Insidious... We've got Tix!

Our friends at Alliance have once again been good enough to pass us on tickets to a special advance screening of their latest "Insidious". From the release:

"From the creators of Saw and Paranormal Activity, INSIDIOUS is the terrifying story of a family who shortly after moving discover that dark spirits have possessed their home and that their son has fallen into a coma."


We've got five double passes to give away for this Thursday, March 31st, 10:00pm, at the Empire 7 Cinemas, 111 Albert St. (otherwise known as the World Exchange Cinemas). You can get one, by emailing us at contests@ottawahorror.com, with the answer to the following question:

"Who is the Director of INSIDIOUS and the original SAW movie?".

Oh, and just because MA likes them, send a picture of a hippo if you have one... Don't ask, just trust me on this...First five emails win.

Happy Birthday JCVH!

WOW! Hard to believe, but it's been 10 years since Lee Demarbe released "Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter" on an unsuspecting world, and things have never been the same since.

Come celebrate JC's 10th anniversary this Friday, March 25th at 9:30pm at, where else, the Mayfair. Congratulations to Lee and all the cast and crew on creating what's become a classic cult film.

New this week...

Coming up this week on Blu-Ray is "Sharktopus". The title and the fact that it's "Roger Corman Presents", pretty much says it all...  A giant hybrid of Shark and Octopus breaks free from it's Government Lab, and mayhem follows. Looks like good/bad creature feature fun. Starring Eric Roberts, need I say more?

New this week on the 'ol Netflix are "Underworld", a tale of Vampires and Werewolves at war (would a movie were they're friends even work?), starring the ever lovely Kate Beckinsale.

And, speaking of bad creature features, "Anaconda", the giant snake movie starring J-Lo and Ice Cube is also released for streaming this week.

Finally, "Shadow" - the story of an Iraq war veteran on a European journey, who encounters a "bloodthirsty psycho". Shades of "Hostel" there, but looks like it could be interesting.

Friday the 18th does have a ring to it...

Hunting for something to do after dark?

Patron Saint of Plagues will be at Mavericks for Battle of the Bands, and though I neglected to ask what time they will hit the stage, there will be a smorgasbord of bands. Landmark Events is holding a pretty big recording giveaway and PSOP will be tearing a hole in that for certain. Want to be involved? Judging of bands is 30% crowd reaction! Show up and react - what could be easier.

Doors open early around 6, all ages, licensed, blah blah blah... mavericksbar.com

THEN if you are not terrified enough, stagger over to the Mayfair just before midnight for Maximum Overdrive. The trailer literally scared the hell out of me back then, and seeing it on the screen for the first time will be a treat. Straight from 1986 to your face - thank you Mayfair Theatre!

See you tonight, while we all spend some time in the dark...

The "Fake Trailer, Real Festival", Festival

Josh Stafford from the Mayfair Theatre, Killer 64 Festival and contributor to this blog,  is starting the "Fake Trailer, Real Festival" this year at the Mayfair theatre - just because he doesn't have enough ELSE to do.

The concept is simple, create a fake trailer for a fake movie. Make it about 2-3 minutes long and submit. I'm sure the Filmmakers out there can represent the Horror Genre well, so get to it!

You can contact Josh here, or via the Mayfair Theatre

Red Riding Hood

I swoon for fairy tales taken into the horror genre. Snow White: A Tale of Terror, Brothers Grimm, The Company of Wolves... all thrill me in one way or another. Perhaps it was all those nights being told bedtime stories that were always about wolves, witches, being lost, being scared in dark horrid forests. Being German-Irish, I guess that's what you get.

As they say in this film, Red Riding Hood, "all sorrows are less with bread," and I guess all scary stories are less with cozy blankets and sturdily locked doors. Luckily, this one is not very scary! I recall seeing only little blood, and so few kills.

Some of the soundtrack had much to be desired -as did some acting and much of the direction. Any shortcomings were made up for in the photography and this song:

Now, the previews Scream 4 and and Super 8 (which looks like a long lost sequel to the prequel to Stephen King's It - if that makes sense) were compelling. I was not into Sucker Punch which looks like 9 movies in one - and none of them good.

~ possible spoilers ahead ~

For those who think adultery such as that in the movie is a modern plague, think again. If you looked close at your family tree you would see the same thing if not worse. The nonchalance of it struck me as awfully modern, but the situation is really not.

For comic relief - unless you find comedy in the constant visual reminders that this is torn from the same pre-teen loins as Twilight - wait for the lead villager guy. He struck me as a a Jim Lahey twin.

Some of the side stories involving Gary Oldmans' character are so pulp it drove me to wince. They could have taken out most of his back-story and half of his scenes - made him elusive and spooky - and upped the wolf kills-on-screen. Hindsight, ifs-and-buts...

Oooo yes, contraptions! Although it is no Dark City or Sleepy Hollow, there are contraptions to be had. My inner steampunk delights when they pull out more than two building or makers materials. They scored alright in the science department.

She's the wolf! He's the wolf! The kid's the wolf! The girl is the wolf! The priest is the wolf! Er, no, wait, the priest can't be the wolf... or can he? Will this be one of those 'silver does not work you fools!' kind of things? - That was my inner dialog at one point. Red herrings get a little overdone in this oven, but it is pretty fun.

Now, that song by Sugar Ray (which you should be listening to as you read this) was used during the party scene. Pretty cool. Not too over-the-top, and I was thankful for that. I mean, having seen many films with the obligatory tense party scene, I was relieved that is was short-lived and had no dodgy camera effects. Mad points for the use of masks in the scene too. Very nice.

So, not to cut a good blathering-with-praise scene short, but the wolf looks pretty good and like, everything has thorns on it. Who doesn't like thorns! If i lived in the German Dark Forest in the perpetual winter being ridiculously under-dressed to the temperature or puncture wounds, what i would want to do is sharpen everything to a point. Yup. Spikes on my door, spiky trees, spiky jewelry - yup spiky-fucking-everything.

Ending on sexy wolf-love not did not make me howl, I must say. Ew. After all that non-horror, I wonder how it was classified as such?

If you want a nice diversion movie with a classic Grimm story, this works well - if you can filter out the sappy love story that only serves to dilute a wonderful tale.

Women in Horror Month - a wrapup

Well February is over, and with it Women in Horror Month, but I've got a couple more goodies for you before we let it go...

First is Andrea Subisatti, every "hetro-sexual male horror fan's wet dream" (thank you Feedback)  - an intelligent, sexy, zombie-loving woman, who's written a very cool book titled: When There’s No More Room In Hell: The Sociology of the Living Dead.  This was actually her Master Thesis for her degree in Sociology while she was studying at Carleton University right here in Ottawa. See, you knew there had to be a connection, right? You can find a great interview with her at Rue Morgue, and you can buy the book at the link above.

Second, but certainly not least, I'm pleased to announce that our very own typicallydia, was recently awarded the Margaret Graham award by the Media Club of Ottawa. This award is given to a promising female journalism student from Algonquin, Carleton, and Ottawa U. You can check out the details on typicallydia's blog. Also, Lydia is getting ready to publish her first horror novel "Nightface" via Post Mortem Press. We'll keep you posted when it's available. Remember, you read her here FIRST folks!

New this week on Netflix

Longtime minions know that I'm big on Netflix. I was happy to sit through the lack of new releases, since the horror collection was good. Well as Netflix Canada marches on, we've got a whole new whack of releases.  The big one this week is the (almost) complete Paramount "Friday the 13th" collection (that's parts 1-8). For some reason Part 5 is missing, but since that one isn't really Jason, at least you can get your Vorhees fix. Also in the NewArrivals section is "The Burrowers", "Silver Bullet" (great Werewolf movie if you haven't seen it), and "Mammoth" (the title pretty much says it all). Not really horror, but probably of interest as well, is the complete "Firefly" (whoohoo!)