In addition to the usual reviews and comments you would find on a horror movie blog, this is also a document of the wonderfully vast horror movie section of the video store I worked at in my youth.

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

DIFF Short Cuts 2015


My trip to Indiana for the final edition of the Diabolique International Film Festival was a success. My short film went over well and the audience seem to respond to it. I had the most rewarding Q&A experience so far here, as not only were the questions great, but I was able to provide answers to them without umming and awwing.

Me with festival programmer Maggie Rossman.

At first I was bummed my short was playing on the Sunday instead of the Saturday, but it worked out as I meant I had an extra day to pal around Bloomington. I not only got to revisit Plan 9 Video, but I also looked in on another indie video store, but more on that at a later date.

I got to hang out with the Headless crew, and you can imagine that led to an interesting evening. I certainly did not expect to be in a porn store at four in the morning, perusing the dildo aisle with horror actress Ellie Church. You'd be surprised how much foot traffic there is at that hour. Then again, maybe you wouldn't. The next night, a bunch of us had dinner at Upland where I tried out the Wheat Ale - the one that is apparently prominently featured on Parks & Rec. It's not bad, pretty light and something you can easily drink a lot of.


Anyhoo, DIFF's best quality is its abundant short programmes, of which I sampled all. To check out the full programme, click here, but here below were my faves.

Night Of The Slasher - There are no shortage of throwback slashers (short form or otherwise), but this one by Shant Hamassian was really entertaining. There were a few clever things that made me laugh out loud, including the fact the killer wore a Leonard Nimoy mask. It's such a subtle joke, but I love it. I also didn't realize, until someone pointed it out, that the short is one continuous take, so there's a huge technical component to this piece, as well.



Boniato - I liked this short film a lot. At twenty-three minutes, it is a bit cumbersome, but damn if it doesn't build a world. This effort from Andres Meza-Valdes, Diego Meza-Valde & Eric Mainade exudes confidence and has production design on par with horror features that possess much higher budgets. I also thought the lead Carmela Zumbado reminded me of Manuela Velasco of the [REC] series.



The absurd was out in full force this year, as not only did DIFF screen Jason Kupfer's festival favourite Invaders, but also the ridiculous Crow's Hand and the fun grindhouse trailer Krabz.

Heels - Imagine if Frank Zito had had a foot fetish. Filtered through a Nick Refn aesthetic, director Jeremy Jantz brings forth this somewhat disturbing, probably inappropriate tale of murder and footwear.



666 sq ft - This to me is the perfect representation of the horror short form. It has a setup, buildup and satisfying payoff all in under five minutes. Big props to Raymond Zablocki & company for succeeding where so many have failed.


Black Eyes - From the people that brought us Science Team comes this coming-of-age story about make believe. I love how this short subverts the taboo of suicide - believe me, I've seen a lot of shorts about suicide this year and none have handled it better than this. The performances of the young actors Hays Wellford & Elena Lazorishak are incredibly natural and pulled me in pretty right away.


My favourite short last weekend was likely the Danish effort The Sun Has Died.



After the success of Ilya Naishuller's Bad Motherfucker (which led to his feature Hardcore selling for $10M at this year's TIFF) you can be sure we will now likely be deluged with POV narratives, such as the one above. However, I found this extremely effective in what it set out to do. Daniel Bødker Sørensen puts us in the first person perspective of the victim and it is as unsettling as it sounds. If this is where Horror VR gaming is heading, then we are definitely going to be doing more laundry in the future.

So that was the fest in a nutshell. I'm sad to see it go, but with the organizers all moving onto other projects, it seemed inevitable. Nine years was a good run, more than most genre festivals. To Bloomington's Dark Carnival, I bid thee farewell.

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Trailer Tuesdays: The Lost Boys

Well, I'm back from Indiana. Shortly after arriving on Friday night, I had the pleasure of attending a screening of The Lost Boys on 35mm. I have fond memories of this film - the soundtrack was the first CD I ever bought - and was elated to discover that it still holds up. It was even better than I remembered, in fact. 



The shirtless sax in the first few moments of that trailer should give you an idea of how indicative of its decade it truly is. And that's just another reason why I love it so.

Friday, September 25, 2015

Hoosiers & Horror.

I'm taking a little trip down to Indiana this weekend for the final edition of the Diabolique International Film Festival.


My latest short film The Monitor is screening there this Sunday at 5pm, so if you're a reachable distance from Bloomington, come on by. You can find more info here.

As in previous years, DIFF offers up a half-dozen programmes of short films, so I'll holler back at ya next week about the bloody best they had to offer.

Thursday, September 24, 2015

TIFF Vids 2015

Regular as clockwork, videographer Robert Mitchell was on hand at TIFF to record red carpet interviews at this year's Midnight Madness. Here are some of them below.











If you're interested in watching the post-film Q&A's, check out Mitchell's YouTube page here.

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

B-Movie Odyssey.

The Edmonton based collective House of Heathens recently won funding through Storyhive to bring their web series Straight To Video: The B-Movie Odyssey to life. The first season of five episodes have just dropped and you can check them out below. Look out for appearances by Tristan Risk, Christian Pitre and some of the boys from Astron 6.











Will Kevin ever make it back home? I guess we'll just have to cross our fingers for season 2.

Monday, September 21, 2015

Welcome To Camp Bloodbath.


Midnight Madness (and this year's TIFF) wrapped up last Saturday with Todd Strauss-Schulson's The Final Girls.


Max (Taissa Farmiga) and her friends get sucked into a eighties horror movie that starred her mother, Amanda Cartwright (Malin Akerman) a celebrated Scream Queen who was killed in a car crash one year previous. Reunited with her mom, Max tries to keep everyone alive inside the confines of a slasher flick.

I had heard a lot about The Final Girls going in and have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. I found a good deal of it charming, clever and it really seemed like the filmmakers were having a good deal of fun playing with convention.

If I sound surprised, it's due to preconceived notions based on the overwhelming dislike among my peers leading up to the screening. The two main detractors seemed to be that for a film deconstructing the slasher genre, it was relatively tame and the writers seemed to lack the understanding of what a Final Girl actually was. In truth, both of these criticisms were valid, but within the context of this movie, it didn't bother me. I mean, was there a cooler, edgier movie inside this premise? Probably, but I don't feel slighted. I also don't feel that the inaccuracies put forth were there out of ignorance. They obviously knew the tropes, I think it's more likely the writers just didn't feel they fit with the story they wanted to tell.

Taissa Farmiga (left), Malin Akerman & Angela Trimbur in The Final Girls.

And that story lies with the mother/daughter relationship between Amanda and Max. I thought Farmiga & Akerman were both tremendous and their moments together gave the piece some real heart. They were almost too good because it ended up giving the movie a bizarre, somewhat confused tone between overt comedy and genuine seriousness. However, in regards to the parody, I definitely felt the filmmakers were laughing with their audience, and not at them.

I've also been reflecting on the differences between this and The Girl In The Photographs. The unlikable characters in Final Girls were caricatures of movie tropes, whereas those in Girl seemed to be more like exaggerated portraits of actual people. I'm way more interested in hanging out with the former.

This movie went over well with the midnight crowd, but I have the admit the most puzzling part of the Q&A was that so many people seemed to be shitting themselves over Nina Dobrev, when Akerman - motherfucking Silk Spectre herself - was standing right next to her.

Director Todd Strauss-Schulson, Taissa Farmiga, Malin Akerman & Nina Dobrev.

The Final Girls is a movie that will likely be as divisive as Cabin In The Woods was a few years back, but I happily embraced it for what it was, a spirited shake-up of one of horror's most celebrated tropes.


*Q&A photo courtesy of Ian Goring.

Sunday, September 20, 2015

Paint & Heavy Metal.


Late in the festival, I caught Tasmanian director Sean Byrne's newest film, The Devil's Candy about a painter battling Satanic forces after moving into a new home with his family. Byrne burst onto the scene in 2009 with The Loved Ones, which I liked, but did not adore as many did. However, I was still very much interested in seeing what he had come up with after six years in the indie film development trenches.

I liked The Devil's Candy quite a bit. Byrne's sophomore effort had personality, a thing that was lacking from some of this year's Midnight entries. More than that though, it had not only a coherent narrative, but also an organic one. Aided by his considerable visual flair, Byrne established the family unit early and made us actually care when the devil came calling.

This, of course, succeeded due to the well chosen cast. Ethan Embry gives perhaps his best performance here and looks like he's probably in the best shape of his life. It's been a long and winding road for Embry, whose gone from embattled goof (Can't Hardly Wait, Empire Records) to creepy psycho (Vacancy, TV's Masters of Horror) and has now reached the role of loving father. In the role of antagonist, character actor Pruitt Taylor Vince does what he does best as the twitchy Satanic sycophant.

Ethan Embry as Jesse in The Devil's Candy.

Colour was a very important part of The Loved Ones and it was carried over into this film in the form of the paintings created by Embry's character, Jesse. The large mural he creates in the film was rather striking and reminded me of the old X-Files episode Unruhe, coincidentally also starring Taylor Vince. I would not be surprised if it was an influence. In addition to colour, Byrne used metal music to create the underlying tone to the film. It not only fits the characters of Jesse and his daughter Zooey (Kiara Glasco), but also the preconceived notions we have about Satanism.

I'd say the only real negative was the climax being a tad far-fetched, but I was invested enough by that point to let it slide. Perhaps I responded more warmly to Byrne's newest effort because it was more upfront about its intentions. Right from the get-go, I knew this was a film about Satanic possession. It's also a film about losing yourself in the artistic process, something for which I have at least cursory knowledge. I mean, when you are in “the zone”, who is to say that those inspirations don't come from outside sources? In contrast, The Loved Ones to me was just a really well-made torture flick.

Director Sean Byrne (left) & star Ethan Embry.

The Devil's Candy was a simple well-conceived idea that admirably put the pieces of character, visuals and sound together to make a solid horror film.


*Q&A photo courtesy of Ian Goring.

Saturday, September 19, 2015

Bewitched.


Perhaps the film I was most excited about this TIFF was Robert Eggers' debut The Witch. I'd been tracking its progess since it won unanimous praise at Sundance this past January, so I was ecstatic when it was a late addition to Toronto's 2015 lineup.


A family plantation in the 1600's is torn asunder by witchcraft.

It has been a while since I've seen a picture so dedicated to putting forth such an intense vision of frontier life. The level of authenticity was pretty staggering, as the director spent years pouring over thousands of pages of historical resource material to make sure he painted as accurate a portrayal as possible. And paint it he did. Man, was it rough and thankless. I think it was pretty clever of Eggers to immediately convey how fragile the family's situation was, even before the actions of outside forces.

In addition to the top notch production and costume design, the performances were on point across the board. The parental figures, played by Ralph Ineson & Kate Dickie (already both acquainted with period piece extremity from their days on Game of Thrones) were excellent, but the real stars were the children. We were told in the Q&A that casting their roles was not easy and considering the subject matter, I can see why. However, the actors playing the eldest siblings (Anya Taylor-Joy & Harvey Scrimshaw) were extraordinary and conveyed emotion far beyond their years. I don't think I've seen genre performances this strong since 2008's Let The Right One In.

Anya Taylor-Joy as Thomasin in The Witch

This was a movie about paranoia. It dispensed with all the flashy underpinnings of your average witchcraft fare and focused on how such practices affect regular folk. It's actually funny to reflect on how even though we have come four hundred years, some things haven't changed. We may no longer have to worry about the harvest or scarlet fever, but we still look for the devil around every corner.

Writer/Director Robert Eggers.

The Witch is a film that transcends the genre by being a family drama first, and a horror film second. I wouldn't be surprised if it winds up on “Horror Films For People Who Don't Like Horror Films” lists until the end of time. This was an incredibly solid effort, made even more impressive by the fact it was a debut.

Friday, September 18, 2015

Goin' South


Hoping to bounce back from my last few midnight experiences, I checked out Southbound, the California desert-centric anthology made by several filmmakers involved with the V/H/S franchise.

Southbound was a solid example of one done correctly. The filmmakers behind this project (Roxanne Benjamin, David Bruckner, Pat Horvath & Radio Silence) have kicked at this can several times now and have learned how to get the most out of this format. The narrative was clever in that it flowed together as a whole, and wasn't just separate stories linked together with a flimsy wraparound. Perhaps more impressive is that five writers were able to get together and bang out something this cohesive.


Consistency was the order of the day here, though it may be somewhat detrimental that there wasn't one story I can point to as a standout. In the case of other recent anthologies, there's often one segment that everyone quotes, like Timo Tjahjanto's Safe Haven in V/H/S 2, or Chris Nash's Z is for Zygote in ABC's of Death 2. Even if you didn't like the movie overall, you sure as hell remembered those bits. I guess it remains to be seen whether that will effect Southbound's longevity going forward.

I myself can't pick out a favourite, but there were things in each story that I dug quite a bit. Since this was a World Premiere, there's very little info available about segment names and who did what, so forgive me if I misquote. The playful weirdness of Benjamin's short about the stranded girl band was refreshing and I really liked the production design and gore of Bruckner's segment in the abandoned hospital. The “reaper” creature designs in the opening segment were also pretty fantastic, even if they were digital. The overall desert motif was represented really well and gave off the aura of both the familiar and otherworldly at the same time. Apparently, the production used the same areas as the 1990 monster movie Tremors.

Don't Fear The Reaper

Southbound didn't knock my socks off, but it is a well made anthology with lots of ideas meshed together in interesting ways. After a long hiatus, the horror anthology is still alive and well.

Thursday, September 17, 2015

The Camera Doesn't Lie.


Next up at Midnight Madness was the Nick Simon directed slasher The Girl In The Photographs about a grocery store clerk named Colleen (Claudia Lee) who becomes the target of a pair of serial killers who like to photograph their victims.

Despite all the talent behind this picture, I felt this effort was decidedly mediocre. There was much said during the Q&A about how unconventional this film was, but I didn't see it. The killers' graphic photograph modus operandi was an interesting hook, but beyond that everything was pretty standard. I suppose the ending was somewhat unique, but that was my least favourite part. I had to think real hard to find a film I enjoyed that ended similarly, so perhaps it came down to personal preference.


It has been a while since I have encountered characters so empty and grating. I imagine that was by design, but that doesn't really work in a slasher movie where you are supposed to be rooting for their survival. The worst of the bunch was Cal Penn as a douchebag photographer named Peter Hemmings, although I must admit – and to paraphrase him in the movie “things are awful, but I'm waiting for things to come back around to good again” - that he did become mildly amusing leading up to the point of his demise. It was sad how much I liked when the movie shifted gears and became extremely violent and bloody, but the characters were so inherent unlikable, it was almost a release. However, I must exclude Claudia Lee in that statement because she made a fine Final Girl.

Claudia Lee as Colleen in The Girl In The Photographs.

Being that this film was co-written by Oz Perkins, I find the stark contrast between this and February fascinating. That film had three female characters who were likable, or least sympathetic due to their vulnerabilities, whereas the majority of the people in Girl were obnoxious shells. While it is true Perkins was only one of three writers on the project, I didn't really see anything of him in there. Even the late Wes Craven – who was an executive producer on the film – had more of a presence here, as seen in the opening nod to Scream where Katherine Isabelle appeared in the thankless role of the first victim.

I guess I'm struggling to find what attracted everyone to this project. It is a perfectly functional slasher film, but I can't say that, beyond Lee as the beleaguered Colleen (and some admittedly solid gore effects) there was really anything for me to connect to here.

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Like Hell It Is.


One of the films I was most looking forward to at this year's Midnight Madness was Turkish director Can Evrenol's debut Baskin.


A squad of police officers respond to a distress call, only to find they've entered a doorway into hell.

I'm sad to say that I was left disappointed when the credits rolled on Baskin. I dug the 2013 short of the same name, as it was one of those rare occasions where I thought it was a piece that could be expanded on. It teased of a world with a rich mythology and obviously many other people thought so too, because two years later, here we are. However, even now with its extra running time, I don't feel the mythology, which was nicely set up at the start, was fleshed out as well as it could have been. I did like the long dialogue scene between the two main characters (that my friend aptly compared to the diner sequence in Mulholland Drive), but overall there just wasn't enough meat.

Evrenol did spend a lot of time developing his characters at the beginning, but I felt that the film pretty much ground to a messy halt once the main antagonist showed up. The actor (Mehmet Cerrahoglu) who played The Father had an extremely unique look, but I felt he, and the entire last half truth be told, hit a level and stayed there throughout. I was hoping for Event Horizon levels of hellish chaos in this film, but it didn't quite get there. The resolution was also too quick and not nearly as clever as it probably thought it was.

I also thought that the score was very overbearing. I found it strange that during the Q&A, Evrenol quoted It Follows as an influence, because the music in Baskin was nowhere near as complimentary as that score was. If anything, it was a detriment at times.

Abandon all hope...

Despite all of this though, Evrenol should still be proud of what he accomplished here. Turkey is not known for its horror movies, and this one should at least put them on the map. It is also impressive what they were able to put onscreen for under a half-million dollars.

Perhaps my expectations were a little high based on the potential of its premise. It is also possible that the Madness film the night before, the exceptional Green Room from Jeremy Saulnier, set the bar too high. In any case, hell is what you make it, I guess I just wanted a little more variety and extremity with my fire and brimstone.

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

From Script To Screen.


So, TIFF is on! The first film I'll talk about is Oz Perkins' debut February.

February, a grim tale about two teens stranded at their all-girls school over Christmas break, was a unique experience for me, as it was the first time I had read the screenplay before seeing the movie. It was one of a number of scripts (mostly from The Black List) that I read last winter as part of a writing club. While I really liked the prose, I tuned out of the script toward the end, mostly because of an event that happened on Page 86. However, moving on from that, my curiosity got the better of me when I discovered that the movie had not only been made, but was playing this year's TIFF.

Despite my initial misgivings, I think February turned out all right. I liked the tone and the school location they found perfectly represented the one in the script. I also felt that with crux of the film was easier to follow when expressed visually, although one still has to accept one fairly large leap in the narrative toward the end.

The real strength of the piece is the three leads (Emma Roberts, Kiernan Shipka and Lucy Boynton) who all give very subtle and grounded performances. These young actresses are really coming into their own, effortlessly shedding off the pre-conceived notions of their past (with Roberts' lineage and Shipka's previous seven-year stint as Sally Draper on TV's Mad Men.)

Emma Roberts as Joan in February.

I also really liked February's score. It had a old-school quality to it that reminded me of Gene Moore's work on Carnival of Souls. It recalled the era of filmmaking that I believe Perkins' was aiming to emulate here. Even if the core subject matter is familiar territory, there is a lot of originality in here. It is rare to come across a horror film – it is more accurately a drama with horror elements – where you really don't know where it is going to go.

I think the most fascinating thing about February is how much Perkins' father (Anthony Perkins of Psycho fame) influenced, consciously or unconsciously, this film. Aside from its classical cinematic leanings, there was also tons of knife imagery and violence, although the three shower scenes in the screenplay were cut down to one for the film. Even he must have felt that was gratuitous.

Oz Perkins, Lucy Boynton, Kiernan Shipka & Lauren Holly.

February was a cool little genre effort that was simple, understated and dealt with the subject of loss in interesting ways. Perkins also has another script that he wrote at this year's TIFF called The Girl In The Photographs, so we'll see how they stack up together.


*Q&A photo courtesy Tim Reis.

Monday, September 14, 2015

Yep, Old People Are Scary.

Before I dig into the TIFF stuff, I wanted to post about The Visit, M. Night Shyamalan's newest venture that released this past weekend.


Two teens visiting their estranged grandparents for the first time start witnessing weird occurrences when the sun goes down.

Despite how terrible most people think his last two blockbusters were, they still made money overseas, so he's still a bankable asset to the bean counters. I say that in case you were wondering how people still give him cash to make movies after his last five (and one-third) efforts. Apparently Shyamalan used his fee from After Earth to finance The Visit, so I do have to admire his gumption in the face of popular opinion.

And good on him for doing so because The Visit is actually pretty decent. Shyamalan has ditched the overblown and convoluted plots and just kept things simple with four characters together for a week on a farm. It became very clear to me while watching this Shyamalan being intentionally funny is much more enjoyable to watch than Shyamalan being unintentionally funny. And there is a lot of comedy to be had here which creates a nice balance with the more horrific elements.

Due to this being a more intimate piece, the actors were the focus and I thought they were solid across the board. The teenagers Becka (Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (Ed Oxenbould), once I got my initial annoyance of them spewing dialogue that no one their age would ever say, gave very natural performances and worked well together as siblings.

Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie), Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) & Nanna (Deanna Dunagan) in The Visit. 

The Visit has a nice build and I didn't find the found footage format too distracting, as the pretense by which it was introduced was believable enough to justify its existence. The movie was produced by Jason Blum (of Paranormal Activity, Insidious et al) and I can see his influence in here, as well. Shyamalan & Blum together create an interesting hybrid of the modern and classical.

As you would expect, there was an inevitable twist in The Visit and it was well crafted enough that I only figured it out moments before the reveal. It had a cool campfire story quality to it that I dug. I also appreciated that Shyamalan kept himself (and his ego) out of this one, and though there is a “swing away” moment at the climax, it was nowhere near as preposterous as the one in Signs.

The Visit had a simple narrative and was well executed on both sides of the camera. I also feel this was a sizable step toward the public image redemption of M. Night Shayamalan.

Friday, September 11, 2015

The More Things Change...


Have you ever watched a movie that just six hours prior you didn't even know existed? 

That was my experience with Tex Fuller's 1987 flick Stranded. During my last visit to The Vault, I picked up a random movie guide on a shelf and happened to flip to the tiny entry on this film. I then realized I'd just seen a copy on Zack's $5 VHS shelf. Taking that as a sign, I picked it up and watched it that evening.


Deidre (Ione Skye) is staying with her grandmother (Maureen O' Sullivan) when a group of aliens crash in their yard. Southern inhospitality then escalates into a full blown hostage situation.

This movie was actually fairly decent, certainly good enough to not deserve its relative obscurity. Not even the late eighties star power of Ione Skye (though I guess she had only done River's Edge by this point) could bring this title to the fore. I can't say I'm too surprised though, as genre movies were churned out by the hundreds during this era.

Ione Skye as Deidre in Stranded.

Pretty much the only thing that feels dated about this movie are the cheesy optical effects. The themes of xenophobia and racial tension (between the black sheriff, played by Joe Morton, and some of his redneck underlings) are just as poignant today. Perhaps that is the reason the movie didn't take hold with viewers, as on the surface it is a PG-13 alien romp for kids, but its underlying themes are much more adult.

Holy shit, I just had a thought. This movie is about alien refugees fleeing their planet that was experiencing genocide and, except for Skye, her grandmother, and a diplomatic sheriff, the rest of the town greets them with ferocity and disdain. What could be more topical than that? Mind blown.

On the lighter side though, it does also feature Flea (yes, that Flea) as a pet-dog-man-alien affectionately referred to as Jester.

Flea as Jester in Stranded.

This was an entertaining piece that despite being rough around its decade's edges is well worth tracking down.

Thursday, September 10, 2015

TIFF 2015 Is A Go.


Hey all. The fortieth edition of the Toronto International Film Festival kicks off this evening, so I'll be incognito for a bit while I take in some films and extracurriculars. I'll have a new VHS Fridays post for you tomorrow, but I won't be reporting back on the fest's goodies until early next week. Until then, be good.

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

TAD 2015

Even though I didn't attend the Fan Expo last weekend, I did have some eyes on the ground to let me know what the first crop of titles playing Toronto After Dark would be.


The first ten titles playing TAD are...












I have good things to say about the first three films, and am very much looking forward to checking out Sono's Tag, Nina Forever and The Demolisher starring my boy, Ry Barrett. Toronto After Dark runs October 15 to 23rd in Toronto. For more info, click here.

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Trailer Tuesdays: Raw Force

This week's is for the bonkers eighties action flick Raw Force aka Kung Fu Cannibals.



Not much of horror movie I know, but it does have zombie ninjas in it. And a lot of other things too. I watched the Vinegar Syndrome release a few months ago and this movie is pretty inexplicable. The most confounding part would be the entire middle act which takes place at a party on a yacht. I can't really complain though, because those secenes include THIS girl...


And THIS guy...


Oh, and Raw Force also has Cameron Mitchell as a drunk (naturally) sea captain. And as you all know, a movie with Cameron Mitchell is a movie worth watching.

Sunday, September 6, 2015

DKTM 278


For the first time in eleven years, I've had to forego the festivities at Fan Expo. Inflated prices and a scaling down of the horror wing made me decide to spend my monies elsewhere - namely HorrorRama in October. So, that means I'm around for a proper news post this week.

He Came Home Lookin' Gooood.

Fright Rags has an upcoming line of Halloween II and III shirts on display right now, and they're pretty sweet.





The pre-sale starts on Wednesday, so to get more info (and see the rest of the shirts on offer) click here.

Vikings Vs. Monsters.

I found an epic little animated short called Odin's Afterbirth by Joseph Bennett this week. It is apparently three chapters stitched together, and I hope there are more to come in the future. Check it out below.



Leo vs. Freddy.

Here's a cute little mashup I saw on Bloody Disgusting. Imagine the characters from Inception were hired to take out Freddy Krueger.