Frank writes:

The independent film Fish Bait, filmed at Flat Hollow Marina on Norris Lake has a world premiere in Knoxville on October 23 and a second premiere will be held the following night at the Marina.

Oh joy of joys. Bring this film to UT Martin and Hoots Central. It has a HUGE catfish in the trailer. Support Tennessee filmmakers who have done a film that includes my irrational fear of catfish the size of an anemic cow.

One is I love Horror movies. Last night, Squirrel Queen and I spent some time explaining our adoration of horror movies to Karsten and Chris Wage. I know they must think we are nuts but there is something really fun about heading out from Hooterville to specifically go to a horror festival. It’s camp at it’s best.
I love subcultures. I do. Explaining it isn’t an easy thing, my friends.

We are going this afternoon. I’m sure we will laugh.

Jim Ridley at the Nashville Scene breaks it down why this should be a hoot:

FULL MOON TATTOO & HORROR FESTIVAL If you’re one of those sickos who gets off on gory trash, monster movies and lurid stalk ’n’ slash sagas full of half-naked scream queens, you must be…me. Which means we’re bound to have fun at this three-day expo of celebrity signings, screenings and such devoted to the dark arts. Of special note is a Nashville appearance by filmmaker George A. Romero (see below), but the lineup should tickle anyone with a lifetime Fangoria subscription: stars Adrienne Barbeau (The Fog), Dee Wallace (The Howling), Tony Todd (Candyman) and Michael Berryman (The Hills Have Eyes); gore FX master Tom Savini; The Goon comic creator Eric Powell; painter Basil Gogos; organizer/horror filmmaker/tattoo artist Ben Dixon; and many more listed at lonewolfbodyart.net/festival8.html. A one-day pass is $15; $35 covers all three days. Friday through Sunday at the Nashville Airport Marriott (600 Marriott Drive) —JIM RIDLEY

I had a Fangoria subscription as a kid. Shut up.

I tried to get tickets to see George Romero last night at the Belcourt where he screened Diary of the Dead. I struck out. It probably would have been easier to get a dinner date with the Pope on Easter Sunday then get in last night.

Listen, some people go to art galleries. (I go and I enjoy them immensely.) Other folks like bluegrass festivals (you’ve never been to a party until you hit one of those.)

Me, I do crap like this. This should be smashing.

George Romero is going to be doing a midnight showing at the Belcourt for his new movie “Diary of the Dead”. The only other time I’ve ever gone to a screening where the director attended was about ten years ago when John Waters screened “Pink Flamingos” and then answered questions from the audience.

Romero will have showings at midnight on March 21 and March 22.

It was, in a word, sweet.

Oh, and Basil Gogos will also be there. Don’t know Basil Gogos?

Well, now you do.

Can you tell I’m psyched?

I’ve known this for awhile. He talks about something near and dear to a few of us that love monsters and horrorific goodness.

…Insomnifest, the world’s first Online Horror Movie Festival.

12 movies are featured in the fest, which runs from Feb. 11 thru Feb. 24. The web site for the fest boasts a mega-trailer from most of the movies. I’m thinking this is not the kind of festival one attends hoping to meet the people who actually made these movies or the fans who seek them. At least they did not call it Splatterfest or Cheesefest, but perhaps they could have. And I don’t recommend you use your computer at work to bask in the buckets of fake grue.

But you don’t have to stand around in the snow like at Sundance, or wade through the beautiful people.

See, I told you.

I’m waiting on Joe to cure halitosis, teach dogs to speak and advise me on how to cook a dinner without ever entering, and alas, blowing up my kitchen.

Joe knows. 

For folks like me who love horror movies, Vampira was an icon. When I was a kid, I just couldn’t get enough of the old movies that she would host (and I saw her stuff in reruns).

Of course, she was in Plan 9 From Outer Space.  Now I guess I could tell you she was sexy and naughty in the world of Sandra Dee, which would be accurate, but I think the fun thing about Maila Nurmi was that she did things her own way.

If you don’t remember, You Tube has a whole channel dedicated to her.

Man, Vampira was groovy.

And for horror geeks like me.

Necessary.

So I lift my glass of blood red wine to Vampira.

May she travel well into that good night.

I’m writing about a love affair of mine that is passionate and filled with so much desire I cannot stand the tingling I feel.

It’s filled with craving of things I cannot write, but I admire.

I love Richard Matheson. I like horror novels like I Am Legend so this is up there with one of the best. It was written 11 years before I was even born and it is extremely timely for the world we live in.

You don’t know him? Yeah you do. Have you seen Duel, the first film of Steven Spielberg?

There is so much more. You may not know his name, but YOU know him.

He wrote I Am Legend in 1954. Yeah, you get the picture. In my second month of blogging, I talked of this of my extreme joy of reading this book. Matheson, Jack Finney, Harlan Ellison …

I adore you.

I defer to my younger self:

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson – If you like horror novels, and I do, this one rocks. Who is the bad guy in this novel? Sort of reminds me of what’s going on right now in the world, the isolation, need for social grounding and the fact that nothing appears at it seems.

What I didn’t say almost two years ago is how that this novel deconstructs the vampire myth in a way that, if you like horror novels, will make your throat clench. How it throws away the Romanticism of the undead and knocks it on it’s head because it’s not about eternity, but about survival is just … sweetly horrific.

It’s more than about the undead, it’s about changes in evolution.

It’s about the death of a society, of a generation.

And, it’s about things that wipe out the planet. The Ebola Virus, Aids, War … it’s about the annihilation of our planet  due to things we have no control of.

And how one man must survive.

The claustrophobia in this book, written more than a half a century ago, will make you retreat into your darkest place.  Because it’s just damn well scary.

Man, I’m sure that non-fans will scoff but how sweet, how exquisite I’m making this out to be, cut dangit, it is.

How evil, yet not. See, that’s what this is about. It’s about the human condition during fear and loss of control. It’s about changes in this world. Oh, Richard, you are my idol. I’m so serious.

The novel is about how the one man’s isolation against the apocalypse. It’s about evolution of our species. And, it’s about sometimes we are right.

Then sometimes we aren’t.

Oh, dear, this is sweet. And I’m looking at this novel as we speak.

Now, I haven’t seen the latest movie, but I will say that Vincent Price’s The Last Man on Earth was very much a Vincent Price movie.

Charleton Heston’s The Omega Man was not bad, but not great.

I’m so hoping, Will Smith, because I dig you and I think you are groovy. Please, let this be good. Third time is the charm.

I AM LEGEND.

Yes, the book is delicious. Will the third movie honor Richard Matheson’s work?

I hope so. Because Robert Neville is the Holden Caulfield for those of us who love the horror genre.

Mr. Matheson, thanks for changing it up. You are inspirational.

I’ve gushed enough. Whoops.

Now, go here if you are bored by my love of the horror genre. Yeah, I know, I know.

He especially doesn’t like it when cute kid, Gage, asks for folks to come out and “play with him.”

This clip is not for the squeamish of friends of Herman Munster.

[youtube=[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WPa8efza3s&rel=1]

Arrrrrghgggghhhhhhh.

[youtube=[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYy3XelAn3M&rel=1]

For LeBlanc and The School Girl. I wrote about this one earlier this week.

Good scary television. Of course, from the UK.

Over the next few days, let’s play with this and see what wigs you out.

“The Exorcist III” is uneven, horribly melodramatic and long, but there are a few scenes in the movie that set up some real creepy stuff. This scene creates anxiety. I’m glad I didn’t know about it when I first saw the movie. Why is it effective, because of what happens in the hallway, the fact that mundane things are happening such as janitors walking around and the nurse is just going about her nightly business.

[youtube=[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH8ynu0jRvY&rel=1]

The scene works for a variety of reasons and unfortunately the clip doesn’t give it the credit it deserves. But, in the context of the the entire scene (which lasts much longer than 59 seconds), it is uber freaky.

I’m doing this to amuse myself, you know.

Anyway, I watched Doctor Who and the episode was called “Blink“. I have to tell you, it was probably one of the best hours of television I’ve seen in awhile.

And damn it all if it wasn’t creepy as hell. If you blink, the monsters will get you. And the monsters are things that have always been there.

I also think that Amelia, which was the freakiest thing I’d ever seen as a child on the tube from the awesome “Trilogy of Terror” movie written by Richard Matheson (who also wrote the upcoming “I Am Legend” which is a great book but I’m not so sure about how it’s going to translate to film.)  The doll who loses his necklace that just terrorizes the hell out of Karen Black. Totally rocked my world as a kid. I also got a bit chilled over the old Twilight Zone, especially the ones about people’s behavior (The Monsters are Due on Maple Street.)

Now, it could be debated that for an hour a night, Bill O’Reilly will terrify you. I just finding it terrifying that people watch him. But that’s just me.

So, which shows, on the good old fashioned telly, wigged you out?

But this movie did some things very, very well, and other, not so good. The good stuff it did, however, I believe outweighs some major, goofy plot line devices that fell flat for me which means it will probably stick around in my dark subconscious mind for awhile for horror geeks like myself.

All in all I liked it. A lot. Here’s why:

Spoilers after the jump …

I really don’t think about Josh Harnett, I realize he’s an actor and he has those smoldering good looks (I think he tends to look rock-like) that makes the girls crazy. In this movie, he plays the sheriff of a small Alaskan town that shuts down basically when night comes for, I know this is crazy, for 30 days. And then “THEY” come.

The movie is somewhat reminiscent of the claustrophobia of “The Thing” however it isn’t as effective as both of those movies. A lot of this has to do with Harnett’s performance. It’s not bad but sort of bland.

The same cannot be said about Danny Huston as Marlow chewing up the screen (literally) as he is amazing. These vampires are not the romantic stereotypes of Anne Rice novels and Buffy would have a hell of a time trying to kill these bastards. And the monsters are terrifying. They are smart. They are about death but these vamps do more than just kill for food. They kill for sport. They are savage, their mouths covered in the dried blood from their feast. In one scene shot overhead, the monsters are literally killing the town, blood spreading on the white snow as they move quickly and efficiently across the landscape. Another scene has Josh Hartnett and his estranged ex-wife in one of the earlier scenes in the movie riding in the sheriff’s cruiser as one of the vampires beats on the top of the cab in one of the most visually pleasing moments of the movie.

And, for horror nuts, the visuals are incredible.

So, did I like it?

Yes. Plot holes a plenty and the ending scene was a bit anticlimatic for my tastes as the decisions made didn’t seem necessary. Josh Hartnett does his finest acting in his final scenes with Marlow, but anytime Huston is on the screen you cannot take your eyes away. Best horror movie performance I’ve seen in a long time and Huston deserves credit. (I know I’m being hard on Hartnett, but he’s bland. I guess when you look at the old monster movies of the ’50’s and ’60’s, the lead guy was pretty boring too, but I digress.)

It’s lurches sometimes but ultimately I think the movie works.

If you dig horror movies, go see it for Huston’s performance and the way the movie is shot when the monsters are on the screen. If you don’t dig horror movies, that’s groovy too.

I still thought it was hipster creepy.