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6. 'Poltergeist': "They're Heeeere!" - 20 Most Iconic Horror Scenes of All Time

By Jason Murphy (Subscribe to Jason Murphy's posts), Posted Oct 26th 2010 12:00PM
Filed under: Halloween, Horror


The Movie: 'Poltergeist' (1982)

The Scene: The Freeling family is all curled up in the parents' bed. They're typical, living their early 80's, suburban lives. It's normal to the point of banality, but a series of inexplicable occurrences starts to intrude into their Spielbergian postcards. A malevolent entity is encroaching upon their home and it has its sights set on their youngest, Carol Ann (Heather O'Rourke). Carol Ann awakens. The TV speaks to her, voices that only she can hear. Smoky tendrils creep out from the television, slithering across the room. The spirit plunges into the wall and tremors rock the home. As Steve (Craig Nelson) and Diane (JoBeth Williams) awaken, Carol Ann warns, "They're here."
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16. The 'Night of the Living Dead' Begins - 20 Most Iconic Horror Scenes of All Time

By Jason Murphy (Subscribe to Jason Murphy's posts), Posted Oct 16th 2010 12:00PM
Filed under: Halloween, Horror



The Movie: 'Night of the Living Dead' (1968)
The Scene: At their mother's behest, siblings Johnny and Barbara are on their annual sojourn into the Pennsylvania countryside to plant flowers on their father's grave. They see some shambling form moving in the distance - a drunk perhaps, or just some cemetery caretaker. Johnny teases his sister, warning in a ghoulish voice that 'they' were coming to get Barbara. As Johnny plays upon Barbara's fears in the isolated and gloomy field, the stumbling man attacks them, killing Johnny. In a panicked frenzy, Barbara narrowly escapes the madman and makes her way to a lone farmhouse. There she, along with a handful of strangers, is forced to stave off the throngs of the undead.
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Fantastic Fest Reviews: 'Fatso,' 'A Somewhat Gentle Man,' 'Rare Exports'

By Jason Murphy (Subscribe to Jason Murphy's posts), Posted Oct 3rd 2010 11:03AM
Filed under: Reviews

The tale of the lovable loser is a familiar one. He's goofy and awkward, but by the end of the film, has some sort of awakening. He'll find his inner strength, clean his act up, and maybe get the dream girl. In Arild Frohlich's 'Fatso', however, there's nothing lovable about Rino Hanssen. He's an agoraphobic mutant who spends his time drawing comics, masturbating, and having non-consensual sex with melons. His existence is barely a blip on the radar. An obese man-child, Rino is fixated on sex and women, which is problematic considering his only social contact comes in the form of his miscreant friend, Fillip. When Rino's father rents out a room in the house to the beautiful and nubile Malin, Rino's life is upended.

Sadly, there's little to like here. All of the characters are self-centered and often abrasive. The story is terribly uninspired, one that has been interpreted more times than you can count. The humor revolves around mocking Rino's sad existence, which comes off as depressing and more than a little pathetic. It's too mean spirited to be truly funny and relies too heavily on unending masturbation jokes. It all comes off as a particularly nasty, yet half-hearted Farrelly brothers movie.
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How Far Can Shock Horror Go?

By Jason Murphy (Subscribe to Jason Murphy's posts), Posted Oct 2nd 2010 1:33PM
Filed under: Hot Topic, Horror
With the notoriety of films like 'A Serbian Film' and 'the Human Centipede', one has to wonder if the genre is on the cusp of a new era of exploitation cinema. Such films, by way of festival success, flirt with the fringes of the common movie audience. While few of them really see genuine mainstream success, they do seem to be gaining mainstream awareness. How and why this particular trend is sinking its claws into the flesh of film is a riddle that may say more about society as a whole than any specific genre.

Without delving into a discussion of postmodernism, it's been said that art is society thinking about itself. It's a way of interpreting the world around us, be it intentional or just some flotsam that floats up to the conscious surface. In regards to 'A Serbian Film', the message and themes are worn on its sleeve.

It's story depicts a male porn star (Srdjan Todorovic) whose hide has calloused from years of depravity. In an effort to reinvigorate himself, he becomes caught up in a film venture that redefines his and the audience's understanding of the reprehensible. He finds himself involved in abhorrently violent movies with children, guided by the hand of a truly disturbed director. Even as he tries to escape, he realizes that his caught up too deeply in the web of drugs, incest, and rape.

While it does have something to say about violence and pornography, it's an obvious political allegory. Screenwriter Srdjan Spasojevic set the movie up as a volley at Serbia's censorship laws, "This is a diary of our own molestation by the Serbian government," he said. "We're giving this back to you."
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I Would Have Saved/Killed: Halloween: Resurrection

By Jason Murphy (Subscribe to Jason Murphy's posts), Posted Sep 8th 2010 6:25PM
Filed under: Features, Discussion Posts, Horror
Welcome to another episode of I Would Have Saved/Killed. It goes like this: one of our writers will pick a character, big or small, from a movie and explain how they, for whatever reason, would have altered the fate of that character.

Don't worry, we will never spoil anything pre-jump, though obviously everything after the break is operating under the assumption you've seen the film at hand, so be warned. And a big tip of our hat to Arbogast on Film for inspiring us with his post The One You Might Have Saved.

Have you ever seen Halloween: Resurrection? It's pretty much what you would expect from the eighth installment of a slasher franchise. It's not good. It's antithesis of good. Linguists, even after years of research, have been unable to find an appropriate adjective for this film. Science may have to generate new words just to apply to this garbage.

Read on to find out who kicks the bucket or dodges the bullet in this Michael Myers crapfest...
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New Stills From Immigration Horror Movie 'Undocumented'

By Jason Murphy (Subscribe to Jason Murphy's posts), Posted Aug 31st 2010 11:35AM
Filed under: Features, Photo Galleries, Horror
Christmas is almost here! But even better and closer is Fantastic Fest. Yes, it's geek nirvana coming up towards the end of September; you'll be hearing about it a lot around these parts. We'll mention it with great glee and it's likely that whenever we speak of it, a chorus of angels will erupt from the heavens. Am I rubbing it in? Yes. Yes, I am. Am I resorting to hyperbole? No. I categorically am not. Fantastic Fest has birthed more mind-blowing films into my life than I can count. Am I saying that you're an incomplete person if you don't attend Fantastic Fest? No, but I am heavily implying it. There are lots of delicious chunks of cinema on the way, but one that I'm most looking forward to is Chris Peckover's Undocumented.

"A small group of documentary filmmakers chronicle the trials and inequities faced by Mexican illegal immigrants. When they join a group of families illegally crossing the border to record the experience firsthand, their truck is pulled over and detained. What happens next plunges their group into unimaginable horror."

Living in Texas all of my life, much of that time near the border, the flick sounds geographically topical and something that hasn't been mined much at all. And what makes for a great horror movie like exploiting real life tragedy? As if the plight of illegal aliens and the threat of being decapitated by a cartel maniac wasn't scary enough, Dread Central is now showing off some stills from the upcoming film here. Stick around these here parts for more news on the film, since I'm sure most of the Horrorsquad crew will want to weigh in on this one.

'Mad Max' Meets Burning Man at the Wasteland Weekend

By Jason Murphy (Subscribe to Jason Murphy's posts), Posted Aug 30th 2010 3:05PM
Filed under: Movie News, News/Reactions, Sci-Fi
Have you ever wanted to go to Burning Man, but can't stomach all the damned hippies? Then I have the party for you. For years, Burning Man has raged on in the desert, establishing a pustulant bulwark of erratic behavior and poor hygiene. I love parties, don't get me wrong, but I'd rather not be asphyxiated by someone else's body odor or worry about getting rundown by a motorized couch. Wasteland Weekend looks to rectify that. It's a post-apocalyptic hootenanny in Southern California that takes its inspiration from the grandaddy of nihilist cinema, Mad Max. For 3 days, savages clad in leather and armor will drunkenly frolic around the desert, howling at the moon and riding around on custom bikes and even the legendary V8 Interceptor. It sounds deliciously atavistic and a recipe for something genuinely horrible to happen.

This adults-only event has scheduled various bits of entertainment, like staged fights, a 'Bartertown' market, fire demonstrations, DJ's, and all sorts of other things that sane people will sneer at. I'm hoping humanity will break down and the participants will split into factions. They'll starting pillaging and butchering each other for water. All of this rages until the National Guard rolls in and exterminates the freaks. But then? The lone survivor uploads it all to YouTube. If I can't get Fury Road, that's the movie I want to see.

It takes place on October 22nd through October 24th. You can get more information, including tickets, at the official site. If any of you attend, please don't forget to chain an androgynous blonde guy to your belt. Lord Humongous decrees it!
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