Running Bloody Disgusting at a time when the horror genre is exploding at the seams with NEW THINGS TO REPORT is a good problem to have, but it’s also a hell of a lot of work. And it can admittedly be frustrating hopping from one story to the next in an attempt to keep up, […]
Running Bloody Disgusting at a time when the horror genre is exploding at the seams with NEW THINGS TO REPORT is a good problem to have, but it’s also a hell of a lot of work. And it can admittedly be frustrating hopping from one story to the next in an attempt to keep up, leaving us with little time to inject our opinions into the daily news stories we’re posting.
So as the Editor-in-Chief of Bloody Disgusting, I wanted to start taking an hour or so every week to SLOW DOWN on a Friday afternoon and recap some of the most interesting news stories that you might’ve scrolled past in the last several days. I also wanted to take a moment to actually share my thoughts on some of this stuff, which I often have precious little time to really do during these increasingly hectic weeks. So consider this our little weekly hangout where we can talk shop, recap the week’s news, and share some honest thoughts about it all.
I don’t have a fancy name for the column, but maybe we’ll discover one together as the weeks go on. Or maybe not. Who cares. Let’s just hang out and talk about horror for a bit, shall we?
It may not have been the most well-kept secret of the year but Halloween Horror Nights officially confirmed that Art the Clown is joining Jason Voorhees at this year’s Halloween event in both Los Angeles and Orlando with the first-ever Terrifier haunted attraction.
The attraction – as you might expect – is already being hyped as the goriest in the history of Halloween Horror Nights, and it’s said to bring attendees “up close and personal with some of Art’s nastiest kills.” You might want to bring a raincoat for this one.
As cool as it is that we’re getting an official Terrifier house at Halloween Horror Nights, the bigger story is what the attraction represents. In case there was any doubt left, Art the Clown is now THE horror icon of the modern day, and I’m willing to bet the long lines for the house later this year will prove that he’s even more popular than some of the classic greats.
Full disclosure: both Terrifier 2 and Terrifier 3 were released in theaters by Bloody Disgusting and Cineverse, but I mean it when I say I’m personally just a fan at the end of the day. And I can’t stress enough how proud I am of Damien Leone and his team for what they’ve been able to accomplish with their little franchise that could (make over $100 million in theaters!).
You’ll find some of the coolest horror concepts in the world of video games, and this latest one won me over with just two simple words: Shark Dentist. Yes, that’s the actual title of an actual upcoming video game from Alice Games, which promises “high stress decision making.”
Remember that scene in Deep Blue Sea where the characters are messing around with a seemingly docile shark in a water lab and Stellan Skarsgård gets his arm bitten off once the mako awakens from its slumber? That’s more or less the premise behind Shark Dentist, which tasks you with playing a dentist attempting to do dental work on a seemingly docile shark.
Each run is unique, Alice Games promises, with the game playing out like Operation. If you make one wrong move, you might awaken the shark – and the rest is self explanatory.
As I tweeted this week, I’d greenlight a movie adaptation of this game without even playing it. It’s a killer concept that combines the spooky, atmospheric tension of something like The Autopsy of Jane Doe with the shark terror of The Shallows. But before we start talking about a movie, let’s play the game first, eh? It’s coming to Steam and can be wishlisted now.
Alright, hear me out. I’m already sick to death of these public domain-based “twisted childhood” movies, and really none of them have been any good so far. From the Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey movies to the various Mickey Mouse slashers that have been popping up, they almost always end up feeling like the same movie. And I’m already tired of watching it.
But Bambi: The Reckoning at least looks to provide something a little different, even if it’s part of the same “Poohniverse” that launched this shlocky gimmick of a trend in the first place. While most of these movies amount to little more than a dude roaming around in a cheap mask, Bambi is a full-blown killer deer creature feature. And dare I say, it looks fun?
I’m probably not supposed to say this but we’ve got a half-written review on the back end that we can’t publish yet for this one and while I’m respecting the critic’s process and haven’t yet poked into the in-progress review, the headline caught my eye. Something about Bambi: The Reckoning being the best horror movie use of a beloved public domain property to date?
It’s a low bar to clear, mind you, but ya know what? I’m moderately excited to watch a killer Bambi rampage around the woods. Maybe I’m part of the problem. I’m okay with that.
It’s hard to believe that it’s been damn near 20 years since Oren Peli’s original Paranormal Activity burst onto the scene, reminding us of something The Blair Witch Project made clear 10 years prior to that: scary shit happening in shaky home videos is scary as shit.
It’s now been four years since the release of that most recent installment that nobody remembers, and the surprising announcement was made this week that the franchise will be brought back to life on their stage this coming December. It’s titled Paranormal Activity: A New Story Live on Stage (brilliant, guys), and it’s coming to both the United States and London.
I have no idea how you mix found footage with a stage play but I’m dying to find out what that looks like. Then again, I’m not the type of person who leaves the house for this sort of thing, so it’s admittedly unlikely that I’ll ever experience it for myself. But it’s cool! And interesting! And that’s my point. At the very least, it’s nice to see the franchise doing something again.
One of the most fun surprises in the last week was the online premiere of a short fan film titled Leprechaun Revenge, an unofficial sequel to the original Leprechaun that essentially plays out like an alternate opening sequence for Steven Kostanski’s Leprechaun Returns. That film featured Linden Porco as the title character and it also brought back original Leprechaun actor Mark Holton as Ozzie, with the opening paying off a bit from the 1992 movie and having the Lep tear his way through Ozzie’s stomach in pursuit of his last piece of gold.
The Leprechaun Revenge fan film, oddly enough, takes much the same approach, and it also features Linden Porco as the Leprechaun and Mark Holton as Ozzie. What’s the point of a fan film doing something that the official franchise already did several years ago? And wouldn’t it make more sense for a fan film to imagine a wild alternate reality of some kind? Sure, I guess!
But Leprechaun Revenge is a fun little slice of gory fan film insanity all the same, and it comes courtesy of directors Michael Leavy and Jason Leavy, two of the core producers of the Terrifier franchise. Porco is no Warwick Davis and Holton’s boyish charms were left behind decades ago, but there are worse ways to spend 10 minutes than watching Leprechaun and Ozzie duke it out in a bloody fight to the death one more time… let’s just agree to not do this again, yeah?
The whole idea of this weekly column is to DISCUSS this stuff, so please know that your comments below are as important – probably MORE important! – as my words above. I want to know what YOU think about this week’s top news stories. I will be prowling around in the comments section below throughout the day and I’ll pop in some more over the weekend.
And with that… the floor is now yours!
Oh and it also occurs to me that you’ve maybe never actually seen what I look like, with only a cartoon avatar to go by. So I changed my avatar to show the real me. May it haunt you.
