Ah the 1980′s! The era of big hair, happy non-threatening metal bands, tight jeans, and satanic panic! Back in the 1980′s I can still remember the panic over anything that seemed satanic. whether it be music, movies, or people the parents were all over it like white on rice. Even in my home town we had the usual rumors that every small town no doubt had about satanic cults that met under bridges, in cemeteries, or in the darkness of the woods. Looking back on it now 20 years later it seems really surreal that we actually worried about that kind of thing. The Satanic panic fizzled out in the 90′s and is pretty much dead today. For all the rumors and speculation there was little to no proof that such practices in worship of the devil ever occurred anywhere. Nor that anyone was ever hurt or killed because of it. Its in this world that Ti West (The Roost, Trigger Man) has set his latest film, House of the Devil. A film that captures the look and feel of every satanic panic film from the period so well that it you might thing its a long lost gem from the 80′s! (continue reading…)

John Carpenter’s The Fog was released in February of 1980 but the story takes place in April 21st 1980, the 100th Anniversary of the small Town of Antonio Bay. So with Today being the 21st of April it seemed like a good time to go back and pay tribute to this great film!

After the success of Halloween Carpenter decided to take on the classic ghost story after seeing a distant fog bank while on vacation one night. That planted the seed that would become The Fog. The film is about the small seaside town of Antonio Bay that’s about to celebrate their 100th anniversary. However the anniversary mysteriously falls on the same anniversary as the sinking of the Elizabeth Dane, a clipper ship that followed a false fire on the shore to their doom and crashed on the rocks and sunk taking the entire crew with her.

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Why do people seem to like this movie? There’s been some positive reviews from some horror sites that I thought should have known better. The first Laid to Rest is a passable slasher flick with bad acting, a interesting killer and amazing gore effects. While its nothing to write home about it is a fairly fun film though far from a great one. So I finally got around to watching the sequel and Its like a completely different movie. The killer somehow survives the end of the first film and is picked up by an shadowy organization of people that seem to be there solely to support Chromeskull with his mission. Apparently the company motto is: Step 1 Kill people, Step 2 ?, and Step 3 profit. Its never really clear why this organization exists or why its supporting ChromeSkull. The lead douche CEO is terrible actor, Brian Austen Green who wants to take over ChromeSkull’s place and be head of the organization for some reason. Danielle Harris is along just to egg on Green to be the top killer.

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About 2 years ago one of my clients needed a piece of art for a Valentine’s weekend promotion. I shot some cool photos of a bloody heart in a box of candy and that became their art for the show. This year they are doing it again so I thought I’d take a stab at making a video to go with the artwork just to see what I could come up with. So one evening I took my camera, some Valentine’s Day trappings, such as candy, bubbly, love letters, and the like to a nice run down location I had access to. I was inspired by the opening of American Horror Story and even mimicked their flashlight in the dark effect for the very beginning of the short. I’m very happy with the result and It does tell a pretty dark story in less than a minute. Unfortunately the client decided they didn’t need it this year so I’m just releasing it here on the site and on YouTube. Watch it below and let me know what you think!

Comment on YouTube or here on the blog. I’ve also made some wallpapers for the video for a variety of formats including Ipads and Iphones which you can download here!

My first viewing of John Carpenter’s remake of The Thing destroyed me. It absolutely terrified me with its insane creature design and the overwhelming feeling of dread and hopelessness was mind blowing for me at 9 or 10 years old. It had a lasting impact on me and as I got a little older It became one of my favorite all time horror films. When it was rumored that there would be another remake of the film the fans were enraged over it and for good reason. John Carpenter’s original was a bomb when it was originally released in the summer of 1982. However it soon found its audience on home video and has rightfully taken its place as the masterpiece film of Carpenter’s career. The film was overwhelmingly paranoid and dark and the special effects are still unrivaled.

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I’m a huge fan of 70′s and 80′s horror movies and I still run across the occasional retro flick I haven’t seen. Recently I came upon a great forgotten slasher gem called Night School starring the very beautiful Rachel Ward. Someone is beheading women and leaving their heads in some strange places. A detective assigned to the case soon finds a link between the victims, they all attended night school at a local girls college. Suspicion falls upon a college professor who apparently spends all his spare time having affairs with as many students as possible. He’s also diddling his research assistant played by Rachel Ward. The story takes some twists and turns and has some amazing kill scenes. You’ll probably see the twist ending coming long before its revealed but its still well worth your time.

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So Bloody Disgusting.com has released a Spanish language film called Atrocious. I’d heard some good things about it and was more than a little interested in seeing it. BD has a bit of a reputation as one of the best sites for horror movie news so if they are getting behind this film is must be something cool right? No, not so much. Atrocious is a boring Blair Witch knock off with less woods and more house with a big twist ending that when finally revealed will make you say: “oh, that’s kinda neat I guess..”

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LA Haunted Hayride has been a client now for 3 years and for 2011 we completely redesigned their site and artwork from the ground up. In addition they provided me with some pretty good video to use for a trailer. The video they sent wasn’t very long but I was able to make it work with some creative use of music and title cards. Its proof that a little can go a long way!

Check it out, check it outers…