some films: Eye of the Devil (1966), The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967)

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I’ve been very critical of the popular horror website Bloody Disgusting in the past. They have this nasty habit of posting wild rumors as “scoops” or “exclusives” and then after an easy bit of digging around for the truth, the scoops are exposed as the junk that they are. Now, this doesn’t happen all the time, mind you. It’s not like every single scoop they get is wrong, but for me anyway, it happens with alarming regularity.

Case in point: Paul Thomas Anderson’s Next Film to be Horror!!!!!

Just looking at the retarded way the accompanying “news story” is presented should show you how bogus the “story” is. The article starts out with the words “This is quite possibly the biggest news we’ve ever reported in the history of Bloody-Disgusting.” It goes on to mention a “well trusted insider” told them Anderson is “seriously contemplating” making a horror film. I’ll hold up there for a second. Compare that to the declarative news headline and already I smell something fishy. If that didn’t raise your suspicion flags, perhaps the next line will:

“As of right now the project is just a thought that has yet to be put down on paper, but hopefully in the next few months or so a decision will be made.”

Like mentally-handicapped people to a short bus, every horror news site on the planet seemed to pick up this article and spread this rumor like a plague. Funny thing is, nobody asked Anderson:

“News to me. I thought I just made a horror film…Wish I had something to report, but I’m dry as a bone…pta”

This goes to the heart of why I hate Bloody-Disgusting. Yeah, yeah, I know a lot of people like them, and I know they claim to be the most popular horror site on the internet, but I, for one, refuse to visit their site. These guys pretty consistently run bogus news stories and it just pisses me off. Look, it’s easy for an internet site to get “duped” every now and then or run with a rumor because they are overly excited, everybody has done it. It’s another thing altogether to make a headline stating in a declarative fashion that Anderson is making a horror film. You know what bullshit like this does for them? It gets them visitors to their site. When tons of other horror sites feel the need to spread the “news”, all those people eventually find their way to Bloody-Disgusting. It’s a good business model, I suppose. Release some explosive headline every few weeks, get lots of visitors, and then not care when everyone forgets about it.

I’m not saying that a site can’t post a rumor. That’s just the nature of the beast when it comes to the internet. But in my mind, there should be some sort of “ethics” here. State up front that it is nothing more than a rumor and that until more facts come out, the news should be taken with a grain of salt. I mean, if we here at Deadlantern started making bogus news stories (a well placed source in Colorado told me Sam Raimi is secretly filming Evil Dead 4 right now!!!), I’d expect our readers and listeners to say “you guys are stupid. I’m going elsewhere”. If you enjoy Bloody-Disgusting, more power to you. For me, this site has lost all credibility and they lost it a long time ago. You would think that after the first 20 times they’ve been proven wrong, they’d tighten their standards. Apparently not. I’ll continue to be the one horror fan shouting at how lame they are from the dark corner.

Filed under: Commentary, News | 10 Comments »

Our pals over at TerrorTube are going to be interviewing 20th century pop star and 21st century Playboy covergirl Tiffany. Remember her? Why are they doing this you ask? Cuz she’s acting in a horror flick called Necrosis. The film involves a group of friends who become snowed in at an isolated cabin and become haunted by the spirits of the Donner Party…or could it all be in their heads?

Sounds cool. And Michael Berryman is in it. Anyways, if you have a burning question that you’ve always wanted to ask Tiffany, submit your question on this blog. With some quality and a little bit of luck perhaps your question will be asked when they do the interview.

I’m just curious: now that Tiffany is getting into horror, is Debbie Gibson gonna follow suit? In fact, now that I think about it, the coolest movie ever would be a slasher film starring long lost 80′s teen pop stars. The New Kids on the Block are the obligatory camp counselors. However, a killer is on the loose. In between bouts of cat fighting with Debbie Gibson, Tiffany heads off for an obligatory shower scene. Meanwhile, Ralph Macchio and Emilio Estevez are found brutally murdered with copies of Teen Beat shoved down their throats. After a wild cabin sex fest with Molly Ringwald, Kirk Cameron freaks out and run into the words screaming “I’m sorry Jesus!”. Just then, Ringwald is butchered while laying nude in the cabin bed. When the New Kids arrive, they see Ringwald smiling, 16 Bloody Candles, lit, sticking out of her punctured chest. Suspicion immediately falls on Kirk Cameron: it’s gotta be the Evangelical. We turn our attention back to Tiffany, still washing herself in the shower. What’s this? Debbie Gibson joins her? Looks like they’ve made up…

Long story short (cuz this is getting ridiculous): Tif and Deb are strangled in the shower with mountains of cassette tape. One by one, the New Kids are picked off until only Joey McIntyre is left. As the killer approaches menacingly, wearing a New Edition t-shirt, Joey blurts out “I knew you guys couldn’t handle our success!”. A mask is pulled away to reveal not Bobby Brown, but DONNIE WAHLBERG! Wahlberg then dances all over Joey’s face, crushing in his head. He calmly walks into a cabin, picks up the phone, and dials a number. After a brief pause, he says “Yes, I can totally do this horror thing”.

Filed under: News | 5 Comments »

This show scared the piss out of me when I was a kid. That theme song still gives me goosebumps when I hear it, and Robert Stack had pretty much the scariest voice ever. I’m scared right now just thinking about it. Anyway, X-Entertainment has a really good blog that sums up pretty much everything. I agree with everything the author writes. I’d check out the DVD’s, but I want to sleep at night

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Paul Wegener as The Golem

Filed under: Monsters | 4 Comments »

We are in the early planning stages of a fun theme episode to coincide with next month’s Oscar ceremony.

As most of you know, the Academy Award ceremony is a big gala event where the industry honors its “best” films and filmmakers. We’ve decided to do our own Oscar themed show to coincide with Hollywood’s:

The Spooky’s (does that mean we are technically the Splatcademy Awards?)

Our hope is to do the show just like the Oscars. We’ll be having multiple categories (both traditional categories like “Best Picture, actor, etc.” and fun categories like “Best Horror Podcast Not Named the Splattercast, best kill scene, etc.”) with nominees of 5 each which will be revealed in a few weeks. Here’s how it will work: just like the real Academy Awards, we at the Splattercast (being the elitists that we are) will vote for which films and filmmakers will get to be nominated. After the nominees are revealed, you the listener will have a chance to vote for the winner and will have a direct impact on which films, actors, and websites win a Spooky (design to be revealed at a later date). Our ceremony will be unveiled on the February 25th show (complete with soaring, swooping award show music, I hope ).

As I mentioned above, instead of an Oscar, we’ll be giving away a Spooky (maybe Deejay will make some small paper mache trophies )

So, get ready for the 1st Annual Splatcademy Awards, coming soon to a Splattercast near you…

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[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=QEswYNdBR1Y]

Trog (1970) d. Freddie Francis

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Freddie Francis. Genius.

Some films (as director and/or cinematographer of horror): The Innocents (1961), The Day of the Triffids (1962), The Brain (1962), Paranoiac (1963), Nightmare (1964), The Evil of Frankenstein (1964), Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (1965), The Skull (1965), The Psychopath (1966), Torture Garden (1967), The Deadly Bees (1967), They Came From Beyond Space (1967), Dracula Has Risen From the Grave (1968), Trog (1970), Tales From the Crypt (1972), The Creeping Flesh (1973), Son of Dracula (1974), Craze (1974), Legend of the Werewolf (1975), Dark Tower (1987), Cape Fear (1991)

Filed under: Men of Horror | No Comments »