As much as I wish it weren't so, there probably isn't a better caption for any merchandise related to SLIME CITY than "YOU CRAZY BASTARD!", the line of dialogue delivered so memorably actress Eva Lee.

And that means the winner of our Creep Street Slime City T-shirt contest is Johnny Cool.

And that means I gotta ship to Germany!

Congratulations, Johnny--I hope you're an XL!

www.madcreepy.com

MySpcae/madcreepy

Creep Street blogspot (more…)

Photo courtesy of Noel Vera

You need only two words to describe a Filipino horror film: Low Budget. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. What on the down side can include a limp plot and what Filipino film critic Noel Vera calls everything else -- "cheesy special effects, a tendency to use rubber suited men tossing innocent bystanders around, blood (often of the wrong shade and texture) and gore (often explicit, not always convincing)," this same lack of funds has resulted in a number of films whose use of plot, mood, directing and editing have sent chills down their viewers' spines.

Cinematically, the genre did not enter Filipino mainstream cinema until the 1920's when silent filmmakers ... (more…)

THE LEISURE CHAIR

Leisure Book Reviews and Random Thoughts

The holidays - and 2008! - are over. Thank whatever supernatural being you worship for a better year in 2009. The new year always brings to mind a fresh start - new beginnings, new goals, new achievements. With that in mind, the two Leisure releases I read over my vacation had me thinking out with the old and in with the new. But did they make the cut? Or are they doomed to fall to the wayside, like so many new year's resolutions? See for yourself.


Jake's Wake, by John Skipp and Cody Goodfellow

A smack in the face with the nasty stick, this book has no literary merit whatsoever, other than it's one of the best pieces of pure ... (more…)

The First Days of Doug


1


Where am I?

Doug McQueen woke with tremendous effort. Bright sunlight shocked his sensitive eyes, made him glare-blind, and he blinked rapidly, in a hurried attempt to bring the room into focus. Something was wrong. His entire body hurt. The pain radiated from a point above his right ear and spread bright rays of misery down his back, to his fingertips, to his toes. Though it was agony, he tried to get up. The conviction that some terrible thing was happening rode the shafts of pain to his extremities and filled him with dread. His muscles resisted any attempts to move as if his body was submerged in mud. Struggling to lift his throbbing head from the pillow, the room ... (more…)

I've been a FANGORIA magazine fanatic since the very first issue (pictured), which I still own. While many of my friends have moved on from the magazine due to mundane outside pressures, I've remained a loyalist ("I think it's quaint that you still read FANGO, Greg...").

A month or so ago, the magazine revamped its website in "Beta" form. Then, on January 1st, the site was down, sporting a cryptic message which I no longer remember. "Hmmmm," I thought. "This might be something big." And I was right!

The new FANGORIA ON-LINE is up and running, and besides a very cool new logo, the magazine's editors have made a couple of big announcements:

First, the FANGO-heads are reviving GOREZONE, ... (more…)

(THE SCENE: Orchestral music swells as MICHAEL ARRUDA and LL SOARES are dressed in tuxedos and seated inside a mad scientist's laboratory, complete with bubbling test tubes, colorful beakers, flashing lights, and electronic sounds. They each hold a glass of champagne and a "Happy New Year" banner hangs behind them)

MA (lifting glass): Happy New Year, everyone!

LS: Yes, Happy New Year!

MA: Welcome to a special edition of Cinema Knife Fight, where LL and I each choose our top 5 horror releases for 2008. The rules to this thing are simple. We reviewed a bunch of movies this year, and LL and I each had to come up with our top 5 favorites of the year. We'll give you our 5, and of course, we'll, ... (more…)

Happy New Year to all of our readers, viewers and contributors! May your 2009 be safe and healthy.

For your viewing pleasure, I'm re-posting an exclusive video of Giasone Italiano performing the song "Monster" at Horrorfind. I posted this early in Fear Zone's run, when we had only a fraction of our current readership, and I think a lot of people who missed it then will get a big kick out of it now. Man, that's swingin'!

Which segues into my next comment: if you look at the horizontal menu near the top of the page, you'll see menu buttons marked VIDEOS and EXCLUSIVES. These are video readings by authors, video interviews with actors and filmmakers, trailers, and performance pieces like "... (more…)

Author Scott A. Johnson, whom I interviewed a few months ago, and whose excellent novel Caine River is available from Harbor House, reads his story "Coffin Liquor" in this exclusive Fear Zone video, shot and produced by Brooks and Julie Cantrell at the Monroeville Mall in Pa.

Visit Scott at his website, American Horror Writer, and check out his "Cold Spots" paranormal column at Dread Central. (more…)

Numerous interests and responsibilities--like having a toddler in the house--have resulted in me seeing fewer movies at the multiplex and on DVD, reading fewer books, and watching less TV, so my year-end list grows more scant each time around (and yet I read more short stories in '08 than in any previous year in my life). Last year I selected Fear Zone's Finest Fears of 2007. For 2008, I've delegated that awesome responsibility to numerous FZ columnists. But I can't resist putting in my two cents. Without further ado, my take on the year '08:

FAVORITE GENRE MOVIES

There was no single horror film I saw this year that set the bar the way THE MIST did last year, so my favorite films tended ... (more…)

The box office numbers are in, and we now know the top 10 grossing films in the United States for 2008:

1. The Dark Knight - $531 million

5. Iron Man - $319 million

2. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - $317 million

4. Hancock - $228 million

5. WALL-E - $224 million

6. Kung Fu Panda - $215 million

7. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa - $175 million

8. Twilight - $167 million

9. Quantum of Solace - $164 million

10. Dr. Seuss's Horton Hears a Who! - $155 million

This breaks down to four children's films; two comic book adaptations; two action franchise chapters; one non-comic book superhero flick; and just one horror film: TWILIGHT.

When TWILIGHT came out, I predicted it might become the top ... (more…)