Just updating the post I made on Saturday about the PA franchise, but apparently it’s now official. Paranormal Activity 3 has the biggest opening weekend of any horror film, clocking in at an above expectations $54 million. With overseas, it progressively entrapped $80 million buckeroos…on a budget of $5.

I think it’s safe to say that the Paranormal Activity movies are here to stay.

Well, The Thing Premakequel is finally here. It’s probably the biggest and most anticipated major studio horror release of the year. I think it’s safe to say that we’re all gonna see it. E-mail us (splattercast@deadlantern.com) or leave a voicemail (402-937-1947) with your reactions to the movie and we’ll discuss em on the show.We’ll have a full report on Monday’s Splattercast (Spoiler: fck the Witchboard movies, shiiiiiit)

Meanwhile, Mary Elizabeth Winstead….

Here’s a nice way to start your morning.

Danielle Harris was a discussion topic on the Round Table. You could probably imagine what the conversation was about.

Tonight, beginning around 8:30 pm central time on Skype, we’ll be doing a live viewing of IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE. The film is being screened on TCM tonight as part of John Carpenter’s guest programmer event. If you don’t have TCM, you can still watch the film along with us via Netflix Instant.

So be sure to e-mail us your Skype handle if you’re interested in being on Cold Case Cinema tonight.

This article is dedicated to Bryan from Drunken Zombie.

There has been much clamor over the past year about the inevitability of four 16 team Super Conferences. In the past year, teams like Nebraska, Colorado, and Texas A&M have all switched conferences signaling the start of a major change in college athletics as history and tradition are jettisoned for greener pa$tures. The  ultimate endgame of all this is that when the four super conferences are created, they will then opt out of the NCAA (A lot of people don’t know that the NCAA is a volunteer organization in that, the schools voluntarily allow it to police them and can snap their fingers and say “Fuck your sanctions” if they have 63 other schools having their back), keep all the money themselves, and get that playoff we all want started.

The driving force behind all of this is football. Or at least, that’s what we’ve all thought. But with the recent announcement that Syracuse and Pittsburgh are leaving the Big East for the ACC, and the new report today that the ACC is trying to round out its roster with Connecticut and Rutgers, the first conference to actively try to get a full 16 teams is the one conference nobody really regards as a football power. Pitt, Syracuse, and Connecticut, the two latter moreso than the former, are basketball powers. The ACC, of course, is home to North Carolina and Duke, and by extension has always been viewed as primarily a “basketball conference”. That’s not to say that the ACC is a chump when it comes to football, just that Florida State and Miami have been down the past decade and Virginia Tech for all their success, just isn’t a sexy program that garners the kind of respect that the ACC basketball schools command.

So I find it really interesting that the first conference to be proactive in getting 16 teams (the others have flirted with it in football, but have been afraid to pull the trigger) is a basketball conference. Make no mistake, Pitt, Syracuse, Uconn, and Rutgers are not scaring the likes of FSU, VaTech, or Miami. If anything, the football programs are gleeful. Why? Because the in conference football schedule gets decidedly easier allowing the big teams in the ACC to have a better shot at big bowl games and National Championships, while the basketball aspect of the ACC gets insanely stronger. Not only that, but it successfully stifles any attempt by the SEC to poach teams from the ACC and gives a big middle finger to Texas and their Longhorn Network.

Basketball has become the trigger that starts knocking the dominoes over, not football. As a devoted lover of all things basketball (way more than football), I find this to be an interesting angle of discussion in this football dominated world. I’ll be interested to see if the talking heads on ESPN bring this up at all during the next week or so.

Other thoughts

• What happens with Kansas when the Big 12 dissolves? My guess would be that the Big 10 will pick up Missouri and Kansas. Missouri is mid-tier successful in football and basketball, but Kansas is an all-time basketball program. That would be like Kentucky not having a conference. I would think that the Big 10 would jump on the chance to bring an all-time basketball program like Kansas into themselves because honestly, the Big 10 just isn’t a basketball power now that Indiana is nothing.
• Will Notre Dame be forced into joining a conference? Notre Dame places an unusually high importance on tradition. They’ve been basically playing the same schedule for a thousand years. But conference re-alignment is going to blow up a lot of their famous schedule and rivalries. ND is independent in football, but their basketball team is a member of the Big East, which is dissolving before their eyes. Would the Big 10 let ND in and give them a special exemption to keep that phat NBC tv contract? I don’t think so. ND is in a tough position.
• Who will the SEC add? West Virginia? Assuming that the ACC’s new 16 team conference holds together, who in the world is the SEC gonna go after? Texas would be the most prestigious, of course, but that Longhorn Network is a deal breaker in terms of a recruiting edge. Do they take a run at Missouri? It’s hard to see what “big time” splashy choices would be left for them to choose from. If they could make Texas their bitch and force their will on the Longhorns, that would certainly be something. But doesn’t it feel like the SEC, the most powerful conference in America, might be getting sloppy seconds? The ACC sorta punked them here.
• Oh, and poor, poor TCU. Those guys got fcked.

As is the Dead Lantern custom, he gets no practice and is thrown into the fires of expert immediately. Deep end of the zombie pool.

We’ll be on Xbox live tonight beginning around 10pm central time. You’re all invited to pop on and laugh at Bleak’s inevitable demise. We’ll be gaming into the morning hours.

Join us.

NoCalMike (a.k.a. Mike from Sacramento in the chat room) will be participating in a live radio call in show tonight around 8pm central time on Altered Realities Radio. I’m gonna try to get in on this after Steve and I are done working up a manly sweat in basketball.

You can check out the link to the live show and their live chat right here.

Last week, Jeff called in and chatted about England’s refusal to sell Human Centipede 2. This week, I feel like I might be the one defending the legitimacy of remakes in general with a focus on the horror remake. I won’t be on right at 8, but I encourage listeners to jump on their chat and interact with the lovely ladies hosting the show. Maybe we’ll get some good debate going!

The next con we’re going to is Days of the Dead which is next month, back in Indianapolis again. I’m excited for that but I guarantee it’ll be the last time we’re ever in Indy. It’s just not worth the money for gas, hotels, etc., especially when we can move just as many units 45 minutes from home.  We’ll have a full report of our Contagion adventures on Monday nights Splattercast including shout outs to all the swell people we met and Deejay will hopefully be back to tell us all about Greece!

Until then, Steve and I are gonna make it rain…right after I go to sleep.

This week’s episode of Cold Case Cinema, featuring The Green Years, will be posted on Friday. But just giving everyone a headsup that next week’s film, Seven Angry Men, is showing this Saturday, May 14th, at 12:00 am est.

Be sure to set your DVR’s! And bookmark the webpage for Cold Case Cinema.