In part two of our interview with writer C. Robert Cargill and Sinister writer/director Scott Derrickson (you can read part one here), we pick up with the publication of Cargill's recent novel Dreams & Shadows.

FEARnet: What's the status of the film option on Dreams & Shadows?

In the annals of horror movie history, there are a few moments that are considered most iconic: Carol Ann sitting too close to the TV, Pinhead’s introduction in the hospital room, Regan’s vomit-filled bedside chat, Laurie Strode fighting for her life in a bedroom closet, and of course, Carrie White’s blood-filled prom night.

So, with great curiosity and, honestly, a little skepticism, I joined several other writers on the set of Kimberly Peirce’s Carrie remake in Toronto, to watch the filming of that unforgettable prom scene.

Housed inside what looked like a giant storage space, the Carrie crew had built the Thomas Ewan High School gym decorated for prom, along with the famous locker room strewn with tampons, maxi pads, hair spray and bracelets, and the interior of the White house. Carrie’s room looked like that of a young girl, rather than a teen, with watercolor paintings and a crystal collection decorating the room and a requisite New Testament Student Bible front and center.

Director Kimberly Peirce said her Carrie is not a remake, but something different, a way to develop the characters whose backgrounds didn’t get much time in the original. Specifically, the uber-evil Chris Hargensen.

“What I saw in the book, putting the original film aside, was a chance to really develop Chris as your villain. Who is Chris? Why is she going to pick on this girl? How does that escalate? Actually, what we build in is, not to give it away, but Sue actually starts off as the catalyst of the problem. I'm not going to give it away exactly, but she's the first person to do something in that locker room, and that sets off a chain reaction with the other girls. So Chris follows,” Peirce said.

2013’s answer to Chris is played by Portia Doubleday who, if her role in Youth in Revolt is any indication, is no stranger to the playing a manipulative teen and playing it well. Doubleday said that the challenge for her was not to slip into the convention of being mean, but to consider what brought her to the point of tormenting Carrie.

“ … one thing was to establish the relationship between Chris and Sue and that they are really close and have a really strong bond.  And it’s not necessarily in the beginning like the interaction that we have with Carrie isn’t as kind of – to me it was more like I was a part of a pack of girls and it was just kind of that high school fun.  It wasn’t aimed directly at her to start.  It was just kind of our world and establishing our relationship and how close we were because as things progress you kind of see how my character, I guess, loses herself.  Because her world slowly falls apart.  I mean, she loses her best friend,” she said.

Peirce also described some of the more interesting taboos explored in the original which she expanded upon. Her updated version on the shower scene makes use of social media, specifically, the tendency of today’s teens to video tape everything.

“There is one thing that I really love that the girls found which is that it's period blood. Period blood is strange. If somebody had period blood and touched you, oh my God, there's a realization that that's a really awkward moment, so there was a reality when we were writing and staging it that we got to build upon. And what I love about our Chris is that she's totally right that her life is getting totally F'd up because of Carrie White. So I made sure to make it that you really saw things through Chris' point of view, “ she said.

Blood is, of course, central to the story.  Testing the blood dump again and again, the set used between 300 and 400 gallons of blood in total.  Destruction also plays a key role in the remake, along with a heightened emphasis on the telekinesis. Carrie’s room was completely rigged with wires so the bed and furniture could be raised. In the end it was a mix of the practical and digital that created the epic destruction of Carrie’s house and entire town that Peirce was looking for.

“Well, what is the reality of stones raining down and actually destroying a house and sucking it into a crater in the earth? Ain't no reality to that. But if we do it half practical, which we did, and then we build it digitally, which is expensive and I have to cut corners to be able to do that, the spectacle of it ends up being much more satisfying because you can do things you couldn't possibly do, “ she said.



Visual Effects Supervisor Dennis Berardi went into greater detail about how he and Peirce defined the new look of the film and how they are planning to pay homage to the original.

“… in the early days of prep I showed Kim a bunch of crazy footage just to get a sense of the … Lots of movie reference and we kind of found a palette that started to be really physical but needed digital enhancement. … So, we’re shooting in the example of say some of the moments with Carrie and Margaret where Carrie will want to shut Margaret up and do something to her, we’ll put her on a stunt rig we’ll shoot her in a couple different layers with different poses for arms, we’ll composite them all together and give a contorted hopefully shocking effect,” Berardi said.

"The original movie is amazing, it’s fantastic, particularly in the gym destruction sequence there’s a lot of the hose going … there’s a lot of physical stuff. There’s the montage-y bit where that all happens. We’re doing a lot more certainly in terms of destruction. There are moments where we are paying homage. The cable work where we’re ripping out cables, electrocuting people. I think the cables is a bit of an homage to the original movie. Certainly Billy and Chris’ ultimate death is an homage. I’m not sure if you remember how they died in the original version, we have a pretty spectacular death planned.

There has been a constant referring back to the first movie, but there’s also – all the filmmakers have been really sensitive, including myself, to the modern aesthetic and the modern appetite for stronger visual footage.”

Back to the bucket of blood scene at the prom. 

Chloe Moretz, who plays the titular Carrie, was ready to make it happen, but a little nervous about how it was all going to play out.

“It’s interesting because I’ve seen a couple videos of what they’re gonna do, and during filming of one of the scenes with Margaret and I—actually where I tell her like, ‘No Momma, I’m gonna go,’ I’m in the prom dress and she’s like, ‘Repent Carrie, don’t do it,’ and I’m like, ‘No Momma, I’m gonna go,’ it was during that scene where I walked off set into the gymnasium and I was just hanging out shooting basketball in my prom dress, and I turn around and they’re like ‘Okay so we’re about to do the blood dump.”’ We were like, ‘Wait, what?’ and literally 30 people just starting filing in trying to watch it, and it happened and it was so cool.  So I’m really excited to do it in a second, but it’s like five gallons of a liquid being dumped on your head so it’s really heavy, so they’re like ‘Just don’t fall,’ and I’m like ‘I’m not gonna fall, don’t worry.’  The minute I say that, I’m gonna fall,” Moretz said.

When it was time to shoot, they shuffled the eight or so press folks into a spot behind the action, with a perfect view of the stage. Extras roamed around as the stand-ins for Moretz and Ansel Elgort (who plays Tommy Ross) took to the stage to be bombarded with blood.

Once Peirce was happy with the trial runs, it was Moretz and Elgort’s turn. All the plastic that covered the set for the practice takes was removed and the actors got in their places. I don’t think I could have imagined how satisfying it would be to see five gallons of fake blood hit Moretz, or how perfect she would look when it happened. Watching the replay in slow motion, the waterfall effect was amazing and chilling. Plus, Chloe managed not to fall.

Carrie opens on October 18th from Screen Gems.

Read all of Fearnet's Carrie coverage here and watch the trailer below.

Is there any hope of bringing Deb (Jennifer Carpenter) back from the dark side? Well, now Dr. Vogal is doing everything she can to help mend the broken spirit of the former lieutenant, meanwhile Dexter is still on the hunt for the "brain surgeon" and coping with the idea of not having his beloved sister in his life. Below's a sneak peek at episode 804 titled "Scar Tissue," which airs this Sunday July 21st only on Showtime. Catch up and read Alyse's TV recap for episode 803 "What's Eating Dexter Morgan?"

Sure, every comic villain has delusions of grandeur, or a god-complex (some more than others, looking at you, Thanos), or a raging vendetta they need to exact upon an unsuspecting hero. But here at FEARnet we've got a laundry list of our favorite, most disturbed, weird, and demented villains. And yes, yes, yes, the Joker's the most disturbed, etc. Let's just get him out of the way in the intro! We're on to bigger, better, weirder, and more evil things!

Bullseye

Magneto can command the powers of magnetism. Doomsday was strong enough to kill Superman. Bullseye? He's got great aim… and he's a psychopath. The man can turn anything into a thrown projectile with enough accuracy, speed, and force to kill his target. He once slit a throat with a playing card! His vendetta against Daredevil keeps him shooting, and he's the type of malignant force in the world that keeps superheroes on their toes. The thing that makes Bullseye so scary is his obsession over his targets. He studies them, he follows them home, and when the time is right… he shoots them to death. Bullseye sounds more like a serial killer Hannibal Lector would help catch and less like a super villain, which is why he made this list!

Anti-Monitor

Let's shift gears from Bullseye here… in a big way. Bullseye has probably killed hundreds in his criminal career. That's less than .0001% of all the people Anti-Monitor has killed. As part of the wonderfully complicated DC tentpole event Crisis on Infinite Earths, The Anti-Monitor was the product of when someone looked at the creation of the universe. Or… when an ancient, cosmic being tried to gaze upon the creation of life and went mad and split into the Monitor and the Anti-Monitor. Or… oh, forget it. All that matters is that this dude has killed multiple dimensions. That's right, he hasn't devastated a city, or a country, or even a planet, he's destroyed and soaked up multiple dimensions or multiverses. For sheer numbers alone (and the fact that he looks like a crazy monster), Anti-Monitor made our list. No villain in comic history beats his body count.

The Brotherhood of Dada

If you've never read Grant Morrison's run on Doom Patrol, you need to finish reading this article and then run to your local comic shop. Hopefully they have this weird, amazing comic from the late 1980's in trade paperback, and you can finally read all about one of the strangest group of villains we've ever seen. The Brotherhood of Dada believe in nothing, really. Or, rather, they believe in chaos and anything that is absurd or bizarre. They're not technically evil because they don't really believe in evil, and their crew is something to behold. Mister Nobody, the leader of the gang, can sap the sanity from those around him. The Quiz has every super power you've never thought of. You can get rid of her powers by thinking of them before she can use them. Sleepwalk is a girl who has incredible strength… but only when she sleepwalks. Frenzy is a dyslexic Jamaican man who can turn into a tornado. And Fog is a man who can turn into a cloud and absorb humans into his person. Crazy, insane, wild, and unpredictable, these villains could only be stopped by a group as equally crazy, insane, wild and unpredictable as the Doom Patrol.

Negan

Here's a brand new villain for you crazies out there. Negan, the new scourge of Rick and co. from The Walking Dead comics, is a truly nasty psychopath. Sure, The Governor was deranged, derailed, and violent in all the wrong ways, but Negan creeps us out way more! His weapon of choice is a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire (named, affectionately, "Lucile"), he swears worse than any sailor I've ever met, and he kills and kills until he gets what he wants. He's a bad man, through and through, and every threat he makes, every life he takes, he does so with a shit-eating grin! The man is definitely disturbed, and his sense of brutality makes him perfectly unhinged and well-suited to this list.

Violator (The Clown)

The first time I ever saw this Spawn villain was not in a comic. It was as a twisted, disgusting action figure (you know, the king Todd McFarlane loves to make) and I was about nine years old. As a kid that young I'll admit, I was terrified of the thing. I didn't know anything about Spawn, I didn't know that he was a minion from hell who took the form of a putrid clown while on earth. All I knew was that I already kind of hated clowns, and this thing was my worst nightmare. As a creature from hell, he delights in controlling others and has a taste for the more terrible things in life. For that reason, for the fact that he tortures the living and teases the undead, and for his nasty little belly shirt, Violator had to make this list!

Honorable mention goes to Mephisto, who in the Marvel universe is literally the devil. Who else belongs on this list? Let us know below!

Universal Studios has just announced that one of their Halloween Haunt mazes this year will be Evil Dead-themed.

From the official press release: "In haunted mazes so terrifying, they could only be found at Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights, guests will be transported into the film and face off against a demonic evil that will stop at nothing to consume them. It begins when a mysterious passage from an ancient book is read, releasing an unearthly force of darkness. A pack of violently possessed victims, including the film’s starring character “Mia,” wreaks brutal carnage throughout the mazes – and guests must make their best attempt to escape."

Universal always has some of the best haunted attractions, so I expect the Evil Dead will be awesome. The maze will appear at both Universal's Hollywood and Orlando theme parks. Halloween Horror Nights start September 20th.

In honor of Comic Con, You're Next has released an SDCC-exclusive poster:

There will be plenty of You're Next goodness coming up at SDCC. On July 17th at 9pm, there will be a screening at the Reading Theater in the Gaslamp district, followed by a Q&A with director Adam Wingard, writer Simon Barrett, and star Sharni Vinson. Then at 11:30am on July 18th, Adam and Simon will be special guests on the Masters of the Web panel in room 24ABC. This year the panel will be horror-centric, and feature FEARnet's editor-in-chief Lawrence Raffel.

Official You're Next synopsis: "One of the smartest and most terrifying films in years, YOU'RE NEXT reinvents the genre by putting a fresh twist on home-invasion horror. When a gang of masked, ax-wielding murderers descend upon the Davison family reunion, the hapless victims seem trapped...until an unlikely guest of the family proves to be the most talented killer of all."

The film opens theatrically on August 23rd 

Natalie Slater, the culinary killer behind Bake and Destroy, certainly has the market cornered on evil eats.  Her food madness has spawned a book, various appearances on cooking shows and, most importantly, a recipe dedicated to her love of the Evil Dead. In particular, Ash’s unlucky sister Cheryl Williams who falls victim to an oversexed attacker of the wood-y variety.

So, why exactly are these cookies named Cheryl’s Revenge?

“Now technically, the seeds contained in fruits are the “children,” and the fruit itself is an ovary of sorts. I remember gagging when I learned that in high school biology and I still can’t eat apples without feeling like a cannibal, which luckily, I enjoy,” Natalie wrote.  “All nuts are seeds (but not all seeds are nuts- thus concluding a sentence that is sure to make my husband laugh.) So basically, when you eat Cheryl’s Revenge Cookies, you are consuming reproductive organs of various trees, as well as their babies. And that, I believe, is a suitable revenge for poor Cheryl.”

Plus, they’re vegan. Some may consider that an extra twist of the knife. (or pencil?)

Recipe below. See more of Natalie’s recipes on Bake and Destroy and buy her book.

Now, let’s exact Cheryl’s Revenge!

I have made these cookies vegan* because chickens and cows didn’t do anything vile to Cheryl. Only plants. So plants and trees alone shall bear the punishment. This recipe leaves lots of room for customization, and the ingredients are purposefully vague. Use whatever dried fruits (cranberries, raisins, blueberries, apples, banana chips, cherries, etc) and whatever kind of nuts you like. Go crazy and add chocolate chips! Who gives a damn?

You’ll need:

•    1 cup + 2 Tbs all-purpose flour
•    1/2 tsp baking soda
•    1/2 tsp course salt
•    1/2 cup soy margarine (I like Earth Balance)
•    1/2 cup light brown sugar
•    1/4 cup granulated sugar
•    1 Tbs flax seed, finely ground + 3 Tbs of water (or, if you’re using pre-ground flax seeds, use 2 Tbs)
•    1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
•    1 & 1/2 cups chopped nuts, your choice
•    1  & 1/2 cups dried fruit, your choice
•    3/4 cup sweetened, shredded coconut or whole rolled oats

*If you do not wish to make these vegan, substitute butter for the margarine and use 1 whole egg in place of the flax seed and water mixture.

Then you:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. (You can also use a Silpat, but parchment kills more trees.)

Whisk the dry ingredients together in a small bowl. With an electric mixer, beat the margarine until smooth and fluffy. Add sugars and beat until smooth. In a small bowl, whisk the ground flax seed and water together until thick and gooey. Add this to the sugar mixture and beat until combined. Mix in vanilla.

Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix until smooth. Stir in the nuts and fruit.
Drop batter (2 Tbs = one cookie) onto the lined baking sheet, about 2” apart. Bake 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

Makes about 2 dozen vengeful, murderous cookies.

 

Who is scarier: Michael Jackson or the Cryptkeeper? I suppose that is a tough call. On this kick-ass tee, Michael Jackson and his "Thriller" zombies are characterized as if characters on a classic EC horror comic, like Tales From the Crypt or The Haunt of Fear. "Grizzly ghouls from every tomb are closing in to seal your doom." And seal your fashion statement.

$14.99 at TShirtBordello.com

Ever since I was little, I have loved Disneyland's Haunted Mansion. If only I had been born a little earlier, I probably would have had this game.

Released in 1972 by Lakeside Games, the Haunted Mansion game sent players on a ride through the Mansion. The playing surface was based off the actual Disneyland ride, and featured rotating discs that could change the play in a moment. Ghosts "spin" as you move through a 3D gamescape in your Doom Buggy. Like with the ride, the goal of the game is to escape the 999 "happy haunts" who always have "room for one more."

From the catalogue description: "Inspired by the famous Haunted Mansion at Walt Disney World and Disneyland, this fearfully [sic] family fun game is back for a second successful year. Thrills and chills abound as you race through the haunted halls to the exit door. Your fate depends on the dice. But do be careful! Tricky turntables can speed you towards the exit... or send you into the mansion depths. Don't be afraid; up to 4 players can haunt the mansion together."

Another description: "This sensational new action track game is designed from the actual Haunted Mansion Attraction in Disney World and Disneyland. The game features whimsical Disney-style art work that reinforces the Haunted Mansion feeling. Spooky ghosts are waiting to be activated each time a player lands on their spin stone. They swoop around trying to capture any player within reach. And that's the exciting feature of the Haunted Mansion game - to try to escape those 'spinning spooks.'"

I couldn't find a vintage commercial for the game (I love those) but I did find this cool 3D visualization of how the spinning discs work.

Source: And Everything Else Too