howl o scream: Temmuz 2012

I once knew a girl who was absolutely beautiful. She was actually just plain ol' hot. The face and the body mesmerized me and oneday, I finally got the chance to go out with her. And it was one of the worst dates ever. She was just looks; nothing else. Her giggling became redundant; her sexualizedcomments became monotonous and vain. Anhour dinner felt like an eternity and it was an experience that cost me morethan I wanted to pay. If I had been injunior high, this would have been a night to treasure. But I was in college and was mature enough tobe looking for more than looks.
Yes, that was a real date and that is also the perfect wayto sum up Lollipop Chainsaw (LC.)
The game opens up to Juliet Starling, San Romero Highcheerleader and secret zombie hunter. Starling has just turned eighteen and is excited about seeing Nick, herboyfriend (he later becomes a magical talking head.) However, what she doesn'tknow is that her birthday is about to be filled with shambling corpses and aninfestation of unholy dark forces hell-bent on destroying the world.
Beats a cake.
The graphics on LC are good. With nice cell shading, Lollipop gives everything from school lockers tofarm houses to flying ships a standout, pop-out look. Quite noticeable is the amazing amount ofzombie models used in the game. Especially in the first few levels, the types of undead coming at youinclude a healthy amount of student looks, teacher appearances and firefighterand police designs.
Control is handled decently as the gamer can use Juliet'smartial arts skills to somersault, flip, pom-pom punch and kick her way throughenemies. Using the chainsaw is similarto your "heavy" move that's utilized in fighting games. Combos help Juliet gain stars, coins andmedals for more upgrades.
What puts a head-shot to Lollipop Chainsaw is that itfocuses on its only “strength:” the sex appeal of its main character. And then it bombards the gamer with T-n-Ajokes, stereotypes (yes, the only minorities are the Asian Kung Fu master andthe African-American auto tune pimp zombie boss) and more T-n-A (you can even try to look upJuliet’s skirt and she covers her privates with special poses.) Aren’t we a little more evolved than thefirst days of looking for nude codes for Tomb Raider?
LC insults gamers because it knows it has little, deliversless but still asks a gamer to spend hours and money to play it. The fact that it has zombies is prettyinterchangeable if it were aliens, trolls or robots. The undead just happen to be popular and youget that “trendy” feeling through the game. It’s just about getting pubescent players horny. If the price tag was about half of what itwas, perhaps LC would be a “gotta’ have.” The biggest let down is not what Lollipop Chainsaw is but rather what itcould have been.
Rent it or catch it in the reduced bin but don’t take it outto dinner – you’ll be disappointed.

For all of the other LC coverage we can't show you here, head on over to our Zombies and Toys Uncensored page.

Chad Hunter

My Zombie Killing Shirt???

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I saw the title & I thought about a shirt that could kill zombies...

Was it a classic 60's paisley shirt that made zombie heads explode or maybe a terrible, disco funk day-glo shirt.

Of course I was nervous to even watch this zombie video as i have never heard of such a shirt & i certainly don't want my head to explode.

So - i ask the loyal ZT hoard....
Watch the video, then let us & the director know what you think!

80's Classics: With an Undead Twist

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Matt Boiselle

If you are an 80's child like I am, you can truly appreciate the magic and memories that many of the great movies of that decade were able to project forth while on the big screen. ( Some of them stunk, but hey who's counting ?) Now, thanks to the incredible and overwhelming rise to national attention that the zombie craze has been linked to, a large number of these films have been restructured.....or reanimated.

The man responsible for these zombie-tweaked images is artist Matt Busch, whom back in 2009 designed 6 different posters for the Star Wars movies ( which were authorized by LucasFilm), and were entitled Zombie Wars. This insanely huge project led to Busch starting his own website ( http://www.hollywood-is-dead.com/) and placing his work in an online gallery for all to see. Now, Busch is on his 5th series of the undead movie poster spoofs, and this latest group will surely stack a large number of box-office heavyweights.

Amongst some of the posters available for viewing (and purchase) are The Breakfast Club ( The Breakfast Clump) - The Terminator ( The Termin Ate Her) & Ferris Bueller's Day Off ( Ferris Bueller's Day of the Dead). All of the artwork in these posters are stunning to say the least, but do not fret oh skeptical ones, these designs are not made to make light of the movies, but simply to show great appreciation for them, as Busch is a self-professed 80's child himself. As the heat of the summer drags on, Busch already has prints lined up for movies like The Lost Boys, Prince's Purple Rain, & National Lampoon's European Vacation. There has already been a licensing deal inked with Fright-Rags t-shirt Inc. to produce wearables based on the undead posters, and in the future there will be a coffee-table book, and a board game as well.

So if you are looking for a little demented artwork to sling up on your walls, and would love nothing more than to replace your boring old family pictures with something truly frightening.....then this stuff is definitely right up your alley. Click on the pics to be taken to Matt's online gallery and order yourself some gruesome 80's movie posters that will put more of a chill in your bones than any repeat of Charles in Charge could ever do.

Zombie World Detroit

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Philip Hynes

Parent - " Sorry kids we're not going to Disney World this year"
Kids - " Awwwwwwwwwwwwww"
Parent - " No - we're going to Zombie World instead !"
Kids - " Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay !!"

Detroit enterpreneur Mark Siwak has taken what most zombie fans have daydreamed about and is looking to create a zombie theme park. This act of sheer genius is currently in the planning and fundraising stage.

In a nutshell, Mark hopes to convert a large portion of Detroit's abandoned industrial area into a slice of post-apocalypse zombie America where visitors will pay to experience the apocalypse first hand and have a marvelous time doing it. This will also help to stimulate growth in an area suffering from the economic downturn. You can read more and donate at the link here.

http://www.inquisitr.com/269729zombie-theme-park-may-be-headed-for-detroit/xouEp8dBTCst1ypp.01

A gallery of video game heroes......zombified

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Philip Hynes

Who doesn't love sitting down in front of their TV or computer and wasting a lot of time on our favorite video games ?? There may even be a small number of us that get a little carried away while playing, even wishing death upon those little pixilated figures that we have depended on for entertainment. Well, here you go - some of the most popular characters to grace our screens, and what they may look like if they truly were to perish in the game we were controlling them in.......and had been "rejuvenated." - Look on in horror but just keep telling yourself " it's just a game........it's just a game."

8 Temmuz 2012 Pazar

The Raven (2012)

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I saw "The Raven" starring John Cusack at the movies yesterday. I wish I could say that with more enthusiasm...

Unlike many movie watchers I liked the almost super-hero reinterpretation of the recent Sherlock Holmes movies and I thought to a certain point the Edgar Allen Poe character would be developed somewhat similar. I also thought the premise of a serial killer murdering and leaving clues in accord with Poe's stories had fascinating possibility. I had visions of dark and ominous murders and crime scenes the likes of which we haven't seen since the movie Se7en ...

What I got was neither.

It's not that Cusack did a poor job on the part of Poe, but with his script and the manner in which the character was developed it was hard to ever really give a damn what happened to him in the movie. Detective Fields played by Luke Evans was actually more engaging than the hero Poe or Poe's girlfriend, the damsel in distress, played by Alice Eve.

I have to say this one falls directly on the shoulders of director James McTeigue. Where was the heck was the suspense? Oh, the music score tried to build some with a movie that traveled at a pretty brisk pace, but it was lost. Also, How can you take grisly tales by Edgar Allen Poe and not have suspenseful or shocking scenes of death? The pendulum scene came close, but if your worried about a movie that's too bloody or violent close your eyes for this thirty seconds and your safe. Every other scene is just dead bodies?

Ok. It's not the worst movie I have ever seen, and I'm not a critic, but I'd wait for pay per view and save the movie money for some Halloween props.

Don't say I didn't warn you!

Making Some Witch Jar Lights

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Few years ago Pumpkin Rot came up with this flicker light using some Ball Mason Jars he named Witch Lights. I always liked the look of them but then saw them in hanging from a tree in October Boy's Deadwood Cemetery video and knew it was time we added some to Shingle Creek Manor.

Belinda agreed, so off to my least favorite store in the world, that has the low low prices but the worst customer service...(I'm pretty sure you can guess). They had their version of Ball Mason jars for about $7 a dozen so I opted for them instead of the more expensive Ball Mason Jars.

The Rot method uses glue on the outside of the jar to give it a muddled frosted effect but the frosted glass spray (about $5) seemed like less work and because we're doing about 36 or more of these less work sounded good. A can of the spray easily did 12 jars with some left over.


Frosted Glass Spray and 12 jars about $12 with the tax. Pretty cheap so far!

Next we experimented with splattering and dripping some flat black paint around each jar. Most of the tutorials I saw talked about then adding red paint or food coloring for the "bloody" look but I didn't like the results so we went think with more of an earthy-dirty look using brown and green paint.

Splatter the black paint, no artistic talent required. My kind of project!

Finally I picked up some some twine at Home Depot for $6 and we hot glued it around the top and some thinner twine as a handle so it can be hung from the tree branches with a piece of craft wire.

Added a plastic spider for fun but I need to glue his legs down.

Total cost for each light is $1.50 plus a little paint! Just add a flicker light or tea light candle. Pretty pleased with the results but will probably fine tune the paint splattering and maybe add some details like hanging moss around the top later. They look awesome in the dark with the candle inside. I'll try a video but my camera isn't so good in the dark.

In memory of Dr. E. Nick Witty ( Alan Miliar ) MONSTER MOVIE MATINEE

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Day 2 - Monster Movie Madness

It is with much sadness I learned a monster movie icon of my childhood died this last month. Actor Alan Miliar, who played Dr. E. Nick Witty, the host of Saturday afternoon's "Monster Movie Matinee" in the 1970's and 80's passed away at the age of 81.

Monster Movie Matinee was a very low budget program created by Miliar. It aired out of Syracuse, NY on channel 3 every Saturday afternoon. These were the days before cable network TV. Each week Dr. E. Nick Witty and his assistant Epal ( Bill Lape ) hosted a horror classic from the 30's 40's amd 50's. To my knowledge, unless you went to the movies it was one of the only day time programs to show monster movies on TV at the time.

Dr. Witty was always just out of view of the camera with his back to us in a high back chair or I think he was in a coffin at times. We only ever saw his hand with long black fingernails and big rings on his fingers but he had a very distinctive voice and laugh. The only character we could fully see was Epal and he was a pretty gruesome looking guy with a big scar and an eye patch.

Epal, and Dr. Witty's hand in the foreground

I learned their budget was so bad that most of their set design was pulled together from garage sales, thrift stores and such and the opening scene with the camera rolling across a cemetery towards a mansion on a hilltop was a model that by today's standards is pretty laughable.

...It all seemed so realistic at the time!

Here is one of the last know videos of Alan Miliar where he describes how each monster has it's own "trademark" and we get to listen to his famous laugh. It's kind of cool now to be able to put a face to the voice we listened to as kids.

Dr. E. Nick Witty gets his own tombstone in the Shingle Creek Manor graveyard this year... rest in peace Alan Miliar. Thanks for helping to make the memories of my childhood.

God bless him.

Spyder's Pop-Up

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I was hoping we'd do some pneumatics at this last Florida Haunter's make and take, but alas it didn't happen this time. However our friend "Spyder" (John Nilsen) had his pop-up on display and was kind enough to show us how it's put together. I was expecting a little "psst' and it would pop-up 10-12 inches like most do.
...Wrong!
This thing popped up about 48 inches and the arms came out from it's sides! It's a guaranteed "loss of bladder control" for at least some of our Halloween guests!

Note to self : "Must find cheap 36" plus air cylinder.... Forget anymore store bought pop-ups this year!"

Skull Shoppe

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Got to see one of Skull Shoppes products recently. This one was on display in a basketball display case from Hobby Lobby. If your looking for a realistic looking skull molded from actual skulls, check them out. Apparently they sell to universities, colleges, etc for learning and research, but the owner said they sell "seconds" for much cheaper and show them on FB. Probably overkill for our yard haunt but would be great for inside where people would see it close up.

7 Temmuz 2012 Cumartesi

Despicable Me Minion Mayhem: pics, review

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Earlier this week, Universal Studios Florida opened Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem, a simulator ride that replaces the Jimmy Neutron simulator formerly in this location. I'll jump to the verdict: it's good, even for someone who hasn't seen the movie it's based on (that would be me). You'll want to include this in your Universal plans.

They built an extensive exterior for this new attraction, meant to be Gru's mansion. You see traces of this inside the queue as well, though much of it is "regular" switchback. There are videos playing a fake television show, talking about how humans are being converted to minions--which is what this ride purports to do to us. This is a minion recruitment center, as the posters around us show.

Once inside, we find ourselves in a very oversized (quite tall) living room, decorated with enough whimsical stuff to make me feel like the theme has been achieved without shortcuts. Bravo to Universal for continuing to go that extra mile in recent attractions; this is not theming lip service; it's real theming on par with Disney. It's not just decorations of minions; it's actual thought put into why the decorations are here, and each one often tells its own backstory.

The second queue room uses videos meant to be real people (Gru, minions) behind glass and looking down at us; they explain we'll be converted to minions. Then it's on to the main simulator room.

This room hasn't been reconfigured from Jimmy Neutron; it's still rows of simulator cars facing a very large screen. The action on screen is fast, furious, and funny. It might well make someone seasick if you're prone to motion sickness, but everyone in my family was fine. The movie traces what happens when something goes wrong in the minion process, and we bounce/fly around the place in a series of misadventures. Pretty standard plot, but well executed. Oh, and it's in 3D, so you're wearing polarized glasses.

After the movie, we exit to a... dance studio. Apparently the minions like to dance in the movie? (remember, I haven't seen it). Despite my initial confusion, I liked the concept and the high energy.

I also liked the store you empty into after that. It was highly themed--something Universal has done really well lately. Bravo all around.

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Kevin Yee is the author of numerous independent Disney books, including the popular Walt Disney World Earbook series and Walt Disney World Hidden History.