survive the impending invasion long enough.

Source: Wired

The Christmas season is just about here and those looking to combine their love of "slashers" and the holidays have the upcoming feature 'Silent Night' to look forward to. Steven C. Miller's loose remake of 'Silent Night Deadly Night' arrives in a limited theatrical release on November 30th, followed by a Blu-Ray/ DVD release on December 4th and while we've seen a handful of clips thus far, we've got another one for you below in which the films' killer Santa attacks! Also, check out this cool behind the scenes featurette which features interviews with actors Malcolm McDowell, Jaime King and Donal Logue.  So, have you been naughty? Or nice?

Raising kids is tough. So imagine if your kid was a horror movie kid. Kids like Danny and the twins from The Shining, Samara from The Ring, Damien from The Omen, and all those little buggers from Village of the Damned all come with the need for special attention and care.

Luckily, Happy Dreams Day Care is here to help:

Supernatural Episode 808
“Hunteri Heroici”
Written By: Andrew Dabb
Directed By: Paul Edwards
Original Airdate: 28 November 2012

In This Episode...

Castiel makes a startling announcement: he wants to be a hunter. Once Dean picks his jaw up off the floor, he agrees, and Castiel drives with them to Oklahoma for their next case. A man named Gary was meeting his girlfriend in the park when his heart literally exploded out of his chest, leaving a heart-shaped hole in his chest. It turns out the girl, Olivia, that Gary met was his mistress. The boys suspect witchery on the part of the wife, so they visit her next. When Olivia comes over to pay her respects, Cas blurts out that she and Gary were having an affair. Turns out, Gary and his wife had an open marriage. “Best wife ever,” Dean mutters before they leave.

Next up is a man who kills himself by jumping off a roof. Except when he stepped off the roof, he didn’t fall. He stood there, a good 10 seconds (according to witnesses) midair. He believes he has been saved but in his jubilation, he looks down and plummets to his death. A third death, in a bank, sees the security guard squished under a giant anvil. With three cartoonish kills, the patterns become evident. Each cartoonish death occurred near where the Black Hole Bandit struck, named for the large black circles that are painted on the walls at each crime scene. Yes, just like the ones Bugs Bunny draws to dive into that Elmer Fudd tries to follow and finds it is just a wall.

The thefts were all of residents of a nursing home, so the guys head there. They discover Fred Jones, an old friend of their father’s, is a resident there. He is a powerful psychokinetic, but nowadays he just sits and watches cartoons. He has retreated into his own mind, his own world of cartoons. It seems that Fred has a “bubble of weird” around him. Anyone within 50 yards or so gets caught in his cartoon world. The doctor at the home figured out what was going on and had been taking him with him on these thefts. Fred would stay in the van, contentedly watching cartoons on an iPad, while the doc used the “bubble of weird” to bend the laws of physics and complete his heists. While Dean deals with the devious doc, Castiel and Sam go into Fred’s mind to talk him out of his own headspace. It works, and Fred is conscious. He does what Dean opts not to do: shoot the doctor.

Dig It or Bury It?

This episode had so much going for it. I can’t decide what was funnier: Castiel wanting to be a hunter, or living in a cartoon world. The fall from the roof death reminded me of an episode of Tiny Toons, where the kids are trying to leave Wackyland and discover the bridge is gone. One of the ‘toons explains to everyone that they won’t fall if they don’t look down. They all make it across safely and live happily ever after.

Spooky Humor

Two parts stick out in my mind. The first is when Cas decides he will interrogate the nursing home’s pet cat. Sam and Dean go to collect Castiel, who isn’t ready. “I’ve almost cracked him!” Dean is insistent, but Castiel gives the cat one final warning: “I’m not done with you.”

The second sees Dean chasing the doctor through the bank. We freeze frame and Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote-style lower-thirds, complete with genus and species.

Flashback to the Future

Sam and Amelia move into a house together. They haven’t been together long, but they make each other happy. Her dad, Stan, comes over and she nervously introduces dad to Sam and Riot and their new life. Stan’s demeanor to Sam is tepid at best, but Amelia pleads with him to give him a chance. “I’m happy with him ... let us be a mess together.” Stan gives in and makes a concerted effort to give Sam a chance. Sam opens up a little bit about losing his brother, which helps Stan warm to him a bit. Then Amelia gets a phone call. Turns out her husband, Don, isn’t really dead.

Prophecies?

Sam thinks that Benny is behind a new spate of vampire attacks.

American Horror Story: Asylum Episode 207
“Dark Cousin”
Written By: Tim Minear
Directed By: Michael Rymer
Original Airdate: 28 November 2012

In This Episode...

The Angel of Death comes to Briarcliff in the form of Frances Conroy. I have no idea why the Angel of Death waited until halfway through the season to appear (scheduling conflicts?) but she’s here now, and she kisses each person when she reaps their soul. And everyone is having brushes with death this week.

Let’s start with Jude. She has just discovered Goodman bleeding out in his hotel. She calls the police, but it is too late. Goodman is gone. A bottle of whiskey on the night stand calls to her, and she gives in. Sister Mary Eunice calls, taunting her, and telling her that she left the whiskey and a straight razor for Jude. Jude drunkenly heads out to a coffee shop. She goes to the washroom and contemplates the razor - even envisions slitting her wrists - but instead she goes back to her booth. The Angel of Death is there because Jude called her. This is the third time Jude has called for death, and she tells her she is ready, but has one thing she wants to do first. Jude is a mess when she shows up to speak to the parents of Missy, the girl that she killed in the hit and run. She is blubbering as she tries to admit that she was the one responsible, but she can’t get the words out. A young woman in a nurse’s uniform comes in, home off the night shift. This is Missy. Jude did not kill her. She had a few broken bones but obviously was able to move on with her life. Hank, the father, wanted revenge, but his wife calmed him down. “We get to put it behind us and have our daughter back. But the monster who did this has to live with it for the rest of his life.” Jude is at a loss.

Lana calls for the Angel of Death while Thredson is raping her. When Thredson is done and Death offers to take Lana, she has changed her mind. She is not quite ready to give up. Thredson comes back into the basement and says that he and Lana are at an impasse. He rambles for a few minutes that this was a bad idea then offers her her choice of death: slit throat or strangling. He decides it doesn’t matter because he is going to anesthetize her anyway. When he comes at her with a syringe, she fights back and manages to get the injection into him. She then strangles him (not to death, but into brief unconsciousness) with the chain she is bound with, finds the key, and escapes. She runs through the forest until she hits a road - then she runs along the road until a car almost hits her. She jumps in and begs the man to drive off. It soon becomes clear that she chose the wrong car to escape in (not like she had any other choices) for the driver is dangerously unhinged, with a psychotic hatred of women, having just walked in on his wife with another man. Lana begs to be let out; the man ignores her. Then he pulls out a gun, but he turns it on himself. The car is in a terrible crash, and when Lana wakes... she is back in Briarcliff. Lana begs for Sister Jude but Sister Mary Eunice tells her that she is in charge now. Lana tells her everything and Sister Mary Eunice promises that she is safe. Of course, safe is a relative term in American Horror Story.

Grace is nearly dead from a horribly botched hysterectomy. In fact the Angel of Death is ready to take her when a nurse brings her back from the edge. Arden insists that he did not perform the surgery and will save Grace if only so she can save his good name. His miracle cure works and she is up and about the very next day.

Kit is trying to convince his attorney that Thredson tricked him into confessing. The attorney says he might still be able to swing an insanity plea... but Kit has tuned out. He refocuses when he decides to knock out his attorney with a three-hole-punch and escape. He goes right back to Briarcliff and enters through the tunnels, with one of Arden’s mutants hot on his trail. Kit bursts in on the bakery kitchen, where Grace is enjoying a few minutes of alone time. They embrace, but one of the nuns sees him and starts screaming. The mutant shuts her up by ripping her throat out, then goes for Kit. Kit fights back and disembowels the mutant gruesomely. Frank responds to the commotion and, upon seeing Kit, opens fire. Grace throws herself in front of Kit and takes the bullet herself. The Angel of Death finally gets Grace.

Dig It or Bury It?

Lana just cannot catch a break! There were some good twists (Missy) and a couple fun scenes (most notably, Kit versus the mutant) but overall, it wasn’t a stand-out episode.

Patient History

Jude’s first brush with the Angel of Death came when her husband left her. She accused him of giving her syphilis, which led to her sterility. He is mad, calls her a liar, blah blah blah. It was what pushed her to alcohol.

After the hit and run, Jude drank herself into oblivion and missed a gig. The band leader came by to inform her (gently) that she was fired. Jude packs hastily and leaves town, still a drunken mess. She gets into a bad car accident and when she wakes in the morning, she finds that she has crashed into an angel statue at a church. Hallelujah, it’s a sign!

Prophecies?

It’s a very special Christmas episode when Ian McShane guest stars as an insane, killer Santa Claus. 

The first chat I had with pianist/singer/renaissance worman Jill Tracy opened my eyes and ears to a beautifully haunted world of music, stories and images, including her collaboration with filmmaker Bill Domonkos on “The Fine Art of Poisoning,” one of many excellent films in FEARnet's shorts collection; her intense upcoming musical project after being awarded a grant by Philadelphia's amazing Mütter Museum; and a series of “Musical Séances” (with violinist Paul Mercer) in which the audience's treasured objects and artefacts actually channel a spontaneous live performance. Those are just a few pages from Jill's body of work, and we'll be exploring more in the near future... but today I'd like to focus on a mixed-media holiday project that Jill describes as “Christmas for those who prefer the October chill.” The album Silver Smoke, Star of Night explores the roots of well-known Christmas carols in ways that will surprise and maybe even chill you... and her new signature perfumes by the same name combine with the music to create an exotic and mysterious holiday feast for the senses. In part two of our conversation with Jill, we find out how the music and scents came to life...

FEARnet: You describe Silver Smoke, Star of Night as an “accidental” album.

JILL: It really was, totally accidental.

What set that whole process in motion?

Well first of all, I don't really listen to Christmas music... it seems so many holiday songs are done in such a schmaltzy, mindless way. But I've always thought the original old carols are quite beautiful, and I hadn't sung or heard many of them in years. Last Christmas eve, I was with a dear friend who was going through rehab, and we were attempting to stay away from the parties and alcohol. She noticed the historic Swedenborgian church in San Francisco was doing a midnight candlelight sing-along of traditional Christmas carols, and we thought that would be really inspiring. We walked into this old magnificent structure, it was totally dark, they gave everyone little candles to hold and a songbook, and we began singing...I'd forgotten how exquisite some of these pieces are. Usually when you hear them on the radio or sing them in school, you only hear two verses or so, but there are often many more verses you seldom hear, some very gloomy and bleak, but also poignant and hopeful. There’s a verse from “We Three Kings” about being “sealed in the stone cold tomb,” and “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” refers things like “Satan's tyranny,” and so on.

It makes them sound like passages from a gothic novel.

Yes, it's such lavish dark imagery, and I couldn't get those images and melodies out of my head! I started researching and found more old carols that resonated with me. “Coventry Carol,” is an old lament from the 16th Century about the biblical tale of King Herod ordering male infants under the age of two in Bethlehem to be killed. The lyrics represent a mother's grief for her doomed child.  It reminds you how that was such a violent, turbulent time in history. It certainly was not Frosty the Snowman or Rudolph.

I was really surprised to find how dark those songs were in their original form.

It's true, and when I tweeted about these discoveries, there was this sudden onslaught of responses on Twitter saying “You should release an album of dark classic Christmas carols!” That's what ultimately planted the seed for this project, and at that point I realized how moving it would be. These are not songs to be sung, but tales to be told. This was the Christmas album I always wished existed, and I guess it was up to me to make it so.

I like how you chose different arrangements to suit the intimacy or the darkness of different songs, but there's an overall vintage feel to the record.

Yes, I wanted to capture that organic texture, and I worked with my long-time percussionist Randy Odell, who used authentic antique instruments like chimes and bells, bamboo, even old wooden toys. For the reverb sound on the piano, we sampled an abandoned stairwell at night. Some songs I'd planned as more elaborate, with violins and so on, like “What Child Is This?” But when I played through the first take of that one, I was so moved by it that you hear my voice break a little bit, and we knew that was the keeper. "What Child is This" is one of the most raw, powerful and proud moments I've ever captured on tape. "O Come O Come Emanuel" was really the impetus for the entire album. I heard this long slow build, mystical and hypnotic... then transforming into more of an odd jazz groove, but maintaining the sheer formal beauty of the work. I also heard this very different (from the classic version) vocal melody in my head. I also wanted to sing on “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” but it ended up sounding more tender as just a solo piano piece. I went against my original plans for a lot of these songs, and instead with what felt right in that moment... often the most heartfelt versions are the first takes. When you over-think things, you can get in your own way and lose the magic.

My favorite is “Carol of the Bells,” which has so many layers of metallic percussion... it's very hypnotic.

I'm so glad you like it, that one was challenging! After all, the central melody is kind of clinical and redundant, and we were thinking, “How many times do we play this melody? How do we make it progress, albeit fragilly into something more interesing?” Then my drummer had the idea of adding these layers of varying chimes, metals and found objects, so he just came in with all of this glorious stuff. I wasn't sure what he was going to do with it all, but we just started recording tracks of him emoting on all these different metal things, and when we started layering them together, you just hear this amazing texture, ambience, and tone that supports the piano melody and makes it come alive.

You've introduced two new perfumes that seem closely tied to the album. Did you intend that as a way of enhancing the experience?

Yes, exactly. Just like we create visuals to go with music, like album art and videos, I’ve always wanted to create fragrances as a conjuring companion. Scent is transportive, so much more powerful than we realize. The sense of smell is directly linked to the limbic system, the part of the brain where emotion and memory are centered... and like music, these senses are passive, indirect. Unlike touching a cold piece of steel for instance – everyone would have that same experience – music and scent are completely distinctive and private sensual interpretations. A perfume will even smell quite different on every skin. So it all began as perfume for myself, we experimented with several versions, and I became so addicted to these two fragrances. I worked with Emerson Hart of San Francisco's Nocturne Alchemy to create an essence that captures that ashy, smoky, not-too-sweet scent of burning frankincense, and we came upon this blend that just blew my mind. So when this album came out, I had the idea these two frankincense- and myrrh-based scents could be called “Silver Smoke” and “Star of Night” just like the title. In fact, I was wearing these scents while I was recording the album!



You also chose an amazing venue to introduce these scents to the public. Can you tell us more about this event at the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers?

The Conservatory of Flowers has always been one of my favorite places... it's this beautiful white Victorian-style glass dome in the middle of Golden Gate Park. It's normally open only during the day, and when you're inside it feels like walking onto another planet. Last fall they were showing an exhibit called “Wicked Plants,” based on the book by Amy Stewart, which showcased all kinds of poisonous and deadly nightshades. I also discovered that Amy is a big fan of my music, so I approached them with the idea of doing an event at night, where I'd tell tales about the “dark side” of the plant kingdom, with a tour and a concert after hours. The event was a huge success. Since then, we are discussing more ideas, because it feels like a perfect creative home base for me. When the Christmas album came out with the perfumes, I decided to create an evening called “Fragrance, the Allure and Magical History of Perfumes,” with a tour of the night fragrant gardens, and full concert. An indulgement of the senses. People could learn things like what frankincense and myrrh look like in their natural state, how fragrances are made, and it would be the ideal environment to launch my perfumes and new holiday album.

Tell us more about this “Creepshow Christmas” event you've planned... it sounds like Halloween and Christmas all rolled into one big celebration.

“Creepshow Christmas” is taking place on December 8th at the Hypnodrome in San Francisco which is a theater that I helped found in 2004 that specializes in recreating old Grand Guignol horror plays. Every summer they offer a “Creepshow Camp” for kids ages 8 to 15, where they teach how to do horror makeup and stage effects, and they put together a play as their final project. I usually come in and sing songs with them, and one year we did a music video... and one time I came in did a lecture on ancient torture devices!


Oh man, where was all this stuff when I was growing up?

I know, I wish I'd had that experience as a kid! I rarely get to do an all-ages show, so I thought it would be fun to do something like Creepshow Camp, and I'd perform songs from the new album and show films like “The Fine Art of Poisoning.” We'd also invite people in the audience to share a favorite ghost tale and we'll provide a live improvised score! Hearing the music reacting to their story would help them tell it. And such a blast for us to create a live score on the spot.The Hypnodrome is also totally tricked out; they took painstaking efforts to ensure that your eyes will never adjust when the lights go out. They do a full-blackout spookshow - that's their signature - and there are specially rigged seats called “shock-boxes” that all have a distinctive theme, like an insane asylum or Hades. They're constructed so certain things will happen, from buzzers under the seats to people who hide and jump out to grab you!

That's awesome, it's just like the old William Castle movie gimmicks like The Tingler.

It's so much fun, and I would love to see more people discover this place. It’s one of those hidden gems here in San Francisco.

I'll definitely be looking into that... I think there's another whole story to be told there.

Oh yeah, it's such an amazing and fun space... a cross between a strange curiosity shop, underworld theater, and a chamber of horrors! No wonder I feel right at home...

Drop by Jill's official site where you can learn just about anything you want to know about her new and past works, as well as her future plans detailed on her extensive blog.

I almost can’t write the title of this gift without gagging. It sounds like something a big brother would make up to punish his younger siblings. “Shut up or I’ll make you eat crusty zombie toenails!”

The ingredients of these undead toenails are a bit of a mystery as is the process by which they are harvested but the seller assures us they are perfect for snacking. You know, come home, put your feet up, grab a beer and a bag of toenails.
 
“Fit for human consumption, these Curly Zombie Toenails are curly and smelly, and they may reek of the stench of death.” Crunchy treats!

$3.95 at House of Mysterious Secrets

If Oldboy director Park Chan-wook's new film Stoker is even half as good as its marketing materials I will be satisfied. The trailer debuted a few months ago with Nicole Kidman doing her best sinister step-mother and this new poster gives us a closer look at her daughter, India (Mia Wasikowska).

Stoker looks to have a place within a long history of tales of disturbed women living with dark secrets in large, lavish houses.  The poster reflects this with its Gothic elements that draw upon both botany illustration and Victorian death portraiture.

Wentworth Miller wrote the screenplay, which made 2010’s Black List of best unproduced screenplays, under the pseudonym Ted Foulke.  Stoker is in theaters March 1.
 

via Twitch

You’re in a pinch. There’s a vampire in your town who is trying to date your daughter and you need to get rid of him stat. Who will you call to terminate the pesky blood sucker? Buffy? She’s perfect for undercover work, but there’s so much drama with her. Selene? She’s already immortal so that’s points in her favor, and she looks good in vinyl, but she is also, and will forever be, a vampire at heart. Gabriel Van Helsing? Sure he has the experience, and knows how to kill a number of creatures, but maybe he’s just a little bit over-the-hill?

It’s really a guessing game. Thankfully, there’s a cheat sheet comparing vampire hunters to guide you through this decision with all the pertinent gun-for-hire information you may need: weapon, strengths, weaknesses and blood lust level. It even calculates how long it will take each slayer to kill Edward Cullen. Because, let's be honest, he's overstayed his welcome.
 

via Cheezburger.com

Christmas came early for Silent Night director Steven C. Miller. Variety reports that he will be directing Vigilante Entertainment’s new indie thriller, Scavenger.

The script was written by James Nash of Lovely Molly fame and Bradley Paul. The film “centers on a woman who must race against time to save her kidnapped daughter from a sadistic game-master. She is up against a man facing similar circumstances.”

Miller’s loose remake of Silent Night is due out in limited theatrical release on November 30, and on Blu-Ray/ DVD on December 4. A new featurette was released yesterday, watch it here.

via Variety

The centerpiece of any Christmas celebration is the tree. Some people put on a random collection of cutesy ornaments; others use keepsakes and kids art projects. Some people keep it simple with color-coordinated balls. Still others zombify their tree. Here are some of our top picks for zombie ornaments.

The perfect nuclear family: mom, dad, teen, baby, dog, and cat. All as zombies. The gingerbread zombie family is also available as individual ornaments.

$53.73 at Neatoshop

I suppose a toe is a zombie's version of mistletoe.

$9.95 at Neatoshop

A more subtle zombie theme with great alliteration: Blood, Bullets, Brains, Biohazard.

$18.00 at Etsy

Zombie elf

$17 at Etsy

Zombie snowman. Stilly trying to figure out the physics of this one, but I like it!

$14.95 at Neatoshop

Probably don't want to eat these zombie candy canes.

$9.95 at Neatoshop

Call it "Night Fragrance for Night Music." Multi-talented artist Jill Tracy is not only a celebrated singer-songwriter and composer of dark, sensual and otherworldly musicc, she has also entered the world of exotic fragrances. Together with master perfumer Emerson Hart of San Francisco's Nocturne Alchemy, Jill has designed a set of perfumes that share the same name name and theme as her recently-released album Silver Smoke, Star of Night, which she describes as “Christmas music for those who prefer the October chill.”

“Just like we create visuals to go with music, like album art and videos, I thought why not create a scent as a “conjuring companion” to music?” Jill told FEARnet. “That was the whole idea behind these perfumes—she describes on her blog as “My musical netherworld set to scent.”

Silver Smoke is a blend of Boswellia Carteri Frankincense Resin tears discovered in Egypt and Somalia and steam distilled into rich olibanum Frankincense perfume oil in San Francisco. Star of Night is derived from sweet and woody Arabic Myrrh and rich golden Egyptian Frankincense with a touch of Egyptian Black Linen. You can purchase a limited edition gift set containing both fragrance glass vials in a mesh bag with an autographed art card by Trista Musco. The package also includes a link to a free download of Silver Smoke, Star of Night.

$35 at Jill Tracy's official Bandcamp

It might be one of the more "prestigious" film festivals, but Sundance still squeezes in the scares, the sleaze, and the strange. Check out their lineup for Park City at Midnight.

Ass Backwards / U.S.A. (Director: Chris Nelson, Screenwriters: June Diane Raphael, Casey Wilson) — Loveable losers Kate and Chloe take a road trip back to their hometown to claim the beauty pageant crown that eluded them as children, only to discover what really counts: friendship.Cast: June Diane Raphael, Casey Wilson, Vincent D'Onofrio, Alicia Silverstone, Jon Cryer, Brian Geraghty.

Hell Baby / U.S.A. (Directors and screenwriters: Robert Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon) — An expectant couple moves into the most haunted fixer-upper in New Orleans – a house with a demonic curse. Things spiral out of control and soon only the Vatican's elite exorcism team can save the pair – or can it? Cast: Rob Corddry, Leslie Bibb, Keegan Michael Key, Riki Lindhome, Paul Scheer, Rob Huebel.

In Fear / United Kingdom (Directed and story by: Jeremy Lovering) — Trapped in a maze of country roads with only their vehicle for protection, Tom and Lucy are terrorized by an unseen tormentor exploiting their worst fears. Eventually they realize they've let the evil in – it’s sitting in their car.Cast: Alice Englert, Iain De Caestecker, Allen Leech.

kink (documentary) / U.S.A. (Director: Christina Voros) — A story of sex, submission and big business is told through the eyes of the unlikely pornographers whose 9:00-to-5:00 work days are spent within the confines of the San Francisco Armory building, home to the sprawling porn production facilities of Kink.com.

The Rambler / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Calvin Lee Reeder) — After being released from prison, a man known as “The Rambler” stumbles upon a strange mystery as he attempts the treacherous journey through back roads and small towns en route to reconnecting with his long-lost brother. Cast: Dermot Mulroney, Lindsay Pulsipher, Natasha Lyonne, James Cady, Scott Sharot.

S-VHS / U.S.A., Canada (Directors: Simon Barrett, Adam Wingard, Edúardo Sanchez, Gregg Hale, Timo Tjahjanto, Gareth Huw Evans, Jason Eisener, Screenwriters: Simon Barrett, Jamie Nash, Timo Tjahjanto & Gareth Huw Evans, John Davies) — Searching for a missing student, two private investigators break into his abandoned house and find another collection of mysterious VHS tapes. In viewing the horrific contents of each cassette, they realize there may be terrifying motives behind the student’s disappearance. Cast: Adam Wingard, Lawrence Levine, L.C Holt, Kelsy Abbott, Hannah Hughes.

Virtually Heroes / U.S.A. (Director: GJ Echternkamp, Screenwriter: Matt Yamashita) — Two self-aware characters in a Call of Duty-style video game struggle with their screwy, frustrating existence. To find answers, one abandons his partner and mission, seeking to unravel the cheat codes of life. Cast: Robert Baker, Brent Chase, Katie Savoy, Mark Hamill, Ben Messmer.

We Are What We Are / U.S.A. (Director: Jim Mickle, Screenwriters: Nick Damici, Jim Mickle) — A devastating storm washes up clues that lead authorities closer and closer to the cannibalistic Parker family. Cast: Bill Sage, Ambyr Childers, Julia Garner, Michael Parks, Wyatt Russell, Kelly McGillis.

Sundance runs from January 17th-27th.