Blogging Bits (and Bloody Body Parts)

It’s been quite some time since I’ve ventured out of my slasher closet and explored the wide world of horror blogging. There is so much quality coming out of the blogging community these days, with members of the League of Tana Tea Drinkers leading the charge.

Some recent blogging bits that caught my eye and might interest you as well:

• The persuasive John Skipp (talented author of THE LONG LAST CALL and JAKE’s WAKE) talked me into including the newly-released THE HILLS RUN RED in BUTCHER KNIVES & BODY COUNTS (the forthcoming anthology on slasher films that I’m editing for Dark Scribe Press), so effusive was his praise for this film. Freddy in Space offers some balance to dear Skipp’s unbridled enthusiasm. (Don’t worry, Skipp…the essay is still included!)


• Jeff Allard over at Dinner with Max Jenke offers up a thoughtful retrospective on the merits of THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS.


• Max over at The Drunken Severed Head gets creepy-crawly with the pontiff.


• My favorite Final Girl Stacie Ponder brings her penchant for movie posters into the public domain.


• Chad Helder explores the stigma of horror poetry over at Unspeakable Horror. Speaking of horror poetry…


• …my own first professional stabs at verse can be found in the new anthology DEATH IN COMMON: POEMS FROM UNLIKELY VICTIMS (Daverana Enterprises). Taking a cue from Edgar Lee Master’s classic SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY, this collection explores unique lives lived and lost, connected only by the shadowy serial killer who murdered them. Among the contributing writers with whom I’m honored to share the table of contents are Michael Arnzen, Wrath James White, Christopher Conlon, Marge Simon, and Steve Vernon. My own contributions – “Tyro” and “Chatroom Hustler” – are the results of working with a patient and supportive editor like Rich Ristow. I hope you’ll read Chad’s blog post and then go right out and pick up a copy of this marvelously macabre collection. Expand your horizons a bit and enter the twisted world of horror poetry – this isn’t your high school poetry reading list, I promise.


• Fascination with Fear’s Christine Hadden offers 10 good reasons you should be watching HBO’s TRUE BLOOD and offers an extended rant on Rob Zombie’s HALLOWEEN II.


• My Kindertrauma buddies let loose on the latest remake, this time SyFy Channel’s miscast, misguided, and otherwise missed opportunity version of Stephen King’s CHILDREN OF THE CORN. And while I’m with dear Unkle Lancifer on child actor Preston Bailey not having the same fright appeal of the original’s John Franklin as Isaac and the spot-on assessment of Kandyse McClure as a “borderline intolerable one-note harpy”, I’m going to disagree with him on the new and improved Malachi (Daniel Newman). Newman holds his own against Courtney Gains in the original – plus he has better hair. Oh, hell…who am I kidding? I was just hoping he’d turn up shirtless over at Billy Loves Stu…


• …where pal Pax Romano has taken to cataloging the Best Bare Chests in Horror. In the first two installments, he ponders the pec-tacular appeal of such hottie horror hunks as Ryan Reynolds, Jesse Bradford, Christian Bale, and the entire cast of THE COVENANT. I smell a calendar.


• Speaking of Billy Loves Stu’s proprietor, belated thanks for his lovely bequeathing me with a 2009 HOT ZOMBIE AWARD for excellence in horror blogging! Now, I was a shoo-in to win in my category – Best Blog By a Gay Man Obsessed with Jamie Lee Curtis – but it was still a thrill (Miss Jody Watley, if you’re nasty!) to be recognized in such a…unique…way. Somebody get this man off of ZOMBIELAND’s website pronto!


• Writers like good reviews even better than awards, so imagine my happiness over two wonderful reviews for THE LITERARY SIX from Ross Horsley over at the esteemed Retro Slashers and Pax Romano over at Billy Loves Stu – who, I swear, is not paid to be so damn nice to me! Three years after the book’s release, it’s very gratifying to come across reviews like this from folks who’ve enjoyed it. Thanks, gents!


• Speaking of shameless self-promotion, I had the distinct honor of being the guest du jour on The Funky Werepig on September 20th, where I talked for about an hour and a half about writing, editing, slasher films, and some broad named Jamie Lee. Some of my blogging brethren were on hand during the taping including Amanda Reyes of Made-For-TV Mayhem and, yes, Pax Romano from Billy Loves Stu. Special thanks to hosts Greg Hall and Jezzy Wolfe for graciously welcoming me into their playpen, asking great questions, and making me sound far more accomplished than I have any right to sound. An extra special nod, too, to the delightful and wickedly talented Fran Friel who talked me up to great lengths during her own episode!


• Among the newer LOTT D blogs that I’ve enjoyed becoming acquainted with these past few months is the delicious Day of the Woman, the brainchild of the equally yummy (it’s not patronizing when a gay guy says it, so relax, people!) Brittney-Jade Colangelo. Ms. Colangelo is a ferociously fierce blogging ingénue who explores "the feminine side of fear." Her posts are articulate and firmly rooted in the female perspective (which is woefully lacking in the horror genre on all fronts). Interspersed between her thoughtful essays, popular features like “Terrible Poster Tuesday” and “Bitch of the Month”, and the occasional vlog (video blogs), you’ll find my favorite feature, “Woman of the Week”. Past honorees in this DOTW feature include real women like Diablo Cody and Danielle Harris to fictional dames like Sookie Stackhouse. Frequent guest Brian Solomon from The Vault of Horror also adds to this weekly worship of wonderful women, his most recent being a thoughtful tribute to the sublime Sigourney Weaver. Colangelo shows that age is just a number with a maturity that belies her years. Plus, she’s just freaking adorable in a Rumer Willis kind of way. Deserving winner of a 2009 HOT ZOMBIE AWARD for Best Blog Written by a Gay Man Trapped in the Body of a Sexy Young College Co-Ed.

Other notable newbies include:

• Frederick from My Monster Memories explores horrors past in a charmingly retro blog, where you’ll find everything from DARK SHADOWS to DINOSAURS ATTACK, from Fulci to FRANKENSTEIN.


• I Love Horror is another LOTT D newbie. Great reviews and thoughtful debates by Brad McHargue. Particularly good was his take on the importance of horror blogging which landed over at FANGORIA.


• Evil On Two Legs has long been a favorite, and their weekly feature on DVD releases is one of the best on the web. Corey and Jon do an outstanding job coming up with fun features, their decidedly catty “Fashion Of…” segments being among my personal favorites.


• Finally, head on over to the League of Tana Tea Drinkers homepage, where you can learn a little (OK, in some cases way more than you want to) about the talented folks behind your favorite horror blogs. Recent profiles include: John Cozzoli (Zombos Closet of Horror), Ryne Barber (The Moon Is a Dead World), Curt Purcell (Groovy Age of Horror), John Kenneth Muir (Reflections on Film/TV), Chad Helder (Unspeakable Horror), Nate Yapp (Classic Horror), Jeff Allard (Dinner With Max Jenke), Kim Paffenroth (Gospel of the Living Dead), Christine Hadden (Fascination With Fear), and Casey Criswell (Cinema Fromage, among others.

I Know What I Did This Summer

So, it would appear that I’m back from my annual blogcation, that annual respite I allow myself during the month of July. Truth is, I’ve been swamped with projects and have been teetering at that frustrating crossroads in every writer’s life – between day job and writing – so the time away did me good, allowed me to catch up and regroup a bit.

In any event, I suspect this blog entry will be a hodgepodge of odds and ends meant to catch you up and finish some unfinished business. I sense a bulleted list on the horizon!

So, what did you think about HARPER’S ISLAND? First, I have to give some serious props to CBS for running the entire limited-run series – even if the network did screw the pooch a bit by relegating the show to Saturday nights (aka television’s graveyard shift). The show gained some serious momentum by the second half of its run, establishing genuine tension, peppering the proceedings with red herrings galore, and delivering a respectable body count. I was completely wrong in my guess of whodunit – suspecting that the unseen slasher was Maggie, the seemingly kindly wedding planner. Perhaps confirming why Agatha Christie stumped me every single time, it would appear that Maggie was, indeed, just a kindly wedding planner after all. (But, seriously, did they really have to let the poor thing’s body swing there outside the bar for so long?). I won’t ruin the big reveal for those of you waiting for the forthcoming DVD, but, suffice to say, the ending was fairly unpredictable and kept you guessing. Not surprised that CBS opted not to renew the series (the idea would have been to have another limited-run story arc play out with a new cast and new storyline) since the ratings were low by network standards despite respectable marketing efforts, but I hope some forward-thinking cable outlet will give the concept of another mystery/slasher limited-run series a shot. I hear some book called THE LITERARY SIX would make for some excellent source material!

During my blogging hiatus, I also managed to catch up on a few films I missed in the theaters. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed MIRRORS, especially going into it with the preconceived notion that it would suck ass. Far from the greatest horror film ever made, it nonetheless held my interest and gave me a few calculated shivers. I was equally surprised by how not-totally-bad the remake of THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL was. Now, I preface that statement with the disclaimer that I want to be reincarnated as Kathy Bates and that I’d watch her sit on a stool and talk into a camera for two hours without blinking. But, like MIRRORS, I could think of far worse ways to spend a few hours of down time. Same goes for ONE MISSED CALL – the weakest of the lot – but still far from the worse films I’ve ever seen. OK, not exactly ringing endorsements, so want an actual recommendation? COLD PREY. I’m late to the game on this Norwegian-lensed snowbound slasher, but this film is the real deal. It’s everything fans loved about the old school slashers (relatively attractive cast making bad decisions in an impossibly isolated location with more flawed logic than Proposition 8), with the added appeal of genuinely tense direction, a truly frightening, believable villain, and a refreshing lack of self-referential humor and one-liners. This is a balls-to-the-wall slasher film – nothing groundbreaking, but authentic to its core.

Project-wise, I’ve made the tough decision to push THE RENEWED to the side right now, opting instead to pour all of my concentration into FINAL GIRL. I’ve got so many pans in the fire right now that limit my available writing time as it is, so I had to pick one to focus on. After taking an insightful online workshop with my friend Alex Sokoloff a few months ago, I determined that FINAL GIRL simply has more commercial appeal. During Stoker Weekend this past June, I pitched the novel to two publishers, both of whom asked to see it when it’s done. So, what’s it about? Here’s the logline (with special thanks to both Chad Helder and Ms. Sokoloff for lending me their ears in Burbank to get it just right):

A former criminal psychologist with the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, a cub reporter who once jeopardized an old case, and a gay film historian form an unlikely alliance in tracking a serial killer targeting former scream queens and murdering them in elaborate re-creations of murder set pieces from 80’s slasher movies.

Oh, yes, my fellow slasher brethren, there will be trivia bits aplenty and more inside nods and winks to the diehard slasher fan than Sarah Palin makes political faux pas. This one’s decidedly a thriller with strong horror overtones. In the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing more with you during new installments of ‘Writerly Stuff’.

Now that submissions have closed, editing on BUTCHER KNIVES & BODY COUNTS has commenced. This is going to be a whopper of a tome, and I’m very excited about the quality of the essays submitted. I’ll be making the long-delayed announcement about the remaining contributors who’ll be rounding out the collection as soon as one or two stragglers (and you know who you are!) submit their pieces. I think it’s safe to say that the book is on target for its April/May release, and there are some exciting plans in the works for the launch party (Hint: Think film premiere!). I’ve also been approached about editing a themed anthology by another publisher and am now waiting to hear back on the formal proposal. Details will follow if the publisher bites back.

Loving the new season of TRUE BLOOD! Thrilled that Jason Stackhouse is done with that Fellowship of the Sun church business and hope he soon gets back to his lothario (read: naked) ways. Looks like the plotline involving Maryann the Maened is escalating just in time for Sookie, Bill, and company’s arrival back in Bon Temps. Say what you will about that sharp-clawed, shapeshifting she-beast, but she sure knows how to throw one hell of a party!

Trashy pop culture-wise, I enjoyed a wonderful season of Kathy Griffin’s MY LIFE ON THE D-LIST and am now in the thick of things on the new BIG BROTHER and HDTV’s DESIGN STAR. On the former, I’m thrilled that prissy, preening Jesse is gone and hope nerdy Michele has the cajones to put loud-mouthed Chima and the spoiled brat-like Natalie on the block in the upcoming double eviction week. On the latter, I’m rooting for the adorable Dan Vickery to win because 1) he’s good with power tools and 2) HDTV needs another drop-dead hunk with piercing eyes hosting one of its shows.

I've also added a virtual bookshelf to the blog. These are all books that either influenced my writing or just gave me countless hours of reading pleasure over the years. In most cases, a little of both. I'm proud to call some of these writers friends and colleagues now, so I hope you'll give the list a glance. Maybe grab a copy of one or two of the books on my list from your local independent bookstore or library and help keep reading alive and well.

Finally, the League of Tana Tea Drinkers has remained quite busy these past few months – adding several new worthy members to its ranks: Cinema Fromage, Cinema Suicide, Classic Horror, Day of the Woman, Evil on Two Legs, Fascination with Fear, I Love Horror, Igloo of the Uncanny, and Uranium Café. The blogroll at the right has been updated with the LOTT D’s current lineup, so please take a few moments and visit these intriguing blog worlds. Plus, want to know something about the bloggers themselves? Then check out the new member profiles at the LOTT D homepage.

Better Late Than Never

Seems that my blogging buddies over at the wonderful Kindertrauma bestowed Slasher Speak with a Premio Dardo Award last week! Yes, the Premio Dardo Award!

What the hell is a Premio Dardo Award, you ask?

Basically, it’s a virtual a chain letter or tagging meme, in the form of an award. It’s given out by bloggers to other bloggers as a gesture of admiration and then passed along by the recipients and bestowed upon other bloggers. Fun, huh? Not much out there on the origins of the award, but I was able to find this.

Nebulous origins of the award notwithstanding, it was lovely to be recognized by Unkle Lancifer and Aunt John, two ingenious bloggers whom I admire tremendously for their thematic consistency with Kindertrauma.

Now, one of the unwritten stipulations of the Premio Dardo Awards is that a recipient must, in turn, bestow the award on five more deserving blogs. So, without further adieu, the Premio Dardo Awards go to:

Unspeakable Horror – How can I not recognize the queer musings of my friend and frequent collaborator Chad Helder? After all, it was through his Unspeakable Horror blog that Slasher Speak was born. Chad does a marvelous job exploring the queer aspects of popular horror culture, with recent expansions into the world of comics and coaching for horror writers considering the indie route. Check out his amazing poetry while you’re there, too!

Billy Loves Stu – More queer musings, this time from pal Pax Romano, who explores the more homoerotic subtext in horror films with a marvelously campy sense of humor and the queerest eye this side of Fire Island.

Anchorwoman in Peril! – Ross Horsley’s blog should win for the camp-tastic title alone! Anchorwoman in Peril is a glorious tribute to damsels in distress, TV-movie mayhem, and more slashers than you can shake a machete at.

Retro Slashers – A definitive blog for everything related to slasher films, with reviews, news, and interviews galore. There is a genuine and refreshing respect for the genre conveyed by John Klyza and company here.

Storytellers Unplugged – What happens when a group of thirty authors, editors, booksellers, and publishing professionals who want to share their love of writing and “behind the scenes” tips with readers who are also interested in the magic of writing get together? The result is Storytellers Unplugged, one of the most informative and important blogs for readers and writers alike. Each day of the month a different columnist contributes a post - some are thought-provoking, some are humorous, but all are enlightening.

Blogging Bits (and Pieces)

OK. First order of business, what’s a self-respecting gay guy like me doing with a gratuitous T&A photo (well, "T" anyway) on my blog? Well, gotta throw one out to my breeder readers (all two or three of them) once in awhile, no? So, for all those among the Slasher Speak straightest, this one’s for you. (Just don't get used to it, fellas.)

Now, on to more appropriate and important business…

It’s been a bit since I’ve rounded up the brightest and best (or is that darkest and worst?) from around the horror blogosphere. Lots of good stuff out there, so here are some of the highlights:

• There’s a very cool roundtable interview with several horror bloggers from the esteemed League of Tana Tea Drinkers over at Dark Scribe Magazine.

• Billy Loves Stu celebrated a birthday and joined me in celebrating Jamie Lee Curtis’ big 5-0.

• There was much ado about the Top 50 Horror Films of All-Time list compiled by Brian Solomon over at Vault of Horror. Culled from polling 32 cyber-horror notables (somehow including moi), the list was in response to what B-Sol and others deemed the highly flawed survey results of HMV’s own poll. His posting of the list received over 70 comments and got picked up by such newsy notables as Fangoria and Bloody Disgusting.

• Speaking of Brian Solomon, he also offered up a terrific ½ hour interview via podcast with original Friday the 13th scripter Victor Miller.

• Those clever boys over at Kindertrauma compiled their own list of snow-scare horror films and then inexplicably left Terror Train off the list(!). Much camp and mock indignation ensued. Ultimately, the kindly Unkle Lancifer and Aunt John were forgiven since they did remember to include my favorite unsung slasher, Curtains.

• Joining the Kindertrauma tots with her own list of winter-themed horror movies over at AMC was Final Girl’s Stacie Ponder. Although she also omits Terror Train from her list, she does include the overlooked slasher-on-the-slopes Shredder.

• Lots of deserved tributes to the legendary Forrest J Ackerman following his passing at the age of 92 last week. Read what Frankensteinia, Blogue Macabre, Vault of Horror, Dinner with Max Jenke, The Good, The Bad, and Godzilla, and Zombos Closet of Horror had to say about this great man and consummate sci-fi/B-movie champion and collector.

• Jeff Allard’s enthusiasm over the imminent arrival of the legendary lost footage from the original My Bloody Valentine rivals only mine. Read his insightful thoughts about the generation gap as it relates to lost film footage over at Dinner with Max Jenke.

• The legend of Bloody Mary (no, not the drink, you alcoholic queens!) was rehashed and remembered over at Paul Bibeau’s Goblin Books blog. The topic seemed to grab his interest a bit in subsequent posts here and here...and here and here. Oh, here, too.

• Groovy Age of Horror continued its series on supernatural horror with its sixth installment, Imagination, Feeling, & Belief. If you like what you read, check out the rest of the series here.

• Cinema Fromage felt little love for Return to Sleepaway Camp, while Ryne over at The Moon Is Dead managed to use the uber-cool word “festooned” in his review of the Prom Night remake. John Morehead of TheoFantastique offered up a critical analysis of the literary phenomenon-turned-cinematic success known as Twilight.

• CRWM over at And Now the Screaming Starts offered something for us bibliophiles and literary types (We need more blogging about books, folks! Not everything revolves around film!) with his review of the forthcoming Doubleday tome Glister, by John Burnside. While an excellent review in and of itself, it’s CRWM’s interesting theory on blurbs – which he somehow rather successfully links back to Russian gangsters(!) – that really grabs, informs, and entertains.

• Max over at The Drunken Severed Head offered up a travelogue of sorts, taking his readers to Zombie Fest 2008 at Pittsburgh’s Monroeville Mall, the infamous site where much of George R. Romero’s classic Dawn of the Dead was shot. While there, Max ran into fellow LOTTD’er Kim (Gospel of the Living Dead) Paffenroth and KISS’ Gene Simmons. (Hey, I only report what I read!)

• Unspeakable Horror’s Chad Helder enjoyed an excellent review of his Vincent Price Presents… comic book series from Zombos Closet of Horror and offered the first of his recommendations for Xmas horror comics for all those bad little boys and girls – overgrown and otherwise – on your holiday gift-buying lists.

• Imagine my surprise when Ross Horsley of the fab-tacular Anchorwoman in Peril selected The Literary Six to mark Day 20 in his Sham Shocktober countdown! I was surprised, flattered, and humbled all at the same time. Ross, if you read this, you’ve got a signed copy of the book with your name on it. (I can’t seem to find a link to contact you on your blog, my friend.)

• Lastly, for all you writers out there, don’t forget that I’m editing an anthology of non-fiction essays on slasher films called Butcher Knives & Body Counts: Essays on the Formula, Frights, and Fun of the Slasher Film for Dark Scribe Press. A call for submissions went out in early October, but the holiday season has slowed incoming submissions to a trickle. No submissions, no book. So put down the holiday tinsel and get writing!

Blogging Bits and Other Nibbles...

Bad blogging queen that I am, it's been a few weeks since I highlighted some of my favorite blog bits from around the virtual universe.

Before we grab our virtual surfboards and hit the blogs, my fellow brothers and sisters of the League of Tana Tea Drinkers (check out the spiffy new look of the group's homepage) recently offered up another insightful roundtable at Blogcritics Magazine. The topic this time around is the allure of of evil in horror.

Now here's a look at some of the more marvelous morsels that I've stmbled upon in recent weeks:

• Over at The Vault of Horror, the topic of children watching violent movies is discussed following a recent study published in the August issue of Pediatrics, the official journal of the Academy of Pediatrics. The study documents widespread exposure of young US adolescents to movies with extreme graphic violence from movies rated R for violence and questions the effectiveness of the current movie-rating system. So how old is "old enough" to see the likes of Saw and Hostel? Jump into the Vault and discuss. (There's also a fun little poll about the hottest scream queen and a nice chance to vote for Jamie Lee!)




• Pax Romano over at Billy Loves Stu (quickly becoming a favorite blogger of mine alongside the kiddies of Kindertrauma!) has a fun item or two that gave me more than a few gay giggles. First up is his lament over the cinematic demise of Glen Lantz. the character played by one-time teen heartthrob-turned-marauding pirate Johnny Depp in A Nightmare on Elm Street. Those old images of young Johnny boy in his clingy gray sweatpants and teasing half-shirts caused a reminiscent sigh as I remembered late nights, cable TV, and the fantasies of a teenage slasher geek(!). A few more belly laughs followed with his examination of a dozen other lesser-know Camp Crystal Lake denizens. From grabby-hands Enos, the truck driver, to sassy Sandy, the diner waitress, you'll never look at Friday the 13th the same way again.




• My favorite playmates over at Kindertrauma offer up a side-splitting take on some fantasy film casting. This time, it's Janet Leigh who's thrown out of the shower and replaced with...well, you just have to see it to fully appreciate their genuis.




• Mark your address books because John Moorehead has moved his thought-provoking TheoFantastique to a new location. While you're there, I'll call your attention to a retrospective John did on the creepy 1981 film Dead & Buried a few weeks ago.




• Over at Love Train for the Tenebrous Empire, hostess Tenebrous Kate delves deep into the camp-tastic Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. She had me at the Josie and the Pussycats analogy and Wikipedia link(!).




• The refreshingly cerebral Kim Paffenroth (that's Dr. Paffenroth to you!) posted the intriguing prologue to Valley of the Dead, his latest zombie-fied historical re-creation. This time he's visiting Dante's circles of hell where he finds cannibalism among the Christian discourse. And you know the old expression: Where there's cannibalism...




• CRwm over at And Now the Screaming Starts visits Mulberry Street and Stuart Gordon's take on Poe's The Black Cat.




• Finally, Final Girl offers up the latest installment of its popular film club, with a look back at 1977's The Car. Dinner with Max Jenke and Evil on Two Legs go along for the ride.

Nothing else doing. Finishing up editing and formatting the Unspeakable Horror: From the Shadows of the Closet anthology and getting ready to announce Dark Scribe Press' next project. Think non-fiction and feminine(!).

All Around the World (or Blogging Bits)

Like the Lisa Stansfield song, I’ve been all around the (blogging) world and I…I…I…(cue obligatory Jamie Lee Curtis photo):

My fellow horror bloggers from the League of Tana Tea Drinkers have an excellent roundtable exploration of evil children in horror up at BlogCritics. Jump in and join the discussion.

Fathers figured heavily into the blogging week as Father’s Day was celebrated. Comic-themed Horrors of It All paid special tribute to Dads everywhere with a look back at artist Bernie Wrightson’s comic version of the Creepshow vignette "Father’s Day" from the July 1982 graphic novel adaptation of the pre-code horror-inspired George Romero-directed, Stephen King-penned film. Hosts Unkle Lancifer and Aunt John over at Kindertrauma presented their picks for Trauma-daddies, stamping those father figures in horror with seals of approval or disapproval. Finally, Carnaki over at The Mystery of the Haunted Vampire posted a poignant Father’s Day tribute to his own Dad and shared some thoughts on responsible fatherhood, proving that sometimes it’s not all about the horror.

Speaking of critics, they haven’t been kind to M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening, which I weighed in myself on this past Sunday. Check out some of the other LOTT D reviews at Horror’s Not Dead and Vault of Horror.

Some other highlights from the horror blogging community that caught my eye:

• LOTT D newbie Jeff over at Dinner with Max Jenke has an excellent retrospective on special effects great Tom Burman, while numerous blogs paid tribute to legendary special effects pioneer Stan Winston who passed away on June 15th from multiple myeloma at the age of 62.
• Kindertrauma also celebrated Friday the 13th by posting some cool artwork by artist Jim Horwat that was inspired by the iconic film franchise.
• Board Tenebrous Kate’s Love Train for the Tenebrous Empire blog for an oddly titillating look at sexualized nuns as depicted in the works of surrealist painter Clovis Trouille. Check it out – but be prepared for a healthy dose of Catholic remorse for doing so afterward!
• At TheoFantastique, John Moorehead pondered the connection between religion and horror.
• Kim Paffenroth at Gospel of the Living Dead celebrates the first blurb for his forthcoming Dying to Live 2: Life Sentence tome from fellow zombie scribe Dave Wellington of the Monster Island/Nation/Planet series.
• Groovy Age of Horror continues its insightful discussion on supernatural horror.

Tuesday Morning Blues & Blogging Bits

Long holiday weekends are excellent reprieves from the daily grind…until they end, that is. Woke up this morning and felt those Monday morning blues big time. Ugh. Then I realized it was Tuesday. Looking at the proverbial glass as half full, that means less days until the weekend. That perked me up a bit. Tuesday…the new Monday.

Never got around to watching the queer-version of House of Usher, but did manage to see (finally) Planet Terror over the weekend – the half of Grindhouse I hadn’t seen yet. Fun stuff. Campy dialogue, over-the-top gore, and retro-stylishly done. And singer-turned-sometimes-actress Fergie gets ripped to shreds early on and becomes Black Eyed Pea road kill. Girl can’t catch a break. You’ll recall that she was also one of the first casualties of the rogue tsunami wave in the Poseidon remake. Fergie’s fate aside, kudos to Robert Rodriguez and company for a fine effort.

The League of Tana Tea Drinkers (or LOTT D) got some nice exposure recently with its roundtable discussion on torture porn at Blogcritics Magazine. Interesting discussion ensued at various Internet stops. Hats off to John Cozzoli from Zombos Closet of Horrors who has done an outstanding job forming LOTT D and coming up with these innovative ways to garner exposure for the LOTT D participants.

One of the best parts of my LOTT D involvement has been my own exposure to new and insightful horror blogs. I’m amazed by the degree of thematic complexity and depth of creativity that some of their creators go to in establishing these Internet watering holes. Over at Kindertrauma, for example, hosts Unkle Lancifer and Aunt John offer a (pop) cultural exploration of childhood fears. Movies, books, toys, and anything else that scared you as a child are topics open for discussion, as is anything to do with children in scary movies. Of particular merit are Kindertrauma’s series of “faux-sters” – or movie posters for sequels that might have been. These wildly ingenious creations come complete with artwork that pays tribute to the original and hysterical taglines like “Roses are red; Violets are blue, what makes you think you can survive part 2?” (for My Bloody Valentine II: Till Death Do We Part) and “Don’t bother showing up for rehearsal…YOUR PARTS BEEN CUT!” (for Curtains 2). It’s a simultaneous jolt of nostalgia and humor that will leave you smiling from ear to ear.

Stacie Ponder over at Final Girl made me laugh out loud last week with her uproarious poll that asked which horror movie characters would make the coolest toys. Of course, Ponder does everything with her tongue firmly planted in cheek, so the choices didn’t include the usual suspects like Jason or Michael or Freddy - but rather Cropsy, the horribly burned camp caretaker from The Burning, the raincoat killer from Alice, Sweet Alice, the nubile coed twins from Friday the 13th, Part IV, and (my personal favorite and vote) Mrs. Kobritz from The Fog (!). Although the poll is closed, the results can still be viewed. Alas, Mrs. Kobritz was not a winner. I demand a recount, BTW.

Some other LOTT D highlights from the last week:

• Both John W. Morehead of TheoFantastique and recent Slasher Speak guest Arbogast of Abrbogast of Film offer two takes on the cinematic merits of the various incarnations of Richard Matheson’s short story “I Am Legend” over at their respective blogs.


• Gary over at Blogue Macabre offer up some helpful hints to surviving with the next zombie outbreak. It’s all about the plan, after all.


• Max over at The Drunken Severed Head takes readers on a two-part tour of the controversial “Bodies: The Exhibition” art exhibit. Fascinating stuff for anyone with the stomach.


• Pierre Fournier over at Frankensteinia celebrates three actors whose cinematic influence on the Frankenstein mythos is legendary – Peter Cushing, Vincent Price and Christopher Lee. It should be noted that Pierre has been announced as an inductee into the Canadian Comic Book Creator Hall of Fame for 2008, as part of the annual Joe Shuster Awards which are named after the Canadian-born co-creator of Superman. Congrats, Pierre, on such a well-deserved honor!


• Stoker-winner Kim Paffenroth over at Gospel of the Living Dead needs some help naming his next novel – an intriguing-sounding tome-in-the-making in which the great Italian poet Dante fights hordes of zombies (!). Stop by and help him out, huh?


• Curt Purcell over at Groovy Age of Horror serves up the first installment of what promises to be an insightful series about the merits of supernatural horror.


• Peter Hall, proprietor of Horror’s Not Dead, welcomes guest reviewer RJ Sayer who makes a surprising choice for an in-depth review of an 80’s slasher film – 1982’s The Dorm that Dripped Blood.


• Finally, the fine folks over at The Vault of Horror blog advise moviegoers not to believe all the hype surrounding the new horror flick The Strangers.

And finally finally, we’ve got news regarding the name-all-the-movies-represented-in-my-new-blog-header contest. (I really should’ve come up with something a bit catchier, eh?) Out of the thousands of entries received (ok…maybe that’s a slight exaggeration), there were only (3) Slasher Speak readers who correctly identified all (12) of the films represented in the new header. Those folks have been contacted and I’ll be posting their names and that of the grand prize winner tomorrow.

For those interested, the (12) films represented in the new Slasher Speak banner are:

• The Howling


• Hellbent


• Maniac


• Sleepaway Camp


• Valentine


• The Burning


• Deadly Blessing


• My Bloody Valentine


• Terror Train


• Prom Night


• Dead & Buried


• April Fool’s Day (this was the deal-breaker for most!)
  

A Guest for Dinner...

As part of Slasher Speak's ongoing affiliation with the League of Tana Tea Drinkers, I've invited a guest for dinner. Please welcome Arbogast, a ubiquitous print and Internet critic who blogs under an alias just for the love of the game, from the blog Arbogast on Film. Although his mother undoubtedly warned him that religion and politics don't make for good dinner conversation, he sits down to explore the decidedly Jewish subtext of Wes Craven's classic slasher Last House on the Left.

Someone pass the brisket, please.

"There Will Be Blood Libel" (by Arbogast / May 3, 2008)

My first reaction upon seeing photos of the cast of the 2008 remake of Last House on the Left was "Funny, they don't look Jewish."

I consider Wes Craven's Last House on the Left (1972) to be one of the great unintentional blood libels of the latter half of the 20th Century. I don't think for a minute that Craven is anti-Semitic but rather that he, like all of us, carries with him learned associations that exist apart from his conscious mind. Just as David Lynch has in the past identified a sense of evil in effeminacy (Blue Velvet) and ethnicity (Wild At Heart), Wes Craven particularizes in Last House on the Left his perception of pure evil with a distinctly Hebraic flavor. Though none of the characters identify themselves explicitly as being Jewish, David Hess' Krug is depicted as an obnoxious cigar-smoking "Jew Yorker" whose perpetual stubble, curly hair, olive-colored skin and outer borough accent code him as an obvious Heeb. Add to that, Krug has been convicted for the killing of a Catholic priest and two nuns.

Cast in the role of Krug's accomplice, Weasel Podowski, Fred J. Lincoln wears the slate-colored hair and slack suit of a Lower East Side alter cocker while both Jeramie Rain (as Sadie, a common Jewish name that also brings to mind Manson killer Susan Atkins, aka Sadie Mae Glutz) and Marc Sheffler (as Krug's schlemiel of a son, Junior) have "difficult" ethnic hair. Weasel's rap sheet identifies him as a child molester, which fits the historical blood libel that slandered Jews as sacrificers of children. The quartet is shown to be "animal-like," to inhabit a dirty tenement (a dwelling associated with foreigners) and, while transporting their kidnap victims from the city to the country, Krug and Sadie engage in rear-entry sex (coitus more ferarum, or "sex by way of the beasts"), a form of copulation frequently associated (however unfairly) with non-Christians.

The transition of the kidnappers/killers from the city to the country is a key element of Last House on the Left, illustrating an old white Anglo-Saxon fear of the contamination of suburbia's assumed purity by ethnic types (as Fairfield County, the film's location and setting, became a destination for upwardly mobile urban Jews post-World War II). The waspy surname of one of the victims and her parents, Collingwood, is eerily similar to Sadie's imaged alias (Agatha Greenwood), suggesting that Krug & Company aspire in some part to assimilate even while they shred the very fabric of Christian society.

In the film's most disturbing sequence, Krug, Weasel and Sadie kill their captives after stripping them and humiliating them sexually. When Phyllis tries to escape, she is run to ground, stabbed and then butchered in a scene that can't help but evoke shechita, or Jewish ritual slaughter. Phyllis' intestines are pulled out of her oozing abdominal cavity and examined, as a shochet would do to determine if a slaughtered animal were fit to be declared kosher. Obviously, Phyllis' disemboweling is not genuinely kosher but does suggest that Krug & Co. are operating on auto pilot, as if by collective cultural memory, in the same way that their earlier torment of Phyllis and Mari echoed the treatment of Jews bound for concentration camps. The kidnappers seem to be maltreating their captives as a form of confused racial self-hatred, channeling ritualistic acts that both glorify and slander their ancestors.

Having killed Phylllis, Krug rapes Mari...but not before he uses a switchblade to carve his name into her sternum. This gesture reminded me of Rabbi Lowe scratching the word "EMET" into the forehead of The Golem. (With his helmet hair, Krug even resembles Paul Wegener's iconic 1920 interpretation of The Golem.) As EMET is the Hebrew word for "truth," Krug's mutilation of Mari might be said to be his way of sending a wake-up call to WASP society, announcing both his arrival and his intention to destroy their four-square, missionary position world. (In this regard, Krug also bears a resemblance to the character of Berger from the musical Hair, who comes to his position of iconoclastic hippie king from a distinctly urban Jewish environment.) And can it be mere coincidence that Krug comes to his decision to shoot Mari after having overheard her reciting the Lord's Prayer, as she wades into a woodland pond in a cleansing act of self baptism?

At this point it's worth remembering that Last House on the Left is a remake of sorts of Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring (1960), a Medieval morality tale set at a time when Christianity was waging war against Paganism for world and spiritual dominance. Last House hews closely to the Virgin Spring template by having its spree killers (who pose as salesmen, and in so doing aligning themselves with Jews via the merchant class) taken in by Mari's parents, who feed them in a scene that mimics da Vinci's The Last Supper (while leaving an empty chair in the foreground - for Elijah?). Over the course of the evening, the truth comes out and Mari's parents turn on her killers. While the ensuing slaughter is strong stuff, the third act's oddest/most brutal bit of business is Mrs. Collingwood's oral castration of Weasel in a scene that seems to mock the Jewish rite of circumcision (thus explaining the chair left empty for Elijah). It should also be noted that she performs this act after first using Weasel's leather belt to bind his hands in what could be construed as an allusion to the philactery, the calfskin box containing Hebraic scripture that some Jews wear strapped to their heads and wrapped around their left arms during weekday prayers.

Again, I hasten to add that I don't believe ex-Baptist Wes Craven set out to slander the Jews with Last House on the Left but the Jewishness of the killers he created cannot be ignored. My feeling is that Craven was writing/casting/directing instinctively from a series of societal and cultural presets and prejudices. Certainly, living and working (first as a taxi driver and then as a young filmmaker) in New York, Craven would have had plenty of negative experiences with people of all ethnic persuasions. I half suspect Krug was modeled on a particularly noxious distributor who blew fetid cigar smoke in Craven's face while cheating him out of profits. However it all came together, these textures (real or imagined) give the original Last House on the Left intriguing layers of meaning. You won't find this kind of subtext in a New Millennium remake claiming to pay homage to 70's cinema while pissing all over a glorious, difficult and demanding decade that was never afraid to get blood on its hands.

Well? What did you think? Share some thoughts, love, and death threats directly with Arbogast at his insightful blog where thought-provoking topics abound and the double entendres fly fast and furious!

Thanks for stopping by, Arbogast. And thanks for bringing the homemade chremzlach and hamantaschen - both were to die for!

The League of Tana Tea Drinkers…or What Have I Gotten Myself Involved In Now?

I received a gracious invitation from John Cozzoli of Zombos Closet of Horror to join a new horror blogging community called the League of Tana Tea Drinkers. With the promise of white gloves and cucumber sandwiches (crust intact), I’ve accepted. Mind you, I have no idea what I’ve gotten myself into, but with Iloz Zoc (the long suffering valet to Zombos...you remember Zombos, don’t you? The B-grade actor in numerous grade C horror films, most of them now forgotten by his few remaining and decaying fans?) involved there’s always the promise of Grand Guignol fun aplenty. Confused yet? Stick around; it only gets worse (or better depending upon the degree of dissociative disorder from which you suffer).

The LOTT D mission statement:

“Our mission is to acknowledge, foster, and support thoughtful, articulate, and creative blogs built on an appreciation of the horror and sci-horror genre.

Horror bloggers are a unique group of devoted fans and professionals, from all walks of life, who keep the horror genre, in all its permutations and media outlets, alive and kicking.

Often spending long hours to keep their blogs informative and fun, horror bloggers share their unique mix of personality, culture and knowledge freely to fans of a genre difficult to describe, but easy to love.

It's time to honor exemplary horror blogs with our own special insignia: one that signifies the heights to which we aspire, and the code of excellence we follow to promote horror in all its wonderfully frightening forms, from classic to contemporary, from philosophical to schlockical.

The League of Tana Tea Drinkers recognizes horror bloggers who toil away the extra midnight hour to present the best in horror blogging, who reach the heights of horrifying excellence, know what rapture it is to sip Tana Tea by the full moon, and feel the thrill of trodding the dark passageways beneath the earth in search of the unusual, the terrifying, and the monstrous. For the fun of it.”

To see who else has joined me in this (ahem) professional blogging undertaking of momentous proportion, check out the various blog links to the right under the LOTT D icon.

Click here to read an old interview I did with the wacky denizens of Zombos Closet of Horror.