Why I watch Doctor Who, and you should too!

  I was tardy to the party when it comes to Doctor Who. In fact, I just became a "Whovian" in the last couple of months. But thanks to Netflix, and some free time, I have watched every episode starting with the 9th Doctor almost all the way through the 10th Doctor. I don't know why it took me so long to get on board with Doctor Who, but once I saw that first episode, I was hooked.
  I guess what I love about the show is the feeling of being taken back in time, to when I was a child. Growing up I loved sci-fi, and watched shows like Star Trek: TNG, Deep Space 9, Voyager, Babylon 5, and Earth 2 with my parents. And at the same time, much like those shows, there is a fantastic essence of horror wrapped up in every episode of Doctor Who. Much like the creature features of long forgotten days, Doctor Who plays on a basic human fear; the fear of the unknown. The same things that thrilled people and scared them (and still do) are all right here in Doctor Who.
  While I haven't watched the classic Doctor Who yet, I plan on doing so. It may take some time, as Netflix only has selections from each of the first 8 Doctors, but those are on my list. Anyways, if you love Sci-fi and horror, this is a show not to be missed! With every episode, comes more excitement, and I can't wait to watch the next. I hope to be caught up with the show for the premiere of the 12th Doctor in August!

Horror Blogger Alliance

  I just wanted to take a short moment to say thank you to the Horror Blogger Alliance for accepting my blog to the Alliance. As a new member, I hope to bring a fresh view on the horror genre.  If anyone is interested please check out some of the other blogs, after all we're a community and we should all support each other. Here is a link to the Horror Blogger Alliance, which has links to all the blogs that belong to the Alliance.
Horror Blogger Alliance

The Empire of The Dead

For all the zombie fans out there, in case you didn't know, it's time to hit up your local comic book store!

The Godfather of the modern zombie genre, George A. Romero, has teamed up with Marvel Comics and is in the middle of releasing a series of comics titled "Empire of the Dead".

 The series is about a war between the zombies and the vampires. Set in the future after the zombie apocalypse, vampires control New York City and zombies are the scum of the earth. A war is building between the two groups and the humans that remain will be caught right in the middle. The series is set to run 15 issues with issues 1-4 already out on stands, and issue number 5 is being released tomorrow (which is the last book in act 1). So far it has been an awesome read. In the books we see that zombies understand humans, and can learn. They can also communicate with each other, but cannot be understood by anyone else. Check them out, it's a must have for fans of the zombie genre and more importantly it's written by the Godfather of Zombies, George A. Romero.

Ash and The Army of Darkness

  So, a few weeks ago I started reading a really awesome comic book series called "Ash and The Army of Darkness". The books are written by Steve Niles (you may know some of his other works, most notably "30 Days of Night") and illustrated by Dennis Calero (books 1-5, 6-8 are illustrated by Nacho Tenorio). It is a great series, that picks up right where the movie "Army of Darkness" ended, and sends Ash back to the medieval times on another adventure against the Deadites. What I really liked about the books was the fact that Niles kept the characters true to the movie. Ash, the legendary character made famous by Bruce Campbell, talks and acts like he did in the movies. It's a great read, it's horror and it's a bit comedic, just like Sam Rami's film.

  If your a comic book fan, I recommend this series. If your a horror or Army of Darkness fan, I recommend this series. Seriously, check out these books!

  Oh yeah, if you're in Austin, go to Austin Books and Comics!! This is the best comic book store in Central Texas and Steve Niles lives where?? That's right, in Austin! I went in to ABC this past Sunday to get the books I was missing for the "Ash and The Army of Darkness" series, and stumbled on books 1 and 2 of the series signed by Steve Niles! Apparently he frequents ABC a lot, and he will come through and autograph some of his work on the shelves! So, I bought books 1 and 2 again, but it's worth it to have an autographed copy of both!

Ash and The Army of Darkness #1 and #2, both signed by

 Steve Niles.

Friday the 13th Reboot... Found Footage??

     So I read that there will be another shot at rebooting Friday the 13th. The last remake, was, at best, forgetful. Why would this time be any different? Here's why: the rumors surrounding the reboot of Friday the 13th are that this new film will be in the "found footage" style. Um... what?
    I love the original Friday the 13th films. Out of all the slashers of the 80s, Jason Voorhees is my favorite killer, hands down, of all time. I felt that the last "reboot" was lacking what the originals had, and the was style. The newer version seemed to just be sticking to a formula devised by watching the originals, and with no skill at all, replaying them with a more "modern" spin. It was a let down for sure. So how far is Hollywood willing to go? With the success of a steadily growing amount of "found footage" films (not all bad, but not all good) why not put Jason in this style of film?! Will Jason be doing the filming, or will this be like some kind of bad creature film where we only get glimpses of the serial killer? Will we even know it's Jason?? I don't see this being a good idea in any sense. Non of the remakes have lived up to the original, Halloween (Why is Rob Zombie set to destroy the horror genre?) gave too much away, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Friday the 13th. Why won't they stop? I like my slasher movies, and I like some of the found footage movies... but I don't think they should be mixed.

Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones

 I was a fan of the Paranormal Activity movies. I've seen everyone of them in the theater with my wife. While we did not find them to be actual "horror" movies, they were fun to watch. So with the new movie out in the theater, my wife and I decided to keep tradition alive and go see Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones. What a mistake we made. The Paranormal franchise has taken a turn for the worse with the latest installment. Gone is the ghost activity formula that has been the mainstay of the franchise since the first film.  Now it has become how much goofy stuff can we put in a film, how cheesy can we make this and keep insync with films that suck, like Insidious for example. The edge is gone and at points it was almost a struggle to stay awake. The movie focuses around a group of Hispanic people in Oxnard, California, which was great, except that the grandmother only spoke Spanish so if your like me, you have no clue what she is saying (no subtitles as they keep to the "found footage style" of the first four films). But that was just a minor thing. The big shift was there was more of a "Sci-Fi/Supernatural" element that really just made the film feel/look fake. Massive plot holes were left in and details that would have helped one to better understand what is going on were left out. At $10.50 a ticket, I feel like I was ripped off and a hour and a half of my life is wasted thanks to this movie. I want my 21 bucks back. This movie is like almost every other horror film has churned out in the last decade or two, pure crap. Don't waste your money on this one.

My Thoughts on World War Z

So my Mother in law came to visit, and had my wife and I watch "World War Z". When I had first heard about the movie, some three plus years ago, I was excited. I never read the book, but the idea of a big budget Zombie movie excited me. Once the trailers came out I was less than amused with what I was seeing. It looked like super fast zombies with super human strength,  that all worked together, which would show intelligence.  Not cool in my book.
After the movie came out I heard from many people (most whose judgement I don't trust when it comes to movies) that it was a great zombie movie. That was it for me, I wasn't going to waste my time on another Hollywood failure.
Which brings us to last night, where I broke down and rented the movie.
My thoughts on the movie are as follows:
1. The movie definitely has great entertainment value. It keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole time.
2. With that, the film stars Brad Pitt. He is a great actor and I haven't seen a film with Brad Pitt that I didn't like.
3. Are they really Zombies? This is a question for debate. While the catatonic state they are in until they hear sound says yes, very little of any of their other behavior links them to zombies. Are they consuming human flesh to survive? No. They bite people purely to spread the "virus" or "plague".
4.Jerusalem just happens to build a wall based on a communication heard from India? They could stop a war to build a giant wall? (Which, SPOILER ALERT, didn't work)
5.This is something in the plot that I'm not sure if I like or not. SPOILER ALERT: In order to defeat the "zombies" one must "camouflage" themselves with a major sickness. If you're sick, the "zombies" ignore you, making it easy to sneak up on them and kill them. Problem solved and humanity lives on.
Maybe that's my problem with the film, humanity wins. In every other zombie film, the message is no hope for humanity (exclude horror comedy "Shaun of the Dead", and "Fido"), and they took that away from us. Zombies are meant to be a total destruction force that we cannot escape, so to see a serious zombie film deny that and change it, well, it doesn't sit right with me.
What did you guys think about the movie?