People Who "Don't Like Horror Movies"

Whenever I tell someone that I love horror movies often they will say something along the lines of "Really? Personally I don't like horror movies." Yet if we end up really discussing it, they usually reveal that the blanket statement they made is not all that true. I only started noticing this trend as recently as this summer when my mother visited and she agreed to come to The Conjuring with me when she realized it wasn't a gory movie, but a ghosty movie. Apparently all this time that I had thought she hated all horror, it was just the blood and guts she wasn't a fan of, ghosts and demonic possession were a-okay for her. Heck she even enjoyed the movie.

Horrifying Birthday Wishes

Everyone gets a heaping pile of facebook messages on their birthday, I decided to make mine a little more interesting by asking people to share with me their favourite horror movie and why it is their favourite, so here are their anonymous responses (I will update it throughout the day as more come in):

-My favorite horror is house of the devil because it is retro styled, well paced, has a cult, is a devil baby movie, and is low budget but high value!

-House on Haunted Hill was a fun one just because it was simple, uncomplicated ghost stuff. Behind the Mask and Dogsoldiers were also awesome, for reasons you know.

-I don't have a favorite horror movie and you know that. You know I have to always cover my eyes, even when watch the B list ones.

-Insidious (the first one) had the ability to make me jump whilst I was watching it on a plane on a tiny screen. Not baaad I'd say! I also thought that The Children was fabulous... although I doubt you'll have seen that as it's British.  (Ariel here, I actually own a copy of The Children)

-Evil Dead. Such a unique and well crafted blend of jump scares, gore, unsettling vibes and humor. Plus it was made on a shoestring budget.

Lords of Salem

I've been procrastinating with the writing of this post for over a month, so finally without further ado let's talk about Salem. I keep wanting to call this movie Salem's Lot, but it is nothing like Salem's Lot, there's not a single vampire to be seen. The Lords of Salem is Rob Zombie's latest offering and his take on the subgenre of witches and satanism. Of course it stars his wife Sheri Moon Zombie as the recovering drug addict/radio DJ Heidi Hawthorne who's family has a dark secret.

Now we the film opens with some gratuitous nudity, but not from the buxom young women most horror aficionados are accustomed to. These women are hardcore witches living in the woods outside of the beloved Salem Massachusetts (not Salem Oregon) and time has certainly had an effect on their devil worshipping bodies. Of course after our history lesson in events of the past we are brought to the present day and a local radio station where our protagonist works alongside a dirty hippie guy and the actor who was in Dawn of the Dead and From Beyond, if you want to know who that is IMDb is quite fun and easy to use.

First time I watched it I thought the movie was about an adorable dog coping with the shortcomings of it's master.

Now our DJ's receive a strange record from "The Lords" which, because this is a horror movie and nothing bad can come of it, they play on the radio. The song on it has a strange effect on the town and drives most of the plot from here on out. We also meet some rather strange women who have a special interest in Heidi Hawthorne.

Today's lesson: Unless it's from your Grandmother, free teatime should never be trusted.

So you're watching the movie and you're pretty sure that you understand what's going on... then the last 20 minutes arrive. If you are able to just lose yourself in the imagery and forget about the plot it's great, but I was left with a feeling of confusion and gratitude that I wasn't epileptic by the end of the movie. Because I knew the plot pulls a disappearing act my second viewing of the film was much more pleasant as I could just revel in the twisted, artsy shots that served as the climax and ending of the movie. I would say that while I would have loved a more satisfying ending, it was still one of the better horror movies I've seen this year, so if given the opportunity you should give it a chance.

If I get a pet goat Satanists will leave me alone right?

The Frightening Friday: Netherworld Collectibles and Fright Nights

So back on the 11th my friend Christopher Graham (he took all the photos) and I decided to go to the opening night of Fright Nights and since we were going to be in the area we went to Netherworld Collectibles beforehand. As soon as we got into the store we were greeted by an adorable little fellow named Ladder.

I really like snakes.

I mean REALLY like snakes.

Ladder was on loan from http://www.snakeinthegrass.org/ a local snake rescue. After a little quality reptilian time we got to looking around the store which had a great assortment of movie props, posters, books, comics, movies, board games, action figures and more. Things that caught my eye were the Forbidden Planet poster and the wearable Right Hand of Doom (from Hellboy if you're not in the know).

I fell in love at Netherworld Collectibles.

Now I figured since I was in the commercial, I might as well go to Fright Nights. Speaking of Fright Nights here is the 60 second version of the commercial:

Fright Nights Commercial Creepiness

Who says you can't make money doing what you love? Well I certainly don't. Back in September I had an awesome opportunity to be on set doing what I do best, being creepy. I was working on this year's commercial for Fright Nights at the local amusement park called Playland. The commercial is now airing on some Canadian tv channels, so I suppose this is the first time folks will get to see me on their television sets in character.

Here is the 30 second version of the finished product:

It was my second night shoot and resulted in spending over 40 hours being awake with about 1.5 hours sleep, turns out I can function rather well without much sleep. The set was one of the actual haunted houses at the park as well as some outdoor parts that were more on the sinister side.

There was also a blow torch on set to "distress" some of the set dec brought in for the production. I had to keep telling myself "fire bad". Of course I ended up spending quite some time in the make-up chair and loved every minute of it.

They didn't even get my good side.

I was so happy with how I looked I even took a few selfies to show all boys just how pretty I was.

Wanna date?

Of course I wasn't the only one to get all dolled up for the camera.

He's a vegan, because there's no cruelty to animals in cannibalism.

Then it was time to get my tree witch on for my second character in the commercial. Tree Witch twerks ensued, but this was before a certain celebrity made it uncool.

Forget #SplitsOnTrees now it's #SplitsOnMees

Then of course the evening ended with clowns, because no one likes clowns except for their fear inducing qualities. My parents were convinced I was one of the clowns in the commercial. They were wrong.

Ya want a balloon animal?

As more photos from behind the scenes come I'll be adding them to this post, so look forward to more!

Insidious: Chapter 2

You've gotta love a free movie right? Well once again I won myself some tickets to the pre-screening of a James Wan film, this time Insidious Chapter 2. When offered a free movie even the most petrified of friends will join you for a horror movie, in this case it was my friend Mark. I must say when you are going to a sequel horror film, always bring a scaredy cat, it will make the experience fun no matter what, just make sure they prepare their underpants.

The Conjuring: It All Started with a Dead Baby

Thanks to a contest at Rue Morgue this Wednesday I was able to go to the advance screening of The Conjuring. Now my mom has been visiting me and because no one else was able to come she offered to join me when she learned the film wasn't a "gorefest". We went into it knowing nothing about the people behind the true story and after researching them after the film I'm glad we did. Read on if you are ok with perhaps a couple of smaller spoilers in a film that already had the ending spoiled by being a true story.

Got a free copy of the poster, no biggie.

Evil Dead Day

This scene certainly brought back some memories... and my distrust of trees.

April 5th 2013 is officially now to be known forever as Evil Dead Day, at least if me calling it that makes it official anyways. I spent the whole day watching the original Evil Dead films, then got VIP treatment while watching the remake. I was lucky enough to watch the remake with most of the other people involved in Evil Dead in 60 Seconds, which also got a bit of media coverage recently despite the Virgin Radio contest being long over. First Buzzfeed declared Evil Dead in 60 Seconds one of the 15 Greatest Fan Tributes to The Evil Dead. Then as a part of the lead up to the remake Bloody Disgusting declared our producers one of their Deadites of the Day. That only further fuelled my spastic excitement for the remake's release.

First Horror Role Part 3: The Fake Festival

Now I am sure you are all wondering "How did the Evil Dead in 60 Seconds do?" Well on the 15th of February we found out that we had made it into the top 25, it was a pretty great birthday present. Some of the crew also managed to win enough tickets so that everyone (who didn't have other commitments) was able to come. Now there was a theme to this party, movie characters. Let's see if you can figure out who I chose to go as:

Carrie, I'm Carrie. Being bloodified by Reagan from The Exorcist.

Actually all the girls in our group went as horror characters (Carrie, Reagan, Lady Jigsaw, One of the twins from The Shining and The Black Swan) the men however, not so bloody... well except for our Ash, who went as Ash (although really isn't Ashley a bit of a girl's name?).

Alright, alright fine I'll tell you how we did. We were huddled together as we watched them present the five nominations for best picture. They showed Jaws, Bourne Identity, Wreck It Ralph, then this lovely little cabin showed up on the screen and we got to watch our video as a part of the top 5. The last nominee was Life of Pi. And when they announced the winner it was... Wreck It Ralph. Yes, there were some tears cried (I won't say by who), but personally I'm impressed that a film with tree rape could even make it into the top five of a non-horror film competition. It just goes to show what an awesome job the directors, cast and crew did putting it all together.

Even Minnie Mouse loved it!

First Horror Role Part 2: The Film

Alright, awesome news, The Evil Dead in 60 Seconds was released on Friday! Since I know you all are desperate to see it, here it is:

So now that you have seen the video vote for it by going to the Virgin Fake Film Festival website and click the like button below the video! ...or else.

Feeling demonic today?

When it was released on Friday I was pretty much doing a social media frenzy along with everyone else involved and it was the most successful social media...ing I've done. It may sound dorky but I was super excited to be retweeted by horror directors like Nicholas Humphries and The Twisted Twins (Jen & Sylvia Soska) as well as The Rio Theatre and The Storm Crow Tavern. Even my Grampa loved the video!

The short has also had some pretty damn good reception on horror websites, here is a list of links to articles that have been written so far:

Bloody Disgusting
Dread Central
Horrormovies.ca
Daily Dead (I think they chose an awesome picture to represent the film)
Horror Society
i09?
We Came From The Basement

I can't express in words how excited I am that something I worked on is getting exposure on all these websites (and hopefully more to come). Some of them even mention my name!!

Next up in the last instalment of this series of articles is how we did in the festival (vote for us so we do well!)