By far the best news I’ve heard all year.

Link.

The Dead Lantern Fantasy Football League, 2008 edition, is back. Last year, we had six teams vying for the trophy. I don’t mean to brag or anything, but I kicked everyone’s ass

I’m currently activating our league and a thought occured to me: Wouldn’t it be cool if we opened up the league to our fans as well? So without talking it over with anyone else here at Dead Lantern, I’m going to do just that. If you’d like to be invited into our fantasy football league, send me an e-mail at:

mat@deadlantern.com

I’ll send you an invitation. Don’t forget, your team name should be something horror related…

The Sci-Fi channel’s yearly Twilight Zone 4th of July Marathon is underway. It started early this morning and will go all the way through the 4th of July. 50 hours of non-stop Rod Serling goodness. Do yourself a favor and find some time to watch a few episodes if you aren’t familiar with the show.

Wow, these horror-oriented photos by Joshua Hoffine are stunning. He sets up the scenes almost like a movie, with “actors” getting into monster makeup and minimal Photoshopping after the fact. I would caution you against looking at these right before bedtime because they may just give you a nightmare!

Cheers, Josh, this is some killer work. I would totally buy a print and hang it on my wall… but your stuff is too scary, I couldn’t bear to have it in my house! (that’s a compliment, of sorts)

My apologies to anybody that Deejay offends in this episode (and there will be many).

We’re not shooting Outpost Doom next weekend so we’ll be back with a full show of prep spotlighting the Species flicks.

I went to Wanted tonight with my brother. The theater was pretty full for the 6:45pm showing. The movie’s been getting pretty good reviews. If I had never heard of the comic book by Mark Millar & JG Jones, then I would probably have liked this movie a lot more. I’d call it a good, bloody, wacky summer action flick and would easily recommend it. It’s a fun shoot-em-up movie, in and of itself.

But I am a fan of the comic, and as an adaptation of Millar’s story this movie is piss-poor. Where is Mr. Rictus? Where are all the zany supervillains? Where’s all of the comic booky stuff? And Angelina Jolie as Fox? I mean, I don’t have anything against Angelina Jolie, but I think the role could have been better cast. Or at least give Angelina some ears to wear. I will say that I like the slightly tweaked final beat they do in the movie better than the final beat of the comic. I think Millar sort of jumped the shark with that last panel and the movie keeps the same basic spirit and makes it a smidge more personable… but I think I’m splitting hairs.

I’m conflicted. As I said: In and of itself, Wanted is a fine summer popcorn action flick. Fans of the comic, however, will be highly disappointed. No Mr. Rictus? Seriously?

Buy the book here…

Many horror fans have probably heard of the gruesome on-set decapitation deaths of Vic Morrow and two child actors while filming Twilight Zone: The Movie. What you might not know is that John Landis went on trial…and should have been convicted of manslaughter. It’s a fascinating story and if you aren’t familiar with it, then check out this site for the full scoop.

Here’s an interesting short manga you can read online: The Enigma of Amigara Fault. Remember that manga is read from right-to-left.

Splattercast #84 has been uploaded. Our apologies to Greta Van Susteren.

p.s. I don’t know why they can’t find a decent host for this show. Tracy Morgan? Call Bruce Campbell, or something!

You may be wondering why I’m watching this? Well, I’m uploading all 4 tapes of Outpost Doom scenes we shot this past weekend and I need something to kill my time. Tiki is from 2006 and is directed by Ron Ford, who seems to bathe in crappy horror projects (he’s got Witchcraft XI on his resume). I’m anticipating some really awful stop motion puppetry and boobies. Will I get what I demand? And away we go!

2 min: Crazy dude has stuffed a redhead inside a sack and duct taped her mouth shut. We find out that her father owns an evil corporate cruiseliner outfit that put him (the “little guy”) out of business to line his pockets with greed. It’s payback time!

4 min: Tiki man slices off the dude’s fingers. Suspiciously, there is plastic all over the floors just like The Grand Horror…

5 min: Eyeball gouged out, throat slit…body falls perfectly onto the plastic. I’m having ‘Nam like flashbacks…

10 min: “Untie my frickin hands! C’mon, I’m not goddamned Hannibal Lecter!”

14 min: How ironic. The main character is going to college to be an actress. Maybe the director was trying to give some not-so-subtle advice.

20 min: I don’t know how it’s possible, but I think I’d rather be watching The Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher…

22 min: Boobies! Courtesy of the nasty, manish lead actress

28 min: Theatre kids are all bonkers. Take it from me. If you’ve ever been around a group of pretentious theatre majors you’ll know what I’m talking about. Anyway, this film is all told in flashback via one of the actresses who is now in an asylum. They play a trick on Amy and get her to show up at her instructors house in the middle of the night, looking to score. Once everybody starts laughing at her, she has a seizure on his front lawn. Oh yeah, she had been cast in the lead role of Pygmalion…

40 min: The Tiki Man is the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen. It’s literally just a piece of wood they are bouncing up and down. It didn’t even kill the last person. The guy just fell over on his own pitch fork.

41 min: They’ve got the Tiki Man attached to a wire and the actor is flailing around, acting like it is strangling him. This is some of the dumbest shit since 666 Demon Child

45 min: “Beads injected into her brain?!!!!! This sounds bad to me!!!!!”

53 min: Whoa! lesbian threesome out of nowhere! Only one girl takes off her top. lame.

56 min: Worst. Car off a cliff. Scene. Ever.

58 min: Tiki Man beats the big girl to death with her own shoes. Seriously.

68 min: Tiki Man ripps off the top of crazy girls’ skull. Then the main character wakes up from her coma, causing the Tiki Man to lose its power. Sigh…

76 min: Tiki Man scalps crazy girl. The End.

80 min: Catering by : Yo’ Dog Catering. Filmed on location in Spokane, Washington (that town must be proud)

Final Thoughts: Just an awful, awful movie. I’d rather have my wang puréed and then be forced to drink it then to ever watch this travesty of lost time ever again.

Opened my inbox to find an e-mail about a new horror flick called Frat House Massacre. Check out the trailer right here and find out more about the film at the ScreamKings website.