Horror

House of Mystery

/ / Comics
  • Title: House of Mystery #1
  • Comic Vine: link

“The moment of epiphany, that slice of time when you stand on the brink of a new life is one of the most magical, most terrifying, most intoxicating experiences there is.”

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The House of Mystery was a horror anthology which ran on and off for decades.  Events centered around a house and it’s caretaker Cain and the stories of horror and mayhem told within.  This recent re-launch by Bill Willingham and Matthew Sturges centers around those trapped in th house (including quite a few familiar faces to the Vertigo line) who are forced to tell tales to earn their keep.

After a short appearance by Cain and his brother Abel (with a hatchet firmly stuck in his chest) the story moves to young Miss Kelle who is being chased by two mysterious figures and eventually will find herself stepping into the house which has haunted her dreams – The House of Mystery.

Intercut with Keele’s run across town is the tale of one of the patrons, Hungry Sally, who pays for her meal with the disturbing tale of her life entitled “The Hollows” which is a brutal tale you might not wish to read on a full stomach involving human-sized fly creatures and the events which earned Sally her name.

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The Ruins

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Ruins
  • IMDB: link

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Scott Smith adapts his own novel for the screen, and maybe he should farm himself out for other projects because if he can do this good a job with a screenplay about a some dumb kids and a plant think what he could do for the countless other horror scripts out their which need some serious help.

Two couples (Jonathan Tucker and Jena Malone, Shawn Ashmore and Laura Ramsey) on vacation in Mexico learn there are more things to be afraid of than the local water.

A chance encounter with a German (Joe Anderson) leads the group on an expedition of a recently uncovered Mayan temple deep in the jungle.  Despite the distance the group makes it to the temple only to find themselves attacked by a local tribe and quarantined for their exposure to the forbidden locale.  Surveying the scene and searching for the archaeological team leads some of the members into the temple and to uncover the reason why the locals fear the place and will make sure nothing leaves the area.

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Diary of the Dead

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Diary of the Dead
  • IMDB: link

“Jason always wanted to be a documentary filmmaker.  That’s what he was shooting on that first night.  The night when everything changed.”
 

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George A. Romero returns to the beginning of his Dead Series with this tale of young filmmakers making a horror movie in the woods as the outbreak occurs and the world finds itself infested with zombies.  Much like his early works the film is equal parts horror flick and social commentary.  Here the roles and actions of news channels, broadcasting, reality television, the government, and other institutions and individuals all become fuel to the filmmaker to set ablaze in satire.

Although the film doesn’t really add much to the series it does, in the tone of the previous films, present a decidedly somber and fatalistic view of the world absent in most Hollywood films.  Much like The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield the film uses the handheld shaky cam for most of the action; although unlike these other films it doesn’t rely on the shaky cam solely and spends time on both character and plot as well.

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Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash

/ / Comics

Dynamite Entertainment and Wildstorm have combined forces to give us a triple threat, no-holds-barred, bloody battle for the ages.  Freddy Krueger, Jason Vorhees, and some S-Mart worker from the Houswares Department known simply as Ash.  Six-issues of bloody good time starts here!

Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash #1
Custom Rating

“In the end you can’t outrun fate, plain and simple.”

 

The first issue of the Wildstorm/Dynamite Entertainment crossover features narration of Ash, though our hero himself doesn’t appear until the final page.  Instead the issue brings us up to speed as it begins five years after the events of Freddy vs. Jason with the tragic end to both Laurie and Will, before Freddy begins his mind games and sends Jason after the Necromonicon.

This is a good start to a series that will find it hard to live-up to its promise.  Still, even though we get little of Ash on the page we get his voice throughout and the book feels much more like Evil Dead inspired tale than either of the other two franchises (and that’s a good thing!).

 

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I’m not a big conniseur of horror comics but there was enough her to pique my interest and there’s enough on the page to wet my appetite for more.

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Odd Duck

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Joshua
  • IMDb: link

Joshua

What if your child had always been a little odd, and you eventually began wondering if he wasn’t evil?  Joshua asks this question, and the result is a mixed, though memorable, result that, although I can’t recommend, is still better than expected.

To the causual observer the Cairn’s are your typical upper-middle class family.  Brad (Sam Rockwell) works too hard in an investment company, Abby (an almost unrecognizable Vera Farmiga) stays home and takes care of their son Joshua (Jacob Kogan) and thier newborn daughter Lily.  Scratch the surface however and you’ll find plenty of troubles in the Cairn home.

To begin with Abby has a history of mental problems and increasing anxiety over not being able to care for her new baby.  And then there’s Joshua who, to put it politely, is a little off.  When the family begins to spiral out of control Brad begins to suspect that everything can be traced to one cause – his son.  Is this young nine-year-old responsible for it all?

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