I think the worst gore effects I've seen were in the movie They Don't Cut The Grass Anymore- the blood looked like colored water, and the innards was yarn.

And even though I love the movie, in the original Two Thousand Maniacs the severed arm they used a mannequin arm- but that was back in before they even really had effects artists for gore.

The Lost Sequel? Shutting Down Slaughterhouse 2




"Jump forward to 1999 just when the internet was gaining a foothold on information distribution, but still in early enough days that it wasn’t possible to source the existence of obscure movies the way we can now. Taking text on a screen at face value was put to the test when a writer by the name of Jake Semmler wrote a retrospective/review of sLaughterhouse 2 (case-reversed S/L intended) which was published on the very-90’s website ArtyFarty Internet Arts Magazine, and included poster artwork."


"It was likely the high quality of the faux-poster art that blindsided many into believing, and so the non-movie continued to snowball in online genre circles over the years, picking up additional non-truths as it did so, such as that it was Oscar-nominated actress Julianne Moore’s first acting role. Thus sLaughterhouse II would go on to be listed in her IMDB profile for the longest time, which was duplicated in high hundreds of web biographies of the actress that remain online and uncorrected to this day."

The whole story here-

http://retroslashers.net/the-lost-sequel-shutting-down-slaughterhouse-2/

Misleading Slasher Trailers


Final Exam: If you’ve ever seen the trailer for Halloween, then you may remember it ends with the line “The night HE came home.” The trailer for Final Exam uses the phrase “HE’s come back!” twice in an attempt to trick movie audiences into thinking the two films are somehow linked. No serious slasher fan is going to mistake Final Exam with Halloween. This trailer is aimed more at the casual horror fan looking for something to watch at the drive-in on a Saturday night. Left out of the trailer is the fact we never find out who ”HE” is or why “HE” is stalking college kids.

Popcorn: The trailer and first commercials for Popcorn try really hard to convince viewers the film is a sequel to an old horror film. “Before the horror of Halloween. Before the fear of Friday the 13th. Before the evil of A Nightmare on Elm Street.” The phrase “HE’s Back” is also mentioned in this trailer. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think Popcorn is a sequel to something called The Possessor. Later ads dropped the comparisons to famous slashers and played up the film’s special quirkiness.

The House Where Death Live (a.k.a. Delusion): This movie is a quiet little slasher influenced more by Psycho than Halloween. But you’d never know that from this trailer. The Amityville Horror phenomena was still big when Delusion was first released so it’s little wonder the trailer makes the movie look like a haunted house flick. We see wine racks crashing, doors slowly opening, and dogs barking at the darkness but we never see the mysterious killer bashing folks to death with a table leg.

Mortuary: Here’s a trailer that’s become legendary because it’s so misleading. Michael Berryman shovels dirt on to a fresh grave while church bells toll in the background. Suddenly, a hand shoots out of the grave and drags Berryman down into the soft earth. Before Berryman is completely dragged under we hear a monstrous roar from some hungry hell beast. Berryman and the growling zombie never appear in Mortuary.

The House on Sorority Row: In this trailer we see bad girls partying, drinking, fooling around in the bedroom, and digging up graves. What we don’t see is a deformed killer stalking and slashing these lovely ladies. The voice over tells us these girls are up for anything as long as it’s fun. After shooting some old granny, the girls bite their lips and look seductively at the camera. Of course, that’s not the way it plays out in the movie, but the trailer would have you believe murdering the elderly gets these girls hot to trot.

Girls Nite Out: This trailer is pretty up front that it’s promoting a slasher. It goes overboard, however, promoting Girls Nite Out as a T & A fest. From what I remember, there’s no nudity in the movie. A young woman wearing nothing but a bed sheet asks the camera “Do you know what really turns me on? I love to be scared.” Cut to scenes of women running and screaming. Sadly, this nubile narrator never appears in Girls Nite Out but she does a good job of making the movie look interesting. She mentions a “kinky maniac at a party” and claims the “weird and kinky things have really got my motor running.” You get the impression Girls Nite Out is a cross between Screwballs and Friday the 13th. The killer bear mascot does make an appearance in the trailer but most of the real footage from the movie is comprised of women freaking out, dancing on tables, and taking bubble baths.

Nightmare: Oh, boy. This has got to be Tom Savini’s all time favorite trailer. “From the man who terrified you in Dawn of the Dead and Friday the 13th Special Effects Director TOM SAVINI.” Noticeably absent from the trailer is any mention of the director, writer, or actors involved in the making of Nightmare. The only person the viewer knows is connected to the movie is Savini. And he must be pretty important because his name is in all capital letters. Savini claims he only served a brief role as a special effects consultant and sued to have his name removed from the ads.

http://retroslashers.net/misleading-slasher-trailers/

It's funny I was going to post how much the skull on the VHS cover reminded me of the Henrietta-creature from Evil Dead 2, I didn't realize it was an exact copy of it!

Haha! They didn't even try to edit it!

Haha! They didn't even try to edit it!

Horror filmmakers/distributors are show shameless!!

Now Hiring: 'Pet Sematary' Gatekeeper


What a crazy busy news day! It's been almost exactly 7 years since Paramount announced plans to remake Mary Lambert's 1989 Stephen King adaptation Pet Sematary, while the last time we heard of any developments was back in July.

Fresh news courtesy of the LA Times who report that Matthew Greenberg, the writer of 1408 (also based on a King work), is set to turn in his script for a new version of the tale. And executives at studio Paramount have put out the word to at least two representatives in the agent community that they are seeking a high-level director to tackle the material.

The original, which starred Fred Gwynne, told of a zombie-raising pet cemetery that afflicts a family that's just moved to small-town Maine. Events unfold with a mix of death (both animal and human), resurrections and creepy Gothic spaces. (Mary Lambert's movie also spawned a poorly received sequel in 1992.)


http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/

Celebrate Women in Horror Month With Our Favorite Final Girls
By Alison Nastasi
Posted Feb 2nd 2011



Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) in Halloween (1978)








Jamie Lee Curtis plays the bookishly nerdy Laurie Strode in John Carpenter's classic slasher film, Halloween.

Carpenter's movie -- about a disturbed man child who sets off on a killing spree in the small town of Haddonfield -- is credited for being the first film in the subgenre to popularize the stalk and slice movies.



Laurie typifies what many people think of when they imagine a final girl. She's quiet, responsible, and totally on top of her game when Michael Myers (her brother) starts to violently tear his way through her friends to get to her.

Family bonding at its best!












Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)








The coolest part about Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) is that she doesn't wait for the killer to find her before she fights -- she instead brings the fight to him.

She proves to be child murderer Freddy Krueger's strongest opponent when she figures out how the pizza-faced monster is attacking teens in their dreams.



Even though her best friend is slaughtered and her hottie boyfriend gets sucked into a bloody bed, she manages to keep it together enough to devise a plan.

Nancy learns the art of booby trapping in order to pull Freddy out of her dream world and into reality, killing him.












Jess Bradford (Olivia Hussey) in Black Christmas (1974)








Bob Clark's Black Christmas was carving a path for the slasher genre before Carpenter's Halloween, and the film's final girl, Jess Bradford (Olivia Hussey), expertly navigates her way through the atmospheric chiller.

When obscene and threatening phone calls to a sorority house spook the girls who are stuck there for Christmas, people start turning up dead.



Jess takes matters into her own hands despite facing the inefficiency of police work, the difficulty of an abortion, a faceless killer and a psycho boyfriend.

Merry Christmas!












Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns) in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)








Sally's (Marilyn Burns) road trip didn't exactly turn out perfectly.

Instead of having a peaceful reunion with the family homestead as planned, she has to deal with her whiny brother -- the dreaded Franklin (Paul A. Partain).


On top of that, she has a run-in with a self-mutilating hitchhiker, her friend meets a terrible fate on a meat hook and she has to endure a dull beating in the head by the near-mummified grandfather (John Dugan) in a family of lunatics.

Even though she's not much of a fighter, she possesses the will to survive ... and she can run like hell.












Nami Tsuchiya (Miyuki Ono) in Evil Dead Trap (1988)








Nami (Miyuki Ono) is the host of a late night TV show who receives a gory snuff flick in the mail. The violent video prompts her to take a crew to investigate its origins at an abandoned military base. Some might call this naive, but I call it ballsy.



Nami proves to be just that when she figures out the location of the murder by the video's visual clues, and uncovers the killer who is systematically picking off her team in the most gruesome of ways.












Ginny Field (Amy Steel) in Friday the 13th Part II (1981)








Ginny (Amy Steel) wasn't afraid to go head-to-head with a psycho, when she used her brains and a machete to beat the Crystal Lake killer, Jason Voorhees.

She's also an atypical final girl, because she actually gets to survive after having sex and drinking a six-pack. It's her quick thinking, though, that's most impressive.

She uses her understanding of Jason's twisted psyche to trick him into believing she's his mother and eventually defeats him.












Jennifer Corvino (Jennifer Connelly) in Phenomena (1985)








Jennifer Connelly's character in Dario Argento's Phenomena might be a young girl, but she proves that age is just a number when she gets all Lord of the Flies on the creepy Patua (Davide Marotta) who tries to snuff her out.

Don't let the Swiss boarding school fool you into thinking Jennifer's a rich brat. She has crazy mind powers and works with the awesome Donald Pleasence to solve a series of murders.












Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) in Alien (1979)







No, Ridley Scott's Alien doesn't take place in a sorority house or the woods, but it has a slasher film heart, and Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is one of the most compelling final girls in horror film history.

Her clear-minded intelligence and sexual/gender neutrality make her the quintessential final girl, but she's such a badass that she doesn't follow all of the usual conventions. Ripley starts out unassuming, but eventually establishes herself as the tough, resourceful, commanding hero.












Kirsty Cotton (Ashley Laurence) in Hellraiser (1987)








Kirsty (Ashley Laurence) has a creepy uncle and an even creepier father, but she doesn't let them -- or her icy stepmother -- get her down. She's fiercely independent, living in her own apartment and working at a pet store when she's not getting cozy with her boyfriend.

When the Cenobites from hell roll into town, she's smart enough to make a deal with them that saves her soul from being torn apart -- dishing up Uncle Frank instead.












Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) in Scream (1996)








The role of the final girl and the slasher film was revitalized and reimagined in Wes Craven's 1996 film Scream. Craven toys with slasher film conventions, adding self-referential irony and humor into the mix -- subverting our expectations of the subgenre.


Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) became the face of a new generation of final girls when she not only fought against the backlash surrounding her mother's past, but also her attack by a masked killer(s).

She's increasingly established herself as a strong final girl throughout the Scream franchise.

http://blog.moviefone.com/2011/02/02...-horror-month/

Oh, I loved this! Both the novel and the movie!

I guess it's not that big a surprise that they're planning to resurrect their plans of a remake since zombies are fast becoming a fad for horror fans these days. A lot of producers would want to cash in on that.

She ran like a drunk banshee.

Bump. Hee.

On the DVD commentary Gunnar Hansen(Leatherface) said she was such a slow runner that he would constantly have to slow down and stall so she would keep ahead of him, that's why you always saw Leather doing things like spinning around with the chainsaw, and holding it up in the air.

Who could possibly top Fred Gwynne's performance?

I like women, especially beautiful ones. If they have a good face and figure, I would much prefer to watch them being murdered than an ugly girl or man. I certainly don't have to justify myself to anyone about this. I don't care what anybody thinks or reads into it.

- Dario Argento




When I discovered that Ed Gein really did some of these things, that he actually used meat hooks and was a cannibal, it truly surprised me. My relatives that lived in a town close to him told me these terrible stories, these tales of human skin lampshades and furniture. I grew up with that like a horror story you tell around a campfire. I didn't even know about Ed Gein, I just knew about something that happened that was horrendous. But the image really stuck.

- Tobe Hooper




I really don't like to expose too much of what's behind my films. I work in a surrealistic way, like being in a trance. Sometimes I wake up and begin writing when I'm still almost asleep. When I finish a picture I'm always surprised by the things I see. It's like automatic writing, as though someone else suggested ideas. Like a schizophrenic. As though I have a second soul.

- Dario Argento




It is human nature to be fascinated by the horrible, the forbidden. We seek it out and we challenge it. The horror film is unique because it is a shared involvement; the audience feels common emotions. Ultimately, it's a test of ourselves: 'Can I stand what I'm about to see? Will I make it through this?' Of course, deep down, they know they're safe and the experience gives the audience a tremendous release of tension and anxiety.

- John Carpenter




I think Dario (Argento) is a great artisan who considers himself an artist, as opposed to Hitchcock who was an artist who considered himself an artisan. This is the flaw which will make Argento go on repeating the same things. He's very good on the public relations side, creating a rapport with young people and putting music into his films that not even the Americans use.

- Lucio Fulci




Horror , as a genre, is about what really scares you. There was a wonderful catchline, I remember, for Wes Craven's Last House on the Left, where it said in big, bold type: To avoid fainting keep repeating 'it's only a movie...it's only a movie!' I mean, that's great. What a way to sell.

- Joe Dante

The Exorcist, by the way, is definitely a horror movie. You can't possibly call it anything else. I haven't seen it and I have no desire to see it. I don't say that I disapprove of it, it's just that I have no particular desire to see the possession of a very young child, with her using that kind of language and doing those sorts of things.

- Christopher Lee




A large section of the audience probably came [to The Exorcist] because something that shocking and vulgar could now be seen on the American screen. Bill Friedkin always said that would be the case; that they would come to see the little girl masturbate with the crucifix...At the time I didn't believe it; I thought he was destroying the film. But when I perceived that he was absolutely right, I thought it was terribly depressing.

- William Peter Blatty




In a very real way, in spite of fine acting, fine direction, and the marvellous black and white photography of David Boulton, what we have in the Wise film is one of the world's few radio horror movies. Something is scratching at that ornate, paneled door, something horrible... but it is a door Wise elects never to open.

- Stephen King on The Haunting (1963)




Clive's original wish was that Julia from Hellraiser would be the monster. She'd be the Freddy Krueger of the Hellraiser series, and Pinhead and the Cenobites would sort of be background monsters... What happened, of course, was the public got in the way. They fell in love with Pinhead.

- Peter Atkins (writer, Hellbound: Hellraiser II)




Unlike the standard slice-and-dice, which implies that the only consequence of orgasm is violent death, A Nightmare On Elm Street lays the guilt not with the teenagers, but with their parents, whose vigilante past created the vengeful Freddy.

- Clive Barker




While Dario (Argento) was writing a film in Los Angeles, a madman started phoning him day and night paying him loads of compliments and then, one day, he left him a death announcement on a cab, and so Dario thought that it would be best for him to leave! That's how the story of Tenebre began, inspired by this strange case of love/hate that we'll never understand.

- Daria Nicolodi




The good horror director must have a clear sense of where the taboo line lies, if he is not to lapse into unconscious absurdity, and a gut understanding of what the countryside is like on the far side of it. In Night of the Living Dead, George Romero plays a number of instruments, and he plays them like a virtuoso.

- Stephen King

Giger's paintings had a profound effect on me. I have never seen anything that was quite as horrible and at the same time as beautiful as his work. And so I ended up writing a script about a Giger monster.

- Dan O'Bannon(Co-creator of Alien)




I don't ever remember a time that I wasn't genuinely interested in horror in some form or another. It was always the grisly bits of fairy tales that I was interested in. I've always liked fantastical literature of some kind, and I've always liked the darker aspects of that.

- Clive Barker




One of the most interesting things that I ran across was a newspaper article about young men who were dying in their sleep after having severe nightmares. Not just any nightmares, but nightmares where they would tell their family: 'I've never had one like this before, it's totally different from anything before.'

The most extraordinary example was that of a man who had such a nightmare, told his family and decided to stay awake for as long as he could because he was convinced he was going to die if he slept again. Finally he collapsed into sleep. In the middle of the night, everybody is sleeping when suddenly there are these horrible screams. His family runs back to his room, and he is thrashing in his bed. They get to him and try to wake him up. But he falls still - dead.

- Wes Craven




When I was 12 years old, I saw Man Of a Thousand Faces - the story of Lon Chaney. Lon Chaney was an actor, a makeup artist and a stuntman and I simply wanted to be him. Seeing Lon Chaney's story sparked the idea in me because 'till then, the Creature from the Black Lagoon really existed for me, as did Frankenstein, whereas watching Man Of a Thousand Faces I thought, 'Ah, of course, somebody has to make this stuff...' and I decided I wanted to be the person who made these effects.

- Tom Savini

I think that there was a bad connotation with the name "Black." It sort of struck a chord in people where they made that connection, and it's a shame because it's just not me. I don't like horror because of the blood. I don't care to see people bleed. I know they're going to bleed when you cut their skin, I don't have to see it. I don't think that's interesting. And I'm not really interested in "fear."

- Karen Black




I got hurt when I had to go up and down so fast [on the bed]. I was strapped up with a metal thing that came loose and I was hitting it. I'm supposed to be yelling "Make it stop!" And that's what I was yelling. But nobody realized I meant it. My back was damaged during The Exorcist.

- Linda Blair




I was the Queen of Scream, that was what they called me and I'm not sure I had a sense of humor enough about it at the time to be able to really play it. I've recently accepted the fact this was something fantastic. I certainly would never have found a niche for myself had I not made horror movies.

- Jamie Lee Curtis




If I were to be typecast in a genre, I would be very happy to be in my favorite one, that is horror, rather than, say, in Italian comedy films. Shooting horror films is a wonderful experience.

- Daria Nicolodi




I believe children can rid themselves of feelings of hatred and violence while watching us on the screen, instead of taking it out on their parents, friends, and schoolteachers.

- Vincent Price




I usually played these roles where I represented the dark side. I was always this predatory ***** goddess in all of these movies, with all kinds of unspeakable elements of necrophilia and rising from the dead and perpetuating curses.

- Barbara Steele

Oh, I know that without listening to the commentary, that's why I said she ran like a drunk banshee. Hahaha. At least leatherface was good at stalling. He actually made it look like he was playing with her when he chased her, but it was pretty obvious she's a slow runner.