Rogues Hollow Productions News

Ghoulish Season's Greetings from Rogues Hollow

2009-12-11T14:29:00.000-08:00

Even though I'm not exactly a "Christmas Fan" I do enjoy this time of year. Whenever possible however, I do like to spook it up! I've been doing x-mas related emails each year and just finished up my most recent. If it looks familiar its because I meant it to be an homage to the poster for Halloween 4. I even came up with a cool tagline. Its a movie poster without a movie! You can click on the image for a larger version. Sorry I had to watermark the image. I have had problems with no-good-niks taking my Santa Zombie email image last year and I want to try to avoid the issue this time. If you interested in purchasing this image, licensing it, or buying a poster let me know by contacting me.

Happy Holidays everyone!

My Take on Jason's Hockey Mask

2009-12-03T18:39:00.000-08:00

Ok so I've been working on a few projects that I've had on the back burner for quite some time. Way back about 8 years ago I pumped out a few Jason hockey masks from a mold I had made. My plan was always to create a whole set to adorn my walls, one mask from each movie. But I never completed that task and the masks have been on a shelf collecting dust since. Then last week I got the hankerin' to get back on the project. I now have about 6 masks on my walls that I've completed in the last week. I had one mask that was a bad pull and had a lot of air in it. So I decided to make my own interpretation of a jason mask which is what you see to the left. I decided to go with blue markings and a lot of battle damage. Certainly something different but not too out of the familiar. Let me know what you think in the comments section.

2009 Halloween Yard Display Video

2009-12-01T10:59:00.000-08:00

I know its December 1st but what better way to bring in the X-mas season than with a video from my Halloween Yard Display? I've compiled a short youtube movie with clips shot on Halloween night in my yard. I was pretty bad at using a steadicam when these were done so I apologize in advance for the shakiness of some of the shots. It was a learning experience:) This was the first yard display I had done in 2 years and I think it was probably the best we've done so far. However I already plan on many improvements.

I hope you enjoy the video to the tune of Halloween 3 music and feel free to leave comments.

2010 Marketing Packages Available now at Discounted Prices!

2009-11-29T14:43:00.001-08:00

After a tremendous 2009 Season Rogues Hollow is proud to announce our 2010 Website Marketing packages! Order before December 31, 2009 and get special discounted pricing! Rogues Hollow has spent years marketing haunted house websites big and small and we've learned how to do it best! Don't be fooled by competitors with "Too good to be true" pricing, because they won't be able to back it up with results! We've been doing haunt marketing, SEO, flash video, viral marketing and web design for over 10 years! Other people build websites, Rogues Hollow builds results!

Click here for details and discounts on our 2010 Web Marketing packages for haunted houses.

Video Shoots!

2009-11-23T19:39:00.000-08:00

Recently I upgraded my camera to a full frame Canon that takes photos as well as 1080p Video. To boot I also picked up a Merlin Steadicam which is a balanced gimbal based camera steadying unit that gives you that "flying camera" look you see in Hollywood films. The result has been that I've been shooting smooth high def video that has blown me away. The Merlin Steadicam was invented by Garrett Brown who also invented the Steadycam that is used in films still today. Mr. Brown was the man that filmed all the steadycam shots in Kubrick's The Shining!

2 weeks ago I shot some Video for Beyond the Grave Productions, which I'll be putting online very soon. Then last weekend I shot video for ScreamWorld in Houston Texas. I can't wait till I can show it to everyone! In the meantime check out this quick shot taken in a field of the new Beyond the Grave Costumes below. This costume is called Unearthed and will be available at Beyond the Grave Productions soon!

Zombie Test Footage from Christopher Brielmaier on Vimeo.

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T14:30:00.000-07:00

For awhile there I thought maybe Halloween would never get here, now that it has it seems like it went by way too fast! Thursday night my town had its annual Trick 'r Treat night and we decked the house out for the event like never before! It was definetly my best yard display thus far. I'm still learning about the best lighting techniques for my yard. Its been a little troublesome due to the fact our house sits high on a hill right in front of a street light which sends a lot of sodium light into our yard. I tried counteracting it with lots of blues this year and It turned out great! But I'm already thinking about next year.

Considering that I've spent the last week fighting a flu like illness and decorated the yard usually with a massive headache and a temperature, I still feel like it came out better than I hoped! I didn't get to do the fog or my hallowindow display this year but it still was a lot of fun! The kids loved it, the parents loved it and my wife and I had a lot of fun and that's what matters. You can check out all the photos here.

I shot some video that I'll try to edit in the next week or so to add to the site as well. I'll also be adding some cool wallpapers to my downloads section this week.

Its been a big busy year for Rogues Hollow and I'm already lining up new work so I feel very fortunate and even though it felt overwhelming at times I still had fun! Thanks to all my clients who made this a great season!

I updated my portfolio earlier in the week, it was a MASSIVE update with over 25 new site links that we've worked on! Lots of cool stuff to see.

If you've emailed me this week I'll be getting back to you Monday or Tuesday. I'm still getting over this flu but starting to feel much better. Thanks for your patience.

Oh, and one last thing, I hope everyone has a safe and Happy Halloween!!

The Night HE Came Home...

2009-10-14T22:59:00.000-07:00

I am quite the fan of John Carpenter's Halloween, however probably not as much as some. This past summer I got a sneak peak at something Brian from Beyond the Grave Productions was working on and I knew immediately I had to have it! He sent me some early photos of his New Myers mask called "Rage" and I saw the closest I've seen any mask come to looking like the movie poster for Halloween 4! So we arranged to have a full body pose-able prop made of Michael Myers to haunt my home. This week I was able to finally go and pick Michael up and all I have to say Brian has made another masterpiece!

Its hard to get a sense of the full scale of this prop but it stands about 6' 4" and carries a big knife! To say that its a bit creepy to have sitting in you're TV room is an understatement. The mask is very expressive and sometimes I swear it changes expression! LOL! Beyond the Grave has proven to me once again that they're on the cutting edge of great Halloween props for collectors and attractions alike! I recommend highly these Full body props and urge you to visit Beyond the Grave Productions to get one of your own!

Go Buy Trick r' Treat Now!

2009-10-07T15:32:00.000-07:00

Trick r' Treat is a everything you heard it was! Fantastic fun Halloween movie, perhaps the best since John Carpenter's Halloween! Its the kind of movie that reminds you what its like to be a kid on Halloween and the spooky magic that is Trick r' Treat night. I did a full review of the movie for HauntedHouse.com which you can see here so check it out.

I'm sure that Trick r' Treat will become the next cult Halloween favorite in a few years!

Tis' the Season for Losers to Steal Artwork

2009-09-30T22:07:00.000-07:00

I've seen some pretty heinous examples of stolen artwork since starting Rogues Hollow but this one surprised even me. A designer who calls himself "Andy the Great" has stolen an entire site layout, the flash header and even the music from one of my sites! See the side by side below. You can see my site at www.spookyranch.com then see "Andy The Great"'s stolen version at http://factoryfear.com/index.html. Feel free to email Andy and tell him how great he really is if he cannot even come up with his own website design.

Spooktacular Night Site by Me

Stolen Artwork and flash by "Andy the Great"
Advice for up and coming designers. If you cannot create a site without stealing artwork then obviously you are in the wrong business and don't have any talent whatsoever. So quit now! Stealing art isn't cool and it just proves to the world what a hack you are.

B-day present from my Awesome Wife!

2009-09-02T11:30:00.000-07:00

With my birthday being this Friday my wife just couldn't wait any longer and gave me her gift today. Its a handsomely packaged box of 8 highly delicious Cohiba Black Cigars! Nearly 2 years ago I started getting interested in the cigar thing. Cohiba's have consistently been one of my favorites but I found true love with Cohiba Black. Its a maduro, very rich in flavor and aroma. It makes my house smell awesome. In fact this is the only cigar I'm allowed to smoke in the house. They look so great I just had to share them on my blog. My wife found the perfect gift and that's why she's awesome!

Bring Back Frank Black

2009-07-21T22:00:00.001-07:00

If you go over to HauntedHouse.com you can read an interview with Mark Hayden of BacktoFrankBlack.com which is a campaign to bring back the character of Frank Black from the TV Series Millennium. The series was created by Chris Carter who of course also created The X-Files, it starred Lance Henriksen as Frank Black, a retired FBI profiler who now worked for a shadowy consulting firm call the Millennium group. The show dealt with the darkest of subject matter, rape, serial murder, cults, etc. The look of Millennium was even darker. It was always raining, dark, and almost devoid of any color. However the shining yellow bright beacon of the series was the "Yellow House" where Frank lived with his Wife and little girl, Jordan.

The show went through very radical changes from year to year due to Chris Carter being too busy with the X-Files movie and series to keep a watchful eye on what MillenniuM was doing. Year 2 saw lots of Religious end of the world type storylines and the Millennium Group turn into the bad guy of the series. By season 3 Frank was a conspiracy babbling loon not dissimilar to Fox Mulder. However even with its uneven myth arcs the series always took a no compromises take on their dark story lines. Unlike today’s modern crime shows, there was little humor to be found on Millennium. Frank didn't crack wise or make jokes about the murders. There was never a flashy crime scene investigation, and the killers were rarely anything but the dark, ugly twisted people you'd expect them to be. No charismatic pretty boys in this bunch.

In many ways MillenniuM was ahead of its time. It shocked people with its graphic display of violence and was relentless with its bleak look and stories. Today shows like Supernatural and many crime dramas draw heavily on MillenniuM for their look and production value. The show was a mini horror movie every week.

So why am I so interested in this MillenniuM, A show that’s been off the air now for 10 years? I graduated High School in '96 and that summer I started seeing these quick flashy promos for Millennium on Fox. From the moment I saw the quick cuts, the dark look, and that oh soo creepy tag line "Wait, Worry, You can't stop it." I was hooked. The first year of the series had a marketing campaign that really grabbed me. For some reason Millennium re-awakened something creative inside me and it set me firmly on the path to where I am today. Because of MillenniuM I started to revisit my dark artistic passions in new ways and changed my major in College. I started making my own "Fan art" and delved into Digital art which was still pretty much in its infancy still in 1996. I credit MillennuM for starting me on my way.

It's really hard to pinpoint what it was exactly that so captured my imagination. Millennium was unlike anything else on TV and its marketing materials spoke to me like nothing before or since. I still to this day have a Pilot Episode Poster hanging on the wall of my office. If you've never seen the series I recommend finding it on DVD or watching it on Chiller TV. The first season in particular is very much worth seeking out.

Today There's a great group called BacktoFrankBlack.com that have started a campaign to bring back the character of Frank Black for a new series that would deal with the same situations and themes as MillenniuM did. Obviously Millennium was a show about the coming year 2000 back in the mid 90's when it started however the things it dealt with certainly haven't gone away in the 10 years its been off the air. Now would be a great time to bring those themes back for a new series. To find out more check out the interview with Mark Hayden of BacktoFrankBlack.com at HauntedHouse.com or visit BacktoFrankBlack.com.

Special Treat from New England

2009-07-05T16:19:00.000-07:00

I feel very fortunate to have such awesome clients! Last Friday I was excited to receive a special gift from Tony and Sue of Factory of Terror in Fall River Massachusetts! 2 big 3.5 pound stuffed lobsters with Lobster bisque and Clam Chowder (REAL New England Clam Chowder).

After a very rough and busy week it was exactly what I needed! My wife, who is Japanese, finally found American food she really loves! Now she wants to move to New England:) Thanks so much Tony and Sue for being such great people!

Check out the mouth watering photos!

Windows 7

2009-06-22T17:49:00.000-07:00

In case you didn't know, Microsoft has given up on the much hated release of Windows Vista. They've decided to just release a new version this fall called Windows 7 and pretend the nightmare of Vista never happened in the first place.

In preparation for its release Microsoft is allowing people to download a Release Candidate of Windows 7 for people to test and try out. Its a fully operational version and I've been using it now for about a month or so. I can honestly say that Windows 7 is what Vista should have been. Its doesn't take up as many resources and runs very fast in comparison to vista. I have yet to have a blue screen creep up on me without notice and the new features have been very handy.

Windows 7 comes with so many new features that I have barely broken the surface in using them. My current favorite is the little pop up preview windows that come up as you run your mouse over minimized windows from your start bar. The annoying security notices are almost non-existent. Before in Vista you had to shut down all security notices or risk being constantly bombarded with them every time you tried opening any program, even Microsoft programs. I've seen the security notice pop up a few times but it has definitely been much less intrusive.

Visually it looks similar to Vista but there's a lot more personalization to be had and themes are built in so you can download new ones right from microsoft. Its very easy to use as well. I'm actually very much looking forward to using Windows 7 on all my PC's when its officially released. Its the Windows we should have gotten instead of Vista but I guess better, late than never.

If your tech saavy and interested in playing with Windows 7 check out the Official Site and download a copy. You can have full use of it through March of next year and partial use after that until June of 2010 then its time to buy your own.

Midwest Haunters Convention June 6th 2009

2009-06-02T16:19:00.000-07:00

To whom it may concern I'll be attending the MHC convention in Columbus Ohio on Saturday June 6th in the afternoon. I will not have a booth at the show. If you'd like to meet up with me to discuss a project please email me via my contact page. Thanks!

Rogues Hollow and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull, with Vodka

2009-04-23T18:56:00.000-07:00

No I'm not going to talk about a certain movie that sullied our memories of much better ones. No, rather I want to brag about one of my favorite clients. Chris Ainsworth of Thornhill Woods Haunted House has been a tremendous client since he called me to give his little Home Haunt's website the professional treatment. He ended up with one of the best, if not the best, haunted House website in all of Canada. (not that I'm bragging). Now this year we're gearing up to give him something truly unique and absorbing with his new all flash website that will be making an appearance in the next month or so with any luck.

I only got to meet Chris in person for the first time at Transworld a few weeks back and he's a great person and very funny! Apparently I must have mentioned something about Vodka while we were hanging out (Hey, I'm Irish and I like a drink every once and again). Today, much to my delight, I received the coolest bottle of any liquor I've ever seen as a thank you from Chris! Its called Crystal Head Vodka and as you can see from the photo is a Skull filled with quadrupled distilled Vodka that has been filtered three times. Awesome!

After some research I found the website for Crystal Head Vodka which to my surprise features a very informative video about the vodka directly from the owner, Dan Akroyd. Yes that Dan Akroyd. After a very informative history of the legendary 13 crystal skulls and why Mr. Akroyd decided to recreate them, with Vodka, I was even more stoked to have one in my hands!

Thank you very much Chris! This is one of the coolest things I've ever gotten as a gift and I can't wait to try it this weekend! You're Awesome!

Check out Crystal Head Vodka's Website Here!
Click here to Visit Thornhill Woods Haunted House

Stolen Artwork Report - Todays Offender: HeartStoppers Fright

2009-04-11T13:18:00.000-07:00

As Rogues Hollow Gets more popular and wide spread I'm seeing more and more of my artwork being taken and used illegally. Today's offender took artwork Rogues Hollow did for HauntedHouse.com's Christmas letter. They were nice enough to try to smudge out the HauntedHouse.com logo but its obviously still there. Then to top it off they slap their ugly logo on top of it.

So I hope you enjoy your ill-gotten artwork HeartStoppers Fright and thanks for wanting our
art so much that you were compelled to steal it instead of purchasing it legally. Apparently you are one of Hauntworld's Top Haunts even though your not listed on their site at all, but I guess you liked the idea of being a top haunt so well that you just decided to take it right? Good for you.

The Transworld wrap up

2009-03-30T10:42:00.000-07:00

I arrived home very late last night from Transworld in St. Louis. It was one of the best shows I've ever had and it was just a lot of fun. I got to meet some of my clients in person for the first time including my Favorite Canadian, Chris Ainsworth;) Who operates a home haunt called Thornhill Woods. It was a lot of fun hanging out with my new clients and friends from Beyond the Grave, Brian & Trish. Hey guys sorry for leaving early on Sunday!

We all went to the Darkness and stood in freezing rain for about an hour. Thanks to that I was starting to feel achy and sore on Sunday and now I have a head cold and sore throat from it. However it was still worth it to see the Darkness. Probably the most beautiful haunted house I've ever seen in my life. It lives up the hype and more!

I had a great time and picked up some more work. I have a lot to get done:) Transworld 2009 was a fantastic show and I can't wait till 2010!

The Pre-Transworld Post

2009-03-20T20:38:00.000-07:00

Yes Rogues Hollow Productions and HauntedHouse.com will once again be at Transworld for the 2009 show in St. Louis This coming week March 27-29. Be sure to stop by and see us! I'll be taking orders for 2009 Internet Marketing Packages and we'll also be taking Featured Listing orders for HauntedHouse.com. This is the year you could take the net by storm by Choosing Rogues Hollow and HauntedHouse.com

See you soon!

HauntedHouse.com Cards

2009-03-14T07:53:00.000-07:00

This is a pretty minor post, I know, but I just received my new HauntedHouse.com cards and wanted to share them. I'm pretty excited about them and am looking forward to lots of great things for HauntedHouse.com in the future. I'll be adding lots of stuff to Rogues Hollow soon including some new graphics and lots of new work I've been busy with. Check it out soon!

What's up at Rogues Hollow

2009-03-06T17:13:00.000-08:00

A lot actually... I've been hard at work on HauntedHouse.com. I've reavamped most of the site so far, but there's still some rogue pages out there with the old design. We're planning some big things for HauntedHouse.com. The first of which will be announced and shown off at transworld. If you've had trouble getting ahold of me its because of HauntedHouse.com but that should be coming to an end soon.

Also some may be wondering where my movie reviews went. Well I am one of 2 owners of HauntedHouse.com and I need to show some love to it by posting all my horror related reviews and news items there from now on. So if you want my take then go to the HauntedHouse.com Blog and you'll find it all there. Also I'll be more or less retiring from updating my twitter account as well so I can focus on updating the HauntedHouse.com twitter. Its going to be an exciting year for me, Rogues Hollow and HauntedHouse.com so come see as at Transworld on March 27th - 29th. See you there!

Book of the Dead: The Complete History of Zombie Cinema

2009-02-24T02:01:00.001-08:00

Book of the Dead: The Complete History of Zombie Cinema
by Jamie Russell (Author)

I don't have a lot of time to read books and the ones I do read have to be able to pull me in from page one or I'll never finish it. I bought Book of The Dead last summer and finally finished up last week. Its not because the book is boring that it took me so long, though it does have its slow patches, its just the sheer size of this tome and the limited amount of time I had to read it. Author Jaime Russell presents quite possibly the most in depth history of any subgenre I've ever read. He covers the history of Zombie films from their Haitian roots in the 1930's with films such as White Zombie to the current resurgence into pop culture.

Book of the Dead offers not only a full history of zombie films but also of the origins of zombie myth which begin in Haiti. In the early 1900's explorers that visited the country heard stories of zombie workers and were mndlessly under the control of their master working the fields at all hours. There are even accounts of explorers meeting the undead. The legends eventually led to the earliest zombie films which did not resemble our modern ghouls in any way. Russell covers in great detail every film that has ever featured a walking corpse or entranced zombie. From Big Hollywood productions to the cheapest crap ever commited to celluloid.

Where the book really wins however is in its coverage of the modern zombie film. From Night of the Living Dead to Land of the Dead Russell covers not only their production but their place in society and politics of their time. At times the book can be bogged down by these details. Land of the Dead was a solid outing by zombie daddy George Romero, but I always felt it lacked the commentary that his previous films had. However Russell manages to wax philosophical about the meaning of almost ever moment of the film and how it tied into 9/11, George Bush, and the war on terror. While I can agree with some of his observations I felt that at times he was just finding the meanings he wanted to find.

There's a lot of great to be found on this tome however. The coverage of the 1970's and 80's enlightened me to a few great zombie flicks that I had missed. Russel covers the worst shot-on-video crap the the greatest lost gems of the period. Films like the Blind Dead, Dead and Buried, and the love them or hate them zombie "splatter comedies" of the 80s get the love that has been long overdue to them. You'll find yourself running to your Netflix account to add these films with the passing of each chapter. If you get overwhelmed there's a great movie guide in the back of the book that covers every single zombie film with title, release date, synopsis and cast & crew details. And did I mention that this book has more photos, illustrations, and posters than you can shake a stick at? Cause it does.

This is a book that will tell you more than you could have ever wanted to know about zombie film history and is a must have for the hardcore zombie fan. You'll easily spend hours with it and certainly learn some things you didn't know.

Friday the 13th memories

2009-02-06T02:42:00.000-08:00

Friday the 13th will be here in just a week! I'm a little cautious with my excitement this year. The last time we saw Jason in theatres was in the Freddy vs. Jason and there's just no getting around how terrible that film was. Sure it had some decent kills but it was like they deliberately looked for the worst actors they could find to fill in the parts. The plot had a decent concept but they trashed it with the way it was presented. I mean seriously, how can you expect the audience to go along with the idea that the lead actress met the love of her life when she was 12?! Maybe the real question is how can you cast a lead actor that can't seem to stop smiling even when he's delivering news of someones death? On top of that they had the worst Jason of any Friday movie. I know, How hard is it to be Jason?! You just have to lumber around and stab people in clever ways.

Ok so The remake is on its way and the previews look promising. The movie looks like its going the way of taking it seriously with decent young actors and good direction. I grew up on Jason movies and for some reason He was always my favorite as a kid. Even more so than Freddy or Michael Myers, Jason seemed to resonate with me. It might have been the mask or the fear I had watching him hack up campers. In fact Friday the 13th was one of the first Horror films I have a memory of watching on cable, with my mom of all people, when i was still in day care! Now you know why this kind of work is where I ended up!

Somehow I doubt that this time around we'll see Jason starring in 9 sequels. I don't see the concept of milking a slasher character for multiple sequels lasting beyond 1 or 2 today. I think the Saw movies are probably just about to ruin that for everyone this year. However I'm excited about seeing some old school horror next week! Horror seems to be on a role this year and I just hope it keeps up!

My Bloody Valentine 3-D Review

2009-01-24T00:48:00.001-08:00

When I was a kid I remember watching the original My Bloody Valentine on VHS. Nothing really stood out about it other than the somewhat iconic image of the miners mask. The kills in the movie were always cut away from before you could really see anything so it wasn't much to write home about. So when I heard about the remake I thought they finally found a movie they could improve upon and I was right!

My Bloody Valentine is a fun, scary, and bloody ride that blew me away in 3D! I can't remember when I had more fun watching a horror movie in a theatre. The storyline has been changed quite a bit from the original. The story starts off when a mine collapse that buries several men in the mine. Only 1 survives named Harry Warden who is hospitalized from his injuries. The blame for the cave in is aimed at Tom Hanniger played by Jensen Ackles of the TV series Supernatural. For some reason workers from the mine and lots of kids decide to have a party at the mine even though this tragedy recently happened there. Harry Warden promptly escapes from the hospital and shows up at the mine to slaughter the revellers in true splatter fashion. He's eventually stopped while trying to kill Tom Hanniger when the Sheriff shoots him several times. Harry manages to run into the mine and get away. The film then jumps to 10 years later when Tom Hanniger returns to the town to sell the mine and close it down. Tom's girlfriend has moved on and married the Axel, one of Toms rivals from 10 years ago.

As soon as Tom returns the murders start up again and it seems that Harry Warden has returned to punish the town. There's some amazing kills here and once scene in particular that features a fully naked woman being stalked by the killer for a good 10 minutes of screen time. There were times I was really surprised by how much gore and nudity they seemed to get away with for an R rated movie! The 3D is put to bloody good use here as well. The kills really take advantage of putting that action right in your lap!

The movie really does an excellent job at balancing itself. It never goes to silly and never takes itself too seriously either. Its funny at times, scary at others and bloody as hell all the way! Director Patrick Lussier has redeemed himself after languishing it direct to DVD hell since the mediocre Dracula 2000 films. He's managed to make a very exciting and fun movie! The story does offer a pretty decent twist of an ending and really just left me wanting more when the lights came up.

What I really like about this film is it has taken the concept of 80's slasher films and made it really fun and scary! I felt like a kid watching this movie! I grew up watching 80's slasher films and loved them even though the plots were awful and the acting was bad. In the 90's we had a resugence of slasher films but they were self referential and satires of the 80's films. Today we're seeing a return to the 80's style slasher but with a more serious take and much better acting and production values. This year alone we have 3 memorable Horror icons from the 80's coming back to audiences. My Bloody Valentine has set the bar pretty high for The Upcoming Friday the 13th remake and Halloween 2. I really hope this trend continues for awhile.

If you are a horror fan and a child of the 80's your going to love this movie! Go see it now while you can in bloody 3D!!

4.5 out of 5

Another Year over...

2008-12-30T13:38:00.001-08:00

Wow its just 1 day before 2009 already! We had a great Christmas but I'm very much looking forward to a new year! Its been a busy, hectic year for me with a few bumps along the way and I'm ready to leave 2008 behind. There's going to be some big thing happening just after the new year. The first is a new redesign for HauntedHouse.com which I'm currently working on. Their's big doings going on with Transworld including 2 Haunt Tours that Rogues Hollow will be sponsoring. We just have a lot of stuff still developing so its going to be very exciting year:)

Happy New Year!

Christmas Horror Movies: Black Christmas

2008-12-24T13:12:00.000-08:00

Its Christmas eve and its time to conclude my Christmas horror films series here. We end on the best Christmas Horror film ever, Black Christmas. Directed by Bob Clark, who would later go on to make another Christmas classic called A Christmas Story, Black Christmas is a suspensful horror that really started the slasher movies even though it was filmed years before Halloween.

The story is a very well written and suspenseful one that's something of a mystery as well. It starts out as your basic slasher flick, a sorority of girls enjoying the holidays. A crazed killer hiding in their house and lots of disturbing prank phone calls. The killer is never seen. He's shot much like that of a killer from giallo films in the first person so we only ever see his hands or parts of his body. As you can imagine the girls get picked off one by one finally only leaving the heroine played by the beautiful Olivia Hussey who suspects the killer is actually her boyfriend. There's a wonderful subplot about Hussey's character being pregnant and she wants to abort it. Her boyfriend is pissed about it and we're led to believe he's stalking the house and making the disturbing phone calls. When the local detective, played by the always great John Saxon, determines that the calls are coming from inside the house there's a big showdown between the cops, our heroine and her boyfriend who ends up being at the house at the wrong time. But everyone thinks they have their killer and they leave the shocked Olivia Hussey locked up in the house to rest. Of course she's not alone in the house. The killer is still inside.

Black Christmas is the real proto slasher film. this movie, while short on gore, is high on suspense. Even though the story takes place over a few days the suspense still mounts and your kept guessing as to who the killer is. Its clear how this movie influenced John Carpenter who would go on to direct Halloween 4 years later. Bob Clark tells the story that Carpenter came to him after seeing Black Christmas and asked him how he would do a sequel if he did one. Clark said he would have the killer come home on Halloween night. Carpenter of course went on to make a movie about a killer who comes home on Halloween night. Bob Clark never thought that Carpenter ripped off his idea but its clear how he and his movie truly helped to make Halloween the classic slasher film that it is.

A couple years ago Hollywood tried remaking Black Christmas with very very mixed results. The movie has absolutely no suspense or mystery as to who the killer is. It delves into a new backstory for the killer which is way over the top. There's buckets of blood, 1 dimensional characters and the abortion subplot has been eliminated for a one about a guy who put his sex tape online with one of the girls in the house. The only improvement made in the remake was that it looked very good. The set design, directing, & production is very clean and pretty. However the story is just a shadow of the original.

For Christmas there's nothing like the original 1974 proto-slasher Black Christmas. Director Bob Clark also gave us A Christmas Story some years later which is still a classic Christmas flick that get around the clock play on TBS each year. Unfortunately Bob and his son were killed in a car accident by a drunk driver about a year ago. They had been working on a film and were returning home late.

While Bob may be gone his many films will live on forever. I know I'll be spending Christmas eve with Black Christmas and a Christmas Story every year!