Now Rob Zombie is back with a low budget Satanic film that has very little in common with what he’s done before, in Fact The Lords of Salem is his best film to date. Heidi (Shari Moon Zombie) is a local radio DJ in Salem Massachusetts who receives a mysterious record from “The Lords”. Its played on her show and sets off a series of events that to fulfill a satanic prophecy. The record deeply effects Heidi who begins hallucinating horrific visions that range from insanely creative and laughable.

While I have no interest in religion I still have a lot of love for Satanic movies like Rosemary’s Baby, The Devils Rain and Race the Devil from the 1970′s. The Lords of Salem is really a 70′s style satanic panic type of film and its one of the reasons I really liked it. Its also Zombie’s most competent movie to date and one that show’s some real growth as a filmmaker. The hillbily or white trash characters aren’t really here. The dialogue, while sometimes clunky and forced, is much improved over Zombie’s previous films. It feels overall more natural and realistic. people aren’t screaming obscenities at each other. There’s actually some decent performances in this film but, Shari Moon is still the weakest link in the chain.

Visually Zombie really ups his game! This was the first film I’ve seen in some time that I never knew what was coming next. The hallucination or nightmare scenes are pretty great! Most of them work and are at least really interesting to look at even if they aren’t scary. However there is a couple near the end that I found unintentionally funny. Zombie also really takes his time with this film. Its clear that he was influenced by the films of Stanley Kubrick or maybe he watched the great Ti West film, House of the Devil that came out a few years back. In any case he proves he still knows how to create interesting compositions with his shots and I found myself finding a lot to love about the slow drawn out camera movements.

If your old enough to remember the 80′s then your must remember Meg Foster. She was never a huge name in the 80′s but if you saw her then you’d remember her. She has these steely blue eyes that are piercing and very memorable. In The Lords Of Salem she plays the leader of a coven of witches that were burned at the stake during the Salem Witch trials. She chews scenery and turns in a fearless performance spending the majority of the films running time completely nude and covered in dirt and filth. In fact all the coven members turn in very good and at times chilling performances and do a lot to keep the plot plausible even while they’re spouting bizarre prayers to Satan.

The film was actually filmed in Salem MA which does a lot to help with the look and feel of the film. Atmosphere can be created by the film maker but having the right environment goes a long way in making it look right. I’ve seen so many horror films shot on the sun drenched streets of Los Angeles and no amount of filters and CGI can hide that. Few films actually get made where their set in the story so it meant a lot more to actually see Salem streets and buildings in a movie about Salem.

The Lords of Salem shows some real growth in Rob Zombie’s skills and story telling abilities. I hope that he continues down this path and moves away from hillbilly families and white trash strippers of his past films. The Lords of Salem is a visual feast of evil and has atmosphere to spare! Ironically it might be the hardcore fans of Zombie’s past work that might be put off by this film. But for those of us that were turned off by the Halloween remakes, this might just be the film that makes you love Rob Zombie again.

The film “Jacob” begins in the 1970′s where we find a bully scumbag named Otis that’s beating on his girlfriend Edith. The mans brother Billy is a deputy in town and he and Sheriff Andy appear on the scene to haul Otis in once again. The scene gets interrupted by a big hulking man of a boy named Jacob, who grabs Billy with supernatural strength and lifts him off the ground. Only Sissy, his young sister can calm him down and keep him from snapping Otis in two. We’re introduced to Jacob who is supposed to be 16 but looks much older, and looks to be over six feet tall, 350 pounds with a shaved head. He never says anything but he has lots of voices in his head with plenty to say to him and what they have to say isn’t good. Eventually Otis sets off a series of events that finds Jacob going on a killing spree and taking on a blood thirsty lynch mob!

One of the many interesting things about the film is that Larry decided to not only direct but he’s also playing two characters in Otis and Billy.  When I first heard this back before production I thought it was nuts.  The characters are very different, Otis is loud mouthed white trash while Billy is a timid quiet man.  Somehow it works and you almost forget that these men are supposed to be twins or that the same man is playing the roles.  The film has some Rob Zombie influences with its Redneck antagonist and his buddies yet it manages to avoid becoming too cartoonish or annoying.  I have to say that the Otis character isn’t too dissimilar from people I knew back in my hometown growing up.  Most actors in the film turn in solid performances but its young Grace Powell, as Sissy, that runs off with the film.  She looks to be about 10 or 11 and she turns in an amazing performance as Jacob’s sole voice of reason.

Make no mistake, this is an independent feature and at times it does show and at other times it shines and looks like a million bucks.  The cinematography alone does a lot to elevate the film.  The opening credit sequence we see this barn full of dolls lit by candlelight that just looks stunning and really sets up the mood of the film right from minute one.  The lighting isn’t overdone like so many films do these days and the director knows how to use it in dramatic ways to tell the story.  With the exception of a handful of shots the ‘Jacob’ looks stunning, sharp and beautiful.  The music is another aspect that really elevates the film.  Composer Iain Kelso presents a very sophisticated and haunting score that I hope we’ll get to see a actual soundtrack release for.

I knew the story of Jacob Kell going into this viewing and I knew there was a lot to it. Director Larry Carrell wisely chose to only reveal about half of it while offering glimpses of what the other half was about, which I liked.  Michael Beihn plays Jacob’s Father in flashbacks which give us more insight into what it is that is speaking to Jacob.  His father is left an old house by relatives, a house that is said to be haunted and that house becomes an obsession for him.  I have to say I really dug these flashback scenes that did a lot to further the backstory of the characters. If there’s ever a chance at a sequel it would be fun to see where this part of the story could go.

Jacob is not a perfect movie, but its a well made independent horror film with some great humor, gruesome gore, and some solid performances.  Its clear that the people behind it had a passion for the material and it delivers something that’s different.  That’s more than I can say for the majority of major theatrical picture releases.  It has a lot of heart and it was a lot of fun to watch!  I hope we will get to see some more from this director in the future! Please support independent horror and click on the link below to purchase “Jacob’:

The Shining is dense enough on its own but there’s a huge number or conspiracy theories on the internet about what he true meaning behind The Shining really is. Some of them are mildly entertaining and likely true such as the Collative Learning series by Rob Alger that covers things like “impossible Geography” in the film. Then there are the insane theories ranging from the whole movie actually being Kubrick admitting he faked the moon landing to the whole movie being about Minotaurs. Yep, minotaurs.

Room 237 is a documentary solely about he crazy theories that are out there regarding the Shining and its production. The filmmakers present the theories in voice over in the theorists own words over footage from the film, other Kubrick films as well as the horror film Demons for some reason. We never see the faces of the theorists, we just see footage presenting the information and this is what’s wrong with the film. While some of these theories are sort of fascinating others are just bat shit insane and the real story here should be about the theorists themselves and not the theory. What is the person like who feels adamant that the movie is actually all about minotaurs? What is life like for the man who says he had a to quit his job because he had become so obsessed with finding hidden meanings in the film? That’s the story I’d much rather see. Who are these people who come up with these theories?

Instead we’re given 100 minutes of voice over with film footage explaining these insane theories. The moon landing theory has been around for a pretty long time and its one that just doesn’t hold any water in my eyes. The theories presented on the strange geography of the overlook are interesting and likely intentional by Kubrick. Then there are the theories that claim any error you see in the film must have been intentional. For example When Wendy confronts Jack about the woman in 237 attacking Danny, we see a chair placed behind Jack suddenly disappear from the scene. In this same room we see the Typewriter change from a white one near the beginning of the film to a grey one later. Here’s the thing. The Colorado lounge set, where all this takes place burned down during the making of the film and had to be rebuilt which means all the set dressing had to be found again and put back in the scenes. Now its very very likely, considering Kubrick’s infamous long shooting schedules that different takes of the same scenes where were filmed weeks if not months apart so its understandable that the sets may have changed some unintentionally thanks to time and fires. I agree that Kubrick likely obsessed over items that appear in the background of a scene but he’s not infallible and I think most of the continuity errors we see in the film are just that.

Room 237 presents some interesting ideas but for me it just completely misses the real story by not examining the people behind the theories. That’s why for me this documentary is little more than a another youtube video espousing crazy conspiracy theories to anyone who will listen.

Room 237 is available on SundanceNow.com VOD

2 out of 5 stars

Vamp is basically the “After Hours” with vampires. If you have seen After Hours, which is great, then you can see how that might work. Kevin and AJ are tasked with finding a stripper for their fraternity. Since Neither have a car they bring Asian stereotype #1003 Duncan (Gedde Watanabe) playing a horny nerdy loser who doesn’t have any friends. The three of them head to a seedy side of the city to find the sleaziest of stripper clubs.

They eventually end up at a club that only opens “After Dark”. AJ heads in alone first to try to chat up a stripper to take back to the fraternity. Duncan can’t stand waiting and says quite possibly the best line of the whole movie. Kevin gives in and heads inside with Duncan where they get to see a truly bizarre bit of “performance art”? If you don’t know who Grace Jones is then you didn’t grow up in the 80′s. She was a very tall Jamaican woman with very strong features that make her both very unusual and beautiful at the same time. She was fairly popular in the 80′s starring in Conan films with Arnold Schwarzenegger and most famously the final Roger Moore James Bond film, “A View to a Kill”. She has plays the main Vampire and doesn’t say a single line in the movie. She performs a strip tease covered in a tribal like body paint with brass spiral rings covering her naughty bits. Her dancing is better compared to convulsions because she basically goes between clawing at the audience like a cat and then draping her body over a statue and shaking violently. Its a lot of things but Sexy it ain’t.

For some reason everyone in the audience is left silent and dumbstruck by the peformance. AJ decides that Grace Jones is the one for the Frat party and dissapears back stage to find her. Things don’t turn out to well however since she attacks and kills him. Meanwhile AJ’s friends are oblivious to what’s happening and finally get help from a new waitress to find out what’s going on. From here things just start getting weirder.

Much like “After Hours” Vamp has a drifting sometimes aimless narrative that both works and hurts it. The film is filled with strange characters that pop in and out of the story line at convenient times. The mistake the film really seems to make is placing all the faith in actor Chris Makepeace who plays Kevin. After the much more charismatic AJ (Robert Rusler) is dispatched Kevin becomes the lead actor and Makepeace acting is stiff and awkward. I swear this man is incapable of even walking across a room without “acting” that he’s walking across the room. With a better actor the second and third acts of this film wouldn’t slow down to a crawl.

Director Richard Wenk slathers the film in 80′s purple and green lighting through almost the entire run time. I would say this looks like crap if I saw it in a modern movie but this is an 80′s movie and for whatever reason it seems to work. Wenk seems to know how to set up some interesting ideas and visuals and they do mostly work for the film.

I saw this movie when I was pretty young, maybe 12 years old and I really thought it was great then. This time twenty some years later I still had fun watching it even if the problems were much more glaring then they were back in the day. If you have a love for 80′s movies or watched this when you were a kid then I still can honestly recommend checking it out again. Its a fun bit of nostalgia that certainly has enough insane weirdness to keep it interesting even 30 years later.

A solid 3 out of 5 skulls

My favorite part though has to be the Opening piece we shot last November out at the Haunted Trail of Horror in Kenton Ohio.  Big thanks to all the participants from the Haunted trail and especially our dead female victim, Wendy Howard, who is trooper for putting up with all the cold disgusting places we’ve made her lay and crawl in over the last few years!  The opening shots were of course inspired by the show that set me on my current path way back in 1996, the underated and horrifying, Millennium (1996-1999).

So without further ado here’s our 2013 Show Reel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuO_mc2FDYI

Fright Night Part 2 is one of those movies that I haven’t watched since it was originally released back in 88′. I was 11 years old and I thought it was pretty good at the time but then again I was 11 years old. So I was kind of excited to dust off the ol’ VCR and put in the flick! If you’ve seen the original Fright Night then you’d be excused to say that Part 2 is almost a remake of the first. It begins with Charlie Brewster, now a college student who has undergone years of therapy to expunge the delusion that he killed a vampire. Now he believes that it was a serial killer and his mind just made up that he was a vampire as a coping mechanism. Ok, so Charlie is now dating a much more attractive psych student named Alex, who can speed read. Peter Vincent (Roddy Mcdowell) is still hosting Fright Night on TV and Charlie still stays in touch with him though he hasn’t told Peter he no longer believes in Vampires.

The Bad: Scene after scene in this movie is lifted directly from Fright Night. Charlie sees a coffin being brought into Peters building just like before. The vampire this time around is female so Charlie basically switches roles and becomes the damsel in distress for most of the film. He’s seduced by the vampiress Regine, in a scene that’s an exact copy of the dance seduction from Part 1. We also find out the Regine is the sister of Jerry, the vampire from part 1.

Charlie’s girlfriend goes from skeptic to believer and Peter Vincent goes from coward to hero again. Its pretty much the same movie where apparently know one has grown since the first film. The story structure, some of the dialogue, motivations, you name it are all carbon copied from the first film. I could go on with the similarities but you get the idea.

The Good: Even with all the problems I still found myself enjoying this film quite a bit. I still like the characters of Charlie and Peter and even his new skeptic girlfriend Alex. Regine has a entourage of vamps and monsters that travel with her. There’s the very Michael Jackson looking vampire, The werewolf that’s also a vampire and the weird butler who eats bugs. The werewolf is actually a sorta funny character. He spends a lot of the film trying to pick up Charlie’s girlfriend leading to some awkward and weird scenes that for whatever reason I dug. Visually the film is fairly interesting. Tommy Lee Wallace (Halloween 3: Season of the Witch) directed the film and does a good job with what he’s given. There’s a scene where Regine takes over Hosting on Fright Night and does this well choreographed and shot performance art thing that was kinda great.

Fright Night Part 2 has the bright lighting all over the place where the first film I think did a better job of using darkness and shadows but its a small gripe. Looking back at the 80′s there seems to be a point in the mid 80′s where films in general decided to brighten everything up. You can see a lot of movies form the late 80′s up through the 90s where everything is well lit. It was like they got a lot of complaints from the home market so decided to make everything easier to see on your shitty 30 inch tube tv at home. I think most horror films still suffer from this today but it seems to have gotten better.

Is it really that bad? Rotten Tomatoes has Fright Night Part 2 at 29% which is pretty devastating. But is it really as bad as that? I have to say that with all the problems with this movie I still had fun watching it. Its bad for so many reasons but its still competently made and overall the fun movie to watch. I know I’m looking back on it with rose colored glasses on since it is a movie from my childhood and I was charmed a bit by watching it on VHS but damn it I had a good time! I think at some point this movie does deserve a proper DVD or blu-ray release and who knows maybe it will get a little love.

ON a side note, the remake of Fright Night that came out in 2011 is now getting its own Direct to Video sequel that sounds like a total remake of Fright Night part 2 with a female vampire and Charlie going to college in another country. I’m sure it will be a total piece of crap but this might be enough for me to see it.

In addition to this they took video clips from Thornhillwoodshauntedhouse.com and peppered them throughout their site. This ones even worse since Thornhill Woods Haunted House is a Home haunt and they used their family and friends for the videos so its pretty obvious where they came from. Whats worse is TopHamTerrors.com is apparently in close proximity to Thornhill Woods haunted house and so it is bilwidering why the owner of TophamTerrors.com chose a local home haunt to steal from when people will quickly figure it out.

So since this happened I alerted my clients to it. My client in Thornhill woods told me the guy at TopHamTerrors isn’t taking anything down because the owner thinks its ok to steal and change things slightly then reuse them. Which brings me to a bigger issue. A year or so ago I had a heated argument with a young “designer” who argued he could take whatever image he wanted from another artist as long as he changed it a little and then claim it as his own. What scares me is there seems to be how a lot of people think. They believe a Google Image search means “Free Photos” they can take to use. Its a big problem with not only the haunt industry but also the design business in general.

The Blood Manor artwork uses a very famous house in California. This is a mansion that has been copied and done to death a thousand times in the industry and I’m certainly aware of that. But Blood Manor is the client and they wanted to use that house. While I tried to convince them otherwise they were set on using it and what they want is what I’m paid to do. So I went out of my way to find a photographer to purchase a photo of the house because that’s what you do. You don’t go out and take something that already exists. I then heavily modified the house’ porch and of course added all the other elements including the yard, trees, fence etc. There’s hours of work that go into a piece like that and for someone to just claim they can spend 5 minutes making some changes to it and they own it is like a punch in the face.

If you are a designer then you should know there are plenty of Stock photography websites you can go find photos and use for your haunt art. So do everyone a favor, especially your clients, and legally purchase photos or take photos yourself and Photoshop them yourself. Don’t steal. You may get away with it for awhile but it will catch up with you and when it does I hope you’re ready for the consequences.

UPDATE 2/11/13
I spoke with the owner of Topham Terror who admitted that the designer of this website, DarkNET Designs had nothing to do with the artwork from Blood Manor. Topham now claims they purchased the artwork and video from someone on Hauntworld but can’t remember the name apparently. Yeah, right. So anyway I want to make it clear that DarkNET did not knowingly use the copyrighted artwork from Blood Manor.com.

I’ve been a huge Batman fan since I was preschool. Like horror movies, Batman has always been a constant interest in my life. Back in 1989 I was right there in the theater on opening day for Tim Burton’s first foray into the character and cringed when Joel Shumacher took over and buried the character under tons of bat nipples and camp. Up into the mid 90′s I collected almost every issue of Batman comics and read Frank Miller’s famous takes on the character back in the day. Frank Miller’s version of Batman is the one that has had the most influence on Christopher Nolan and his trilogy of films.

I’ve always been a fan of Frank Miller’s take on the character even if it can become a bit heavy handed so I was pretty excited to check out The Dark Knight Returns. It’s a very faithful adaption of the books in every way right down to character designs and framing of the scenes. Even though its not a kids movie, the producers did omit a few of the more bleak elements I remember from the original story but it doesn’t hurt the films any.

For the uninitiated, The Dark Knight Returns completely reinvented the character for the 1980′s. Much Like “Watchmen” we are introduced to an alternate version of the 1980′s where Bruce Wayne, now an older retired man has long ago hung up the cape and cowl and spends his days reminiscing over his adventures with an about to retire Commissioner Jim Gordon. Gotham is in bad shape, a group of street thugs basically have the city living in fear and the city is devolving into a dirty violent place. Batman is needed again more than ever!

Bruce finally has enough and comes out of retirement to get the city under control and do what the police can’t. Along the way he meets Carrie Kelley, the daughter of two ex-hippie parents that seem more interested in complaining about fascist cops than raising their daughter. Carrie is inspired after she and a friend are saved by Batman. She dresses up like Robin and takes to the streets to fight crime and eventually joins Batman by his side.

Frank Miller is pretty famously a hard right conservative and the Dark Knight Returns often reflects these values. Liberals are shown as weak minded people who try to rationalize violence as a side effect of our society and not the fault of the person committing the crime. Time and time again we see liberal commentators, doctors, parents proven wrong by when their good intentions come back to hurt them. But just when you think its going to be a one sided story you get to see Miller’s much larger disdain for governments in general. We’re introduced to President Ronald Reagan, a manipulative, corrupt war monger who’s rattling is saber very hard in the direction of the Soviet Union. Superman has become a total dog for the US Government and Ronnie pulls his leash whenever he wants, And what he wants is for Batman to go away.

Frank Miller’s Batman is a very black and white, law and order character. There is no grey area with him and he’s self righteous in his mission to clean up crime. This should sound pretty familiar since its the same version (More or less) of the character we’ve seen in Nolan’s trilogy. The Dark Knight Returns Parts 1 and 2 are on Blu-ray and DVD now and its well worth picking up. The films are very well made and very faithful adaptions of a legendary Comic book!

First the most OBVIOUS reason: The chances of your video going viral are astronomical. There’s very little you can personally do to facilitate a video going viral. It all depends on chance. I hear professionals say that all it takes is one person spreading it to some friends to get the ball rolling but that’s a lie. It takes thousands of people finding something funny or interesting enough about YOUR video to take the time to tweet it, facebook it, or email it to a their friends. The chances of that are microscopic so why should you base your entire production on creating something that in all likelihood will languish in Youtube obscurity? Why waste all that creative effort on something that you think might be funny or clever enough to go viral?

The Most important reason however, is your brand. Let’s say you own a haunted house that’s known for being pants-shitting scary. People make the trek from miles away just to see a truly scary haunted attraction. But then you have some actor or web professional convince you that you need to have a viral video. So you get all your scariest actors in make up and have them dancing around and singing Gangnam Style. Boom! There goes the scary from all your featured monsters!

This really really bothers me and I’m seeing so many haunted attractions doing it lately. STOP! Why are you diminishing your brand? The whole point of going to a haunted house is to get scared and have fun. Its not to watch actors in masks frolicking around to the latest pop music sensation! You’re doing it wrong and missing the point. I don’t care how slick and professional your video looks your not selling soda pop your selling fear! So make something that compliments what you do! Make something that’s scary!

Here’s the key: Go into a video project with the intention of making something creative and representative of your attraction. If you think it should be funny because your haunted house is funny then go for it. But if you are doing a serious event that’s seriously scary then make a video that represents that. Don’t ruin your scary characters by having them acting like clowns. There’s nothing wrong with having some comedy in your attraction but that’s not going to be the biggest selling point. People go see horror movies because they want to be scared. You don’t see horror movie trailers promoting the funny bits and one liners that might be in the movie.

Bottom line: Make videos that sell your haunt. Not videos that promote a fad or humor in hopes of internet gold.