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?

ZombieNation - Fast vs. Slow

There has been a debate when it comes to zombies, which is better fast or slow?

For me I'm torn between the two, while I side more with the slow zombies. But every now and then who doesn't like a fast zombie?

The genre was started with slow moving zombies, which makes sense because zombies are reanimated corpses.  They don't have the muscles needed to move at a high rate of speed due to decomposition. While they are easy to get away from (unless there is a huge horde of them), there is always the fear that eventually they will catch up with you and usually more will have joined in the hunt along the way. This leads to a horde that could be in the hundreds,  spelling doom for you and whoever is with you. Not to mention what are you running into by running away from a zombie problem?

Fast zombies are in fact just that: fast. So fast that they could probably out run an Olympic sprinter. This means without transportation,  you have to bunker down and try to defend a location. Problem with that is, just like slow zombies, that zombies will swarm and create hordes making impossible to fight them off. If you can survive the zombies, another mounting problem is supplies and sanitation.
Everybody poops and pees. So you're stuck and I doubt the water department is still up and running. The only solution is to be able to dump it outside. The supplies are limited and will run out. Stuck here and surrounded means that is all there is to live. Even if you could sneak out to scavenge,  these super fast zombies would have you before you could yell help.
Both have their own element of horror, it really just depends on what you like and which you find scarier.

Halloween is Near...

There is an undeniable feeling in the air today. First the knowledge that tomorrow is the first day of October. Second, you can actually feel the beginning of Fall in the air!
Halloween is near, and the closer it gets, the more excitement mounts. See for a horror freak like me, Halloween is a special time of year. It's the one time a year it is perfectly acceptable to dress up and scare people, which is honestly quite fun.
The excitement of getting the decorations out and turning the house into something out of a deep dark dream is exciting and comforting. The unacceptable becomes acceptable decor, and I love every minute of it!
So now we begin the official count down to a major holiday, 31 days to go!

"A glimpse into the world proves that horror is nothing other than reality."
- Alfred Hitchcock

Support Grassroots Horror

In the past ten years we have seen a flood of horror films hit the theaters, and for one reason or another, only a handful ended up being worth watching. For some reason Hollywood seems to like to make a great beginning and middle of a movie, only to limp across the finish line in a way that ruins the entire experience. It seems to be a continuing occurrence in the horror genre. Along with that we have to sit through terrible remakes of iconic films. Now, I'm not saying all the remakes are bad, but most of them are terrible. Oh, and who thought it was a good idea to let Rob Zombie make movies?
Independent Horror has been a great alternative to big Hollywood films, as they seem to deliver where Hollywood just can't.  But beware, not all independent films are created equally.  I've sat through many a film that looked like someone's high school senior project. Those are hours of my life that I'll never get back. But it's worth it because sitting through bad films I have found a lot of great horror films by watching trailers. And when you're in the video store reading the backs of DVD cases, the description may sound good, but the film falls flat. It's a process of trial and error.
Which brings me to the point of this post. The Horror community needs to support grassroots film makers. These people has a dream and a passion for the genre, and the could very well help to usher in a new era in horror films. But how does one support grassroots horror? Glad you asked!
In the days of social media and tablets and smartphones supporting things and causes has never been easier. Thanks to a great little app called Popcorn Horror, you can watch and support grassroots horror no matter where you are! This app allows aspiring film makers to post their short films and allow anyone who has the app to view them. Not only that, but there is a place for comments on the films and forums where you can join others and talk about all things horror. Now I will warn you that not everything on there is good, but in the past year or so, I have seen a lot of great short films on this app. It's worth a shot, so check it out and help support the horror community!

This is Just the Beginning

    I was a normal child, just like most. I played with action figures, ran around my neighbor, and rode bikes with my friends far beyond where we were supposed to go. I had normal fears that most children have, like the fear of what lurks in the night, the fear of snakes, and of course the fear of spiders.
    As I grew older into my teens, my interests seem to change a bit. Girls were definitely in the picture, but I found a love for the paranormal (thanks largely to my parents), and a love for horror movies. The paranormal excited me, while driving a fear of the unknown deep inside me. That lead me to study the paranormal (ghost, possession, aliens, and UFOs) in depth. As for my love of horror movies, I guess that was lying in wait for most of my life waiting to surface at just the right time.
This blog will be dedicated to all things horror and the paranormal.
Welcome, for this is just the beginning.