Shuffle Up & DIE!

Hey everyone! Get ready for something new. Unboxing videos seem to be popular with the kids these days, so I went ahead and did one myself for my newly acquired giallo-themed deck of playing cards.

As you can see, that deck is absolutely gorgeous. All proceeds went to charity, so it was a win-win really.

VCR LOVE

I didn't know this until it came across my FB Feed, but today is National VCR Day!

This is a thing apparently, I feel so unprepared. But then again, I have been celebrating VHS for the last eight-plus years here, so I don't feel too bad.

Anyway, do your part and hug a VCR today!

Trailer Tuesdays: What Have You Done To Solange?

In accordance with a little something I'm posting tomorrow, here's the trailer for Massimo Dallamano's 1972 giallo What Have You Done To Solange?

I propose a drinking game where you imbibe every time someone says Solange. Also, I think a dope alternate title for this movie would've been “Lesbian Games.” Arrow Video put out a pretty sweet release of this late last year, which you can snap up here.

DKTM 303

Some stuff happened this weekend, and the world got a little more shitty. But, life goes on I guess.

Those Damn Yuppies.

I found a cool little A to Z list over at The Good In Movies this week, detailing a group that is often imperiled in horrors and thrillers - the yuppies. Click on the pic below to check out the list.

The past has seen some great ones like The Hand That Rocks The Cradle, Fatal Attraction and Dead Calm but it is good to see that this subgenre is still going strong with more recent entries like Orphan and The Invitation. If anything, these movies just drive the point home that danger can come from anywhere.

Yeah!

One of my favourite animators working today is UK-based Robert Morgan. This week, he properly posted his 2011 opus Bobby Yeah to his Vimeo account. Take some time to enter the distinctly nightmarish world of Robert Morgan below.

My 2012 Halloween costume of Bobby still remains one of my best, I think.

Death House.

Harrison Smith's newest project Death House, often referred to as The Expendables of Horror, released a teaser this week.

The storyline, about two federal agents trapped in a prison housing the world's most dangerous criminals, is intriguing and they have certainly amassed an impressive list of horror greats including Kane Hodder, Bill Moseley, Michael Berryman, Sid Haig, Tony Todd, Barbara Crampton, Dee Wallace and Gunnar Hansen. Currently it looks like the movie is naturally aiming for Halloween release.

Stand By For Awesome.

Last year, I raved about Ross Sutherland's part eulogy, part-VHS nostalgia, part-performance art piece Stand By For Back Up. Well, now it is now available to watch in full on Vimeo.

I strongly urge you all to take an hour out of your day to watch this. I still feel it is one of the most profound and brilliant things I've seen in years. I would be shocked if you don't relate to at least of one of the things Sutherland talks about here. Anyhoo, here it is below.

It Came From The Archives 27!

Twenty-five years ago, Fangoria's perennial fan convention Weekend of Horrors made its one and only trip to Toronto (and as far as I know all of Canada). This milestone would have no doubt passed unnoticed if a reader hadn't happened to email me asking if I had any pictures of the event. After responding that I did, it clicked that the anniversary was imminent and thus perfect timing for another Archives post.

By this time in my life I was a full-on fanatic. I had been working at Major Video for almost a year and it was feeding my obsession nicely. I was watching more movies in a day than most did in a week. I don't think I had my driver's license by then, so thank goodness my older brother was gracious enough to shuttle us in. The guest list was impressive, even with the last-minute cancellation by Bruce Campbell.

Right-click to enlarge.

I remember the dealer's room being fairly large, and it was similar to Monsterpalooza in that there were several make-up demonstrations going on throughout the day. I've talked before about basically opening up my wallet to the poster guy, but there was lots of other great merch there, as well. I remember I picked up a T2 shirt that I practically lived in that summer. In retrospect, I wished I'd rifled through the bins of scripts they had at one of the booths.

Anyway, the photos. Given my limited photography skills, I'm surprised these turned out at all. Truth be told, it was probably my brother snapping all these pics. It's kind of amazing how much of this event I can remember considering it was a quarter century ago.

I think I spoke about my interaction with Kane Hodder in my Friday the 13th archives post. He was super cool then, and been just as cool the two times I've seen him since.

Tom Savini gave a memorable Q&A. I've seen a few people online tell the story of Savini getting down on his knees and apologizing to all in attendance for The Ripper, and it happened at this show.

Savini looks out into a sea of mullets.

Linnea Quigley was a sweetheart. If I recall correctly about the photo below, she had a bunch of people come up on stage and re-enact her cemetery dance scene from Return of the Living Dead, for which we judged the winner.

Below were the esteemed judges for the WOH's costume parade. Seated from left, Savini, Fangoria editor Tony Timpone, Quigley, FX artist Steve Johnson & Hodder. 

And the winners were...

3RD PLACE - GREG & STANLEY

2ND PLACE - THE DUKE & DUCHESS OF REALLY DIRTY THINGS

1ST PLACE - AQUARIUS

Nowadays, the GTA has over a half-dozen fan conventions a year, but in the early nineties, this thing was a revelation. For me, it was really the first time the curtain between film and reality was lifted. It was surreal to say the least. I hope you enjoyed these little windows into the past. Until next time...

Shock Stock 2016!

Last weekend, I took the trip down the 401 to engage in London's annual scumbag soiree Shock Stock.

The show floor was noticeably less busy this year, most likely due to some unfortunate factors that included a huge street hockey tournament hijacking several blocks around the venue. It made access a little problematic to say the least. Shock Stock this year was also scheduled in close proximity to Niagara Comic Con, which may have diluted numbers a tad. No matter. Even though Zack from The Vault was not there, I still managed to come away with a shit-ton of VHS.

I couldn't resist.

And speaking of VHS, there was a fun panel on Friday afternoon about the home video era featuring four genre figures who were smack dab in the middle of it - ‎Kevin Van Hentenryck (Basket Case), A. Michael Baldwin (Phantasm), Danny Hicks (Evil Dead 2) and B-movie titan Lloyd Kaufman. They happily reminisced about the VHS boom, the film business then and now, and the evil entity known as the MPAA. You can check out the panel below.

Later that night saw the Canadian premiere of James Bickert's Frankenstein Created Bikers at the lovely Hyland Theatre - the only theatre left in London with a 35mm projector if I heard correctly. Sadly, the only thing that theatre didn't have was proper stage lighting which is why I don't have any decent pictures of the event.

When Jake introduced the movie as an epic, I thought “yeah, right” but holy Geez did Bickert cram a lot into the two-hour running time. Zombie bikers, kitty-masked minions, a Sasquatch, a trans assassin and keystone cops are just a few things that show up between explosions and gunfights. That's not even counting the shenanigans that leading ladies Tristan Risk, Ellie Church and Madeline Brumby get up to. For those who dig this retro-Grindhouse movement, this may just be the pinnacle of sex, sleaze and sin.

Ellie Church goes through hell & back in FCB.

I did say that the event was uncharacteristically sedate, but this by no means carried over when the sun went down. The parties were as crazy as ever. As I may have said before, Shock Stock has morphed into more of a mass hangout over the last few years. This is not a Fan Expo, it's a community event where filmmakers rub elbows with fans and don't charge mass amounts of money for the privilege.

There were a ton of music acts this year, including bands featuring Van Hentenryck and Ari Lehman (Jason from F13), as well as Chris Alexander's giallo-centric outfit backed up on drums by Dave Bertrand. Here's some video I took. That little camera jerk eleven seconds into the vid is me getting sprayed in the face with fake blood.

Fortunately, I was at the one party where being covered in red did not seem out of place. Jake got thrown through a table again, before having a cinder block smashed on his crotch, so yeah, it was a great night. I caught up with a lot of people and left my high score on the Galaga machine. It's all about life goals.

There were a few things new to the show this year, like a vintage video game area (Nintendo NOES & F13) and a Vagrancy Brothers Escape Room, but the biggest addition was the first annual Crystal Shocker Awards.

The awards ceremony, hosted by the Monsters of Schlock and Jake, was as classy as you would expect with the following being among the one taking home the glass;

Best Screenplay (The Wizard of Words) - Killer Rack

Best Short Film (The Chimp Champ) - Into The Mud

Best Actor (The Eastman) - Bill Oberst Jr. for Heir

Best Actress (The Gemser) - Annette Wozniak for Secret Santa

Those are the ones I can remember off the top of my head, I'll add the rest as I remember them.

Getting away for the weekend and hanging with some like-minded individuals was just what I needed. James & Jake, you guys are the best scumbags around. Don't ever change!