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Hello all. I got some really cool stuff to trumpet this week, so let's get right to it.

Give Them Your Monies.

First up, I wanted to plug two current IndieGogo campaigns. Ten years ago, Scott Glosserman gifted us with his little meta-slasher Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon. Since then, he has been trying to get a sequel off the ground and is most recently using the momentum of this anniversary to take one last stab(!) at it with a limited edition comic book series.

They are currently at 75% of their goal, so if you'd like to contribute, click here.

I also wanted to let you know that the guys behind Harvest Lake and Plank Face have a new project coming up in the tradition of the space sex comedies of yore like Beach Babes from Beyond and Earth Girls Are Easy. It is called Space Babes From Outer Space and is currently taking Blu-ray pre-orders.

To get your very own copy reserved, click here.

Clocking In With Clay.

Greg McLean's newest flick The Belko Experiment released this weekend and clay-mation guru Lee Hardcastle has celebrated the occasion with four mini-ads.

I saw this film last year at TIFF and its description of Battle Royale meets Office Space is about as apt as it gets. Check it out if you can.

Works of Art.

I just wanted to lead you out with some great art from the week. Matthew Therrien was recently commissioned to do some posters for the limited theatrical release of Julia Ducournau's Raw. 

I love that piece and would gladly put it on my wall. You can also see the two variants here. For the softcover release of Grady Hendrix's terrific book My Best Friend's Exorcism, artist Hugh Fleming was brought on to make this new cover.

I love the eighties CYOA vibe of that cover. If you haven't read the book (or Hendrix's previous work Horrorstör) you should definitely get on that!

Alright kiddies. Tomorrow is the first day of Spring and to say I am awaiting it with open arms is an understatement.

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Morning all! Sorry I've been slacking off this week, but I really couldn't do much of anything until that “little movie” was on the other side of me.

As per usual with big event films, there was the initial hyperbole followed by the naysayers beating their drums loudly to be heard in the din. I myself, enjoyed it a lot. It had a good mix of new and old, and my minor nitpicks were just that. Elated as I was though, I did feel there was something missing that I couldn't quite put my finger on.

Subsequent to my viewing of the film, a friend of mine posted a comment on Facebook that I think hit the nail on the head.

“I thought it was a very good Star wars film, but also knew within ten minutes that I didn't need it.”

And there's the rub. The prequels were shit, there's really no denying that, but I have realized that no new Star Wars movie is ever going to approach the Original Trilogy - yes, even ROTJ. It's not only because of the age I was when I saw them, but also the environment in which they were made. As a person who is by nature nostalgic, it's been a sobering last few days.

But, enough of this foolishness, on with the news...

The Simpsons Get Hardcastled.

Check out this awesome rejected Simpsons couch gag made by claymation guru Lee Hardcastle.

You know, it's been such a long time since I've watched The Simpsons, that it actually took me about halfway through to realize the “animals” were the school bullies. Great mash-up, if not a little disturbing.

Monster Wearables.

I found these awesome pins from artist Gargledmesh on Big Cartel this week.

There's a holiday sale on right now, in which you can Buy 2 and Get 1 Free. For eight bucks each, I am finding them really difficult to resist. For more info, click here.

You Are What You Eat.

I saw this great Staff Pick video on Vimeo this week called Insect Bite.

Made by Grace Nayoon Rhee, it's like a weird hybrid between Robert Morgan & Don Hertzfeldt. Love it. For more of her work, click here.

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Hey all. Take a look at theses horror goodies from the week, so we can forget that this is the last weekend in August. Enjoy!

Tech Noir!

If you've coming here for a while, you've no doubt heard me talk about Lee Hardcastle, the UK-based claymation artist. His short films (including his contest winning ABC's of Death short T is For Toilet) have been taking the Internet by storm for years now. His latest piece is the VHS infused music video for Gunship song Tech Noir. With narration by John Carpenter!

All I Need Now Is A Handbasket.

The horror title I'm most looking forward to at TIFF this year - save maybe Robert Eggers' The Witch - is the Turkish horror flick Baskin. I remember being impressed by the short a few years ago, and I'm glad to see they were able to expand the idea into a full feature.

That trailer seems to insinuate Event Horizon levels of hellacious gore and madness, so bring it on I say! Here below is the blood streaked poster, as well.

TP x 25.

I'm sure you are as excited as I am about the return of Twin Peaks next year. Recently, the annual Twin Peaks banquet was held in Snoqualmie Ridge, Washington. Attending this year, were cast members, Ian Buchanan (Dick Tremayne), Kimmy Robertson (Lucy Moran), Catherine E. Coulson (Margaret Lanterman aka The Log Lady), Charlotte Stewart (Betty Briggs), Phoebe Augustine (Ronette Pulaski), Gary Hershberger (Mike “Snake” Nelson), Jonny Leppell (Pierre Chalfont) and surprise guest Jan D’Arcy (Sylvia Horne). Check out the video below from the event.

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Hello everyone. I hope you'll forgive the age of some of these items, but I'm still playing catch-up. Here's what I've got for you this week.

All Aboard The Spook Train.

Claymation guru Lee Hardcastle, creator of hilariously bloody shorts like Pingu's The Thing and T is for Toilet, is out to make his first feature called Spook Train and he needs our help. Check out the video for his Kickstarter campaign below.

There's still plenty of time to give, so don't be shy. Let's help out this mad genius and see this wild slice of amusement come to fruition.

Lights Out.

I'm sure you've all seen this by now, but such is the rub when something this cool hits the Web early in the week. Here below is David F. Sandberg's excellent short film, Lights Out.

My favourite thing about this is its economy, as it packs a lot of scary elements into less than three minutes. For a little added bonus, check out how the last shot was achieved, by clicking here.

The Dangers of Chatroulette.

Over the past few years, we've had several marketing companies take advantage of the phenomenon of Chatroulette, so I guess it was only a matter of time before someone made a feature framed around the idea. Here is the trailer for Zach Donohue's horror flick The Den.

The Den is currently now available on VOD and in select theatres. For more info, check out their website here.

Little Bits Of Flesh.

So, now it's time to turn my attention over to the 2013 incarnation of The Evil Dead. There's been a lot of great things unearthed from the Web over the last few weeks, so here's a sampling.

First, is a cool claymation recreation of the Evil Dead remake trailer.

Adding onto the retro VHS covers from last week, here is CMac Custom Design's take on The Evil Dead.

Check out this bad-ass poster for the remake from graphic artist Laz Marquez.

And finally, here is an excerpt from a recent Tribute.ca interview with Fede Alvarez, the director of the new remake.

Tribute: You really put your actors through hell in this movie! How did you convince them to take on their roles knowing what they were going to have to endure.

Fede Alvarez: I tell you they were all troopers going into this movie. Not only was there a lot of blood and  physical exhaustion from the intensity of the script but we also shot everything at night. They were all up for  the challenge and they were ready to do anything I asked of them. They knew that it was going to be a tough shoot and we warned them as much as we could when things were going to get really rough.

Evil Dead 2013 director Fede Alvarez.

T: Was there anything from the original film you felt obligated or just wanted to put in your movie?

FA: Definitely the house, the five friends and the Book of Dead. Those are the quintessential Evil Dead elements. Plus the chainsaw and the girl in the trap door and the car, those are just elements, but conceptually the idea of the demons and the girl torturing men. That was crucial in the original film and I felt it had to be present in this one.

T: What scares you and what kind of movies scared you growing up?

FA: What scares me is everything you see in this movie (laughs). As a writer, when you’re going to write a scary film and every time you are facing a new scene, you write your deepest fears. I'm not going to write about something that I think may scare people but doesn’t scare me, that would be stupid. So having made this film, it’s hard to get scared when I watch it, but I can tell you that I was really scared when I wrote it. I had a few sleepless nights!! Films that influenced me or ones that really scared me growing up was definitely the original Evil Dead. I rented it when I was 12 and I was really terrified. Another film that scared me when I was younger was The Exorcist and I pay homage to that one in my film.

For the rest of the interview, click here.

Check back tomorrow for my review of Evil Dead 2013.