Last night Fiendish Ghoul and I ventured off to Evans City, Pa for the 2nd annual Living Dead Fest.
The ride down was great, you see I have lived most of my life in this state FG however hasn’t, so this was his very first trip to Evans City and he could see quickly as we drove down 528 that this was the perfect setting for one of the best horror movies ever made: Night of the Living Dead.

The rolling hills, and the skeletal trees backlight by the glowing moon only helped to set the tone for the evening. This was also something that would be later discussed by Charles Craig, Russel Streiner, Fiendish Ghoul, and I.
But first things first – let’s talk about the festival.

The Living Dead Festival is organized by Gary Streiner , brother of Russel Streiner who gave us the immortal words “They’re coming to get you Barbara”, who worked as a sound engineer on the film. With being one of the most prolific of horror films it has also been one that has not been celebrated like it should be. Sure it gets its honorable mention at other conventions, but it has never has IT’S OWN convention. That is of course until now. Last year marked the 1st Living Dead Festival which was to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the release of Night of the Living Dead. So of course with the festival being a success last year, there was another one held this year. I however didn’t get to talk to Gary, someone offered to get him for me but I politely declined because the Sleepy Hollow Theater camp did an excellent interview with him last week in a Chiller Chat segment hosted by Bryan Hogue, so if you’d like to see that you need to visit the Sleepy Hollow site and inquire about the DVD.

This year the festival featured over a dozen cast members, some that are first timers to the convention circuit also. All the guests featured this year are: Charles Craig, Russell Streiner, Judith Ridley, Gary Streiner, Dave James, Terry Gindele, John Russo, George Kosana, Ella Mae Smith, Regis Survinski, Tony Pantanella, Josephine Streiner, Dick Heckard, and Lee Hartman.

Now when we arrived we were late to most of the festivities of the day, and were slightly worried because we were told some of the cast members were already leaving. So we moved as fast as we could and were not disappointed at all. I’ve done a few conventions and every time get let down, mainly due to excessively large crowds and guests not having the time to talk to every person that has been waiting in line. So I was not fully prepared for what was to come, which is something I will tell my grandchildren about as “The coolest day of my life”.

When we first stepped into the cast tent I spotted George Kosana, and immediately my hands started to shake. Mr. Kosana played the role of Sherriff McClelland, and if you are asking me is the one most important character in Zombie history ever. While his line “They’re dead they’re all messed up” is infamous many overlook the fact that Sheriff McClelland tells us how to properly kill zombies. Yes that’s right he’s the man with the plan, and the original Zombie hunter. Not to mention he is an extremely nice and down to earth guy. When I aksed him if I could trouble him for a picture, he immediately asked if I wanted to be in it, and if I wanted him to wear the hat. I sort of stammered (Did I mention that I was very nervous? I’m sure I have. I think I also did to every cast member I met too. ) and walked behind the table to join him in front of his table set, and as Fiendish Ghoul was getting ready to take out picture Mr. Kosana says “As he shoots us, I’ll shoot you” which made me laugh.

Then as we moved over some more, I notice Fiendish Ghoul chatting up none other than John Russo; he is the co-writer of Night of the Living Dead a long with being the writer the Escape of the Living Dead comics that are published by Avatar. We were also told by Mr. Russo that Escape of the Living Dead is currently being adapted into a film and will be starring Tony Todd, Kane Hodder, Kristina Klebe, Gunnar Hansen, and Tom Savini. But this isn’t the only thing that Mr. Russon has been working on either because he and Russ Streiner also have their limited enrollment course at Dubois Business College for film making.

After chatting with Mr. Russo we then moved along to Russ Streiner (Johnny) who in his own words is “the more talented” when speaking of him and his brother Gary. We then shared a mix conversation with him and Chuck Craig (the news caster) about the setting of Evans City being the perfect place for the setting of a zombie movie, and Mr. Craig then bit the style of Mr. Streiner by looking over at me and saying “There’re coming to get you Jamie (ok yeah that is my real name)” which prompted Mr. Streiner to immediately point at him and say “You owe me a quarter!”

This was quite possibly the best meet and great that I have ever done in my life.
But what was best about the entire festival was the end of it on day two. The festival was wrapped up with a screening of Night of the Living Dead on an inflatable screen in the park.

The Living Dead Fest was a piece of zombie history in the making, and something that I hope keeps on going for many more years to come. So support it people! Next year keep your eyes and ears open and go! It’s not very often you get to mingle with people who are icons of horror and the nicest and most down to earth people you will ever meet.

[Editors Note:] This was posted late due to illness. I’d like to say I’m sorry about that to all.

With limited releases to On Demand, Amazon, Xbox Live and a limited theatrical release on Oct 30th, I got the chance to check it out. Which after seeing the trailer I knew right then that I wanted to watch this movie is the worst way possible.

The movie is started with a text intro:
“During the 1980s over 70% of Americans adults believed in the existence of abusive Satanic Cults…

Another 30 % rationalized the lack of evidence due to government cover ups…

The following is based on true unexplained events…”

Now I cannot tell you if there is any truth to this final statement, but I will say that many movies use this as a ploy so don’t think about it too much.

We are then shown a young college student, Samantha (Jocelin Donahue), who is looking at an apartment and gets it but she needs to be able to come up with the 300 dollar deposit by Monday to give to the Landlady (Dee Wallace Stone). Not really having the money Samantha goes back to campus to get denied entry to her dorm room by her roommate Heather, who was kind enough to place the infamous white towel over the doorknob.

Samantha then knows that see needs to get the money so she can have her own apartment. As she is walking around campus she stops by the bulletin boards and sees a flyer for a baby sitter that is needed. So she calls to inquire about it, and when the man on the phone tells her to meet him at a place outside the campus she just ends up waiting for him and he never shows up.
Upset and not knowing what to do Samantha goes out for pizza with her friend, who she tells about the apartment and how she has to have the deposit money by Monday, her friend who we get the impression is from a wealthy family offers to ask her father for the money for Samantha, but Samantha declines and explains to her about the babysitting job and how she was stood up waiting for the guy. A little miffed by this her friend suggests that they go and rip all the flyers down from campus so no one else will call about the job.

Finally able to go back to her dorm room, her roommate wakes up and tells Samantha that a guy called her and she left the callback number for her on the desk. Samantha calls him back and the man tells her that he is now desperate after talking to another girl that was completely unreliable and offers her 100 dollars to babysit for the night. Realizing that she really needs this money Samantha gets the address and has her friend take her out to the house for the babysitting job, despite the warnings from her friend not to do it.

Once Samantha and her friend arrive at the house, the man we meet is Mr. Ulman and he informs Samantha of his dishonesty with her about the babysitting job. Mr. Ulman (Tom Noonan,whom you may recall as Francis Dollarhyde from Manhunter) and his wife would like nothing more than to attend a party for the special eclipse that is taking place tonight, however Mrs. Ulman elderly mother lives with him and even thought she is able bodied it is hard to get anyone to just stay at the house with her in the event of an emergency. Both Samantha and Mr. Ulman are desperate people in need, so Mr. Ulman offers Samantha an extra 200 dollars, on top of the 100 that she was already guaranteed. Thinking it over Samantha tells him 400 for the night and she will do it, Mr. Ulman seems satisfied with this and even tosses in money for a pizza. With that he collects his wife and they are off to attend the eclipse.

From here on out the story keeps on rolling, but I am not going to spoil any of that for you. What made me really like this movie is that in a time of guts and gore glut this movie is actually all about the story and the atmosphere. This movie is also the reason why most often I prefer indie horror over Hollywood horror. On average I believe that people have the attention span of a 6 year old, because a lot of criticism of this film was “It’s too long” and “Nothing happened”. First off my thoughts on these opinions are that the movie was not too long, and things did happen, you just had to pay attention.

Overall this movie is worth a watch and worth some good praise.

The girl on the left in the black and pink is none other than Bela Karloff, a contributor to the site, with her dance troupe Bare Bellies performing at International Night which was hosted at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania.

Living Dead Festival The second annual Living Dead Festival hosted in Evans City, PA on Oct 30 – 31st. if you do not know the significance of this Evans City happens to be the location where the 1968 zombie classic Night of the Living Dead was filmed. We will be attending the fest this year, so keep your eyes to the ZGO Twitter page for live updates as they happen. Guests for this year are: CHARLES CRAIG, RUSSELL STREINER, JUDITH RIDLEY, GARY STREINER, DAVE JAMES, TERRY GINDELE, JOHN RUSSO GEORGE KOSANA, ELLA MAE SMITH, REGIS SURVINSKI, TONY PANTANELLA, JOSEPHINE STREINER, DICK HECKARD, and LEE HARTMAN.

Sleepy Hollow Theater

Yours truly will be appearing in the Halloween Episode of Sleepy Hollow Theater. Set to air on Venango Video at 10PM on Saturday, October 31st. Featured movie of this episode is The Brainiac, and also includes an interview with special guest, Jim Krut from the 1978 version of Dawn of the Dead.

Also don’t forget that Shadow and myself make various appearances on Sleepy Hollow Theater, so if you are in an area that doesn’t get Sleepy Hollow Theater you can go to here and purchase Volumes 1 – 7 on DVD. Each volume features 4 movies complete with skits and Chiller Chat interviews.

For more info on Sleepy Hollow Theater you can visit them on Myspace and Twitter.

Paranormal Activity,written and directed by Oren Peliin, was created in 2007 as an Indie mockumentary film in which a couple, Katie and Micah, chronicle a haunting that is taking place in their home.

The movie starts off at a snail’s pace by introducing us to the main characters of Katie and Micah, by making us spend 40 minutes with these people to only learn that Micah is an oblivious immature dipshit, and Katie is just oblivious. Their plight is that they have been experiencing some strange occurrences in their home. It started out with the usual footsteps, banging and scratching sounds coming from the walls. This prompts the couple to buy a video camera and some digital mini recorders to see what they can catch. However when the activity escalates they turn to a medium to access the type of haunting they are dealing with. He rules out a human spirit and tells them what they are dealing with is a demonic entity. However it is during this meeting that Katie is forced to admit that this is not a new experience for her, and since the age of 8 she had seen a shadowy figure standing over her while trying to sleep.

The main con I have with this movie is the character of Micah. Most often in horror movies, you are actually supposed to be in the corner of the main characters, but when the main character is nothing but annoying and abrasive there isn’t much sympathy that you can evoke for them. Now with that being said, who am I supposed to care about while watching this movie? It is most certainly not the idiotic brohab who is going to attempt to chest bump a demon down a hallway while yelling at it to “leave his lady alone”.

However part of the charm of this movie is the haunting effects, mainly Katie being drug out of bed and down the hallway. But then I also have to say that they went into overkill with the Ouija board scene. It was Voodoo Girl that best addressed this scene by stating “There was so much going on at once that I expected fireworks and fanfare.”

This movie has forced me to sit on the fence, because I didn’t like it, yet I didn’t hate it either. However with all the various endings and the scene alterations made just so this movie could get a theatrical release I found that it cheapened the whole thing for me, and just made it seem very silly in the end. I also personally preferred the screener version, to the theatrical release.
Some noticeable differences between the two are the exclusion of story of Diane (screener) to be replaced with the broken picture of Katie and Micah (theatrical), along with the different endings.

After doing some research I have found out that there are really three endings to this movie, however one that featured Katie cutting her own throat in front of the camera was only shown once at a public viewing and then was replaced with the ending that was seen in the screener at Screamfest 07 and Slamdance 08.

Overall I think it is a fair thing for me to state that the hype might have damaged this movie for some horror fans. The most common thing I have heard from people is “It didn’t really scare me.” Which I also happen to agree with. There were a few moments where I perked up in my seat and thought “That was neat” but this is really not one of those movies that you have to run out and see at the theatre, unless you really hate SAW like I do. Sure you might miss out on some of the audio, but it doesn’t really diminish the impact of the movie.

Hostel: Part 2 picks up where Hostel leaves off with Pax, and how the events in the first movie have impacted him, leaving him greatly paranoid, and forced into hiding for fear that Elite Hunting will find him. We watch Pax roused from a nightmare, to only be called insane by his girlfriend as she complains about not being able to sleep. She then confesses to having told her sister that her and Pax were staying at her grandmother’s house.

After going back to sleep, she awakens to the sound of a chainsaw being used by a man who is outside pruning the trees. Then wandering though the house, she ends up finding the headless body of Pax sitting at the kitchen table.

Enter Beth, Whitney, and Lorna. Three art students that are studying in Rome, who are invited to the Slovakian hostel by a model they meet in class, Axelle. This time the lure is that they are taking a vacation to a spa, when in reality they are being placed on an auction block by Elite Hunting.

We are also introduced to Todd and Stewart, two American business men who won the auction for Beth and Whitney. Under the lead of Todd, Stewart follows him to the Slovakian hostel, although apprehensive about their reasons for going there. As if Stewart’s reluctance wasn’t already apparent, it grows even worse upon meeting the Elite Hunting staff, that are reviewing their contracts and branding them with the Elite Hunting bloodhound tattoo.

We are also given a bit of an inside look to how the Elite Hunting organization is run, and a look at its founder / leader Sasha. A rather fair and diplomatic man, considering his business, but obviously not one to cross. Human trafficking is his trade, and he takes it very seriously.

I have to say that early on in the movie, I was very impressed by what I was watching. Because as much as I complain about Eli Roth’s lack of character development, I didn’t feel that way about this one at all. The characters felt as if they were real people.

What made this stand out to me was the difference between the Lorna character in this film vs. Ollie in Hostel. Both are essentially the same characters, serving the same purpose. The new members of the group, not very well known by the others. But Lorna was handled with finesse, you got a bit more insight with her. Not much, since she also departs the movie early. But her screen time conveyed that she was a sad and troubled girl. Dare I even say that she was too naïve for her age. In turn this leaves her blind and open to the danger around her. She is sweet and trusting, and unfortunately bad things happen to her. I also need to add up front that have never been very keen on Heather Matarazzo ( The Princess Diaries and Sorority Boys ) as an actress, but for once she didn’t annoy the hell out of me. In fact I felt sympathy for her.

Overall I really enjoyed this movie. I was given more than I was expecting to get out of it, and once again was amused for an hour and a half.

Creating a scene in the steets after finding themselves locked out, they are invited into the flat of a local pimp who tells them of a hostel in Slovakia where the women are plenty and will do anything.

To add to this, he even shows them pictures of his own trip to the hostel, and his conquests with the girls there.

Having been told enough, the three take off on the first train to find the Slovakian hostel. Little do they know that this happens to be the domain of a group known as Elite Hunting, human traders that supply rich people with victims to torture and murder.

I did a lot of reading about this movie as I was waiting for it to be released in theaters, which is something I rarely do to the extent that I did with this one.

Most of the best info came from the official site, where there are real news articles that Roth drew inspiration from. Bizarre disapperances, and mysterious deaths centered around various hostels scattered throughout Europe. Also included among the articles are tales of human trafficking rings from all over the world, which at the time made me even more curious about where this movie was going to take me.

However, I was not expecting was the ficitonal formation of the Elite Hunting orgazination, which to me was a pleasant suprise, and a welcome departure from the usual slasher movie antagonist formulas.

I also have to add that the sudden shift in the movie’s tone was also a plus with me. Roth abandoning the camp elements to all the key horror scenes that are a constant in Cabin Fever.

The first act of Hostel has a bit of a light, and happy go lucky vibe, tempered with small doses of what is to come.

But about mid-movie things take a sudden turn, as the bottom falls out on Pax and Josh. It is almost as if you are growing sober with the characters, when they start to realize this is not where they want to be any longer. The shots becoming darker, and things are not as pretty as they seemed the day before.

I thought as a follow up film for Eli Roth, this was pretty good. There was a little more thought placed into this movie than there has been in the latest crop of Slasher films to flood the market. However my only criticism is that this film still suffers from a lack of character development. Sure it has improved from the characters that were in Cabin Fever, but it could still be improved on a bit more, along with the one terrible eye effect. Jesus christ how did that make it to editing looking like that. I would have thrown a fit if I made a movie and an effect looked as bad as that one. More importantly if I had paid money for effects and that was what I got.

Which now brings me to: I still do not see this movie as being the giant gore fest that some people make it out to be. If I believed everything I read on the internet, I’d swear that I was going to pay money to watch a snuff film. There is really no more, or less gore and torture scenes than there are in any other slasher films from any time period. Overreaction is the best hypebox of all time. And this movie got sucked right into it; the debate between people who hated it and people who loved it.

I feel that the people who hated it happened to be sitting in the wrong theatre on opening night of Hostel and looking for something to bitch about; and the people who loved it are kids that need to go to their video store and rent some slashers from the 70s, because they are just now discovering these styles of movies and aren’t aware of the others yet.

Whereas I personally think it rides the line, and provided me with an hour and a half of entertainment.