Bogeymen
The Monster
is the Movie
Teen friends go to see a horror film, and soon find themselves “starring” as the film’s victims. That’s the plot of Midnight Movie (2008), which won Best Feature Film and Best Cinematograhy honors at this year’s Chicago Horror Film Festival. To see the trailer, click here.
Leprechaun,
Warlock Comics
In the Works
In 2009, Bluewater Productions and Lionsgate will develop lines of comic books based on the horror films Leprechaun and Warlock. Following the success of its Vincent Price Presents series, Bluewater says it plans to continue to step up its production of horror comics.
Wire Finishes
6th Season
Wire in the Blood drew strong ratings as it wrapped up its sixth season on British television. Americans without BBC America access should check out the series on DVD the next time they're at the video store.
The show, which stars stars Robson Green as Tony Hill, a professor who helps police catch serial killers, is as compelling and gritty as anything on the tube.
Wire in the Blood is based on a series of books by Scottish author Val McDermid.
Deadly Preacher
Stalks Kids
In 1955's The Night of the Hunter, Robert Mitchum gives a stunning performance as preacher Harry Powell, a sadistic religious fanatic with famously tatooed knuckles that read "LOVE" and "HATE." He marries a pathetic, gullible widow (Shelley Winters) whose young children know where their dead father hid $10,000 he'd stolen in a robbery. Too bad for the widow and too bad for the kids.
• A family on the ropes does some haunted housesitting in Stephen King's The Shining.
• Meet Dexter, a serial killer who only kills other killers.
• Preview Two Front Teeth, coming Nov. 25 on DVD, which features a vampire Santa and evil elves.
• Few screen killers match the intensity of Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs.
• Michael Rooker terrifies as the title character in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.
• In Haddonfield, Ill., Halloween is overshadowed by a savage stalker.
• Five friends cross paths with a family of madmen in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
The Nightmare Man
You could call him Walking Evil. He steps from the darkest recesses of your imagination, possessed of a grim determination to kill. Perhaps he has supernatural powers or just superhuman stamina or maybe just the stomach for some truly grisly business, but the Bogeyman, in his many forms, is always a force of horrific destruction, and woe to all he meets on his way.
It's No Joke
Clowns have long been a source of both joy and terror, depending on the context. As Lon Chaney once put it, "A clown is funny in the circus ring, but what would be the normal reaction to opening a door at midnight and finding the same clown standing there in the moonlight?"
In the film The Dark Knight (2008), actor Heath Ledger brilliantly portrays the comic-book character the Joker as a homicidal sociopath who is more interested in creating destruction and anarchy than attaining riches. Ledger's haunting take on Batman's foe manages to cast an iconic character in a fresh light and, in the process, makes a notable addition to the lore of the evil clown.
A Devil We Know
Originally a human, Pinhead (above), the demonic star of the Clive Barker's Hell-Raiser films, began life as Elliot Spenser. As a captain in the British military at the Battle of Flanders in 1916, Spenser's mind snaps. He descends into a maelstrom of alcohol and drugs, then turns to Black Magic. He winds up possessing a mysterious box called the Lament Configuration, which turns out to be a portal to Hell, and Spenser becomes Lead Cenobite, one of the screen's most frightening characters of all time.
The Dream Killer
Freddy Krueger, the infamous slayer of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, is a monster who strikes at his victims in their dreams--often with 6-inch blades that protrude from the fingers of his gloves.
Nothing Sweet About This Man
Another Clive Barker creation, Candyman (1992), shows what happens when an enterprising student (Virginia Madsen) sets out to explore an urban myth.
Instead, of course, she learns that the myth of the evil being who appears when one says his name five times in front of a mirror is not only true but more horrifying than she could ever have imagined.
Played by Tony Todd, Candyman went on to appear in two sequels.
Look Out for This Hockey Puck
How did the number 13 get such a bad rep in the first place? Especially when it falls on a Friday?
Capitalizing on our dread of the number and the squeamish thrills created by invincible celluloid slashers, Georgetown Productions Inc. released the 1980 movie Friday the 13th, starring, among others, Kevin Bacon as Jack Burrell and Ari Lehman as Jason Voorhees, a deeply disturbed, goalie-masked killer who goes on to butcher his way through teenage campers in a series of grisly films.
Jason, born deformed, has supernatural strength and stamina to go along with his workmanlike approach to hacking kids to pieces.
His dislike of campers stems, in part, from a bad experience in his youth involving two counselors who were too busy making love to rescue him from drowning.
The Original Scary Guy in a Mask
First serialized between September 1909 and January 1910, mystery novelist Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera, about a mysterious figure who haunts the catacombs of Paris' Opera Garnier, has become a French literary classic.
Leroux's Phantom, Erik Claudin, is a disfigured composer obsessed with a beautiful soprano, Christine Daae. His love, of course, is unrequited and grows increasingly dark and dangerous.
This tale of suspense has captured the imagination of generations of readers, and has been translated to both the stage and the silver screen.
Perhaps the most famous screen adaptation is Rupert Julian's 1925 silent film starring Lon Chaney.
This Woman Really Bites
Such a sweet-looking girl. Dawn (Jess Weixler) (above), the protagonist in director Mitchell Lichtenstein's Teeth (2007) has a set of choppers that would strike fear into any red-blooded heterosexual male. That's because the deadly teeth in question are not the ones in her mouth. They're the ones she carries downtown. The condition, known as vagina dentata, is the subject of mythology dating back to ancient times. At first, the bizarre chompers seem to be a curse for the poor girl, who is traumatized by the damage it does to would-be lovers. However, thanks in part to her terrible luck with men, Dawn shakes off her disgust with the damage done by her dentata and develops, well, a taste for it. The sometimes darkly humorous and often squirm-inducing film earned Weixler a Special Dramatic Jury Prize for Acting from the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.
They're Altogether Ooky
Combining horror with humor is a risky gambit that misfires more often than it hits the target. In television, the most successful attempt at comic creepiness was probably The Addams Family (1964 to 1966).
Based on the cartoons of New Yorker artist Charles Addams, the ABC-TV show revolves around the exploits of a family of darkly funny sociopaths. Gomez (John Austin) is the wild-eyed patriarch of the clan with a fondness for gunplay, whips and the tango, among other pastimes. Morticia (Carolyn Jones) is the matriarch, who delivers comically inappropriate advice and commentary in a deadpan manner rarely broken by anything other than her appreciation for Gomez's steamy advances. Lurch, the butler, is a Frankenstein monster with a deep voice and, occasionally, issues of his own. Uncle Fester is something of a mad scientist and a masochist. Other characters include a pair of morbidly curious pre-Goth darkside children and an animated hand called Thing.
Some argue that The Addams Family was a ham-handed spinoff of the often-biting Addams cartoons and the short-lived series probably mined the potential plot lines for all they were worth, but the show is genuinely funny in its own twisted way, features lovable crazies and holds up well.
Go Smart
With these bargain-priced GPS units, you'll always know where you're going.
You could call him Walking Evil. He steps from the darkest recesses of your imagination, possessed of a grim determination to kill. Perhaps he has supernatural powers or just superhuman stamina or maybe just the stomach for some truly grisly business, but the Bogeyman, in his many forms, is always a force of horrific destruction, and woe to all he meets on his way.
It's No Joke
Clowns have long been a source of both joy and terror, depending on the context. As Lon Chaney once put it, "A clown is funny in the circus ring, but what would be the normal reaction to opening a door at midnight and finding the same clown standing there in the moonlight?"
In the film The Dark Knight (2008), actor Heath Ledger brilliantly portrays the comic-book character the Joker as a homicidal sociopath who is more interested in creating destruction and anarchy than attaining riches. Ledger's haunting take on Batman's foe manages to cast an iconic character in a fresh light and, in the process, makes a notable addition to the lore of the evil clown.
A Devil We Know
Originally a human, Pinhead (above), the demonic star of the Clive Barker's Hell-Raiser films, began life as Elliot Spenser. As a captain in the British military at the Battle of Flanders in 1916, Spenser's mind snaps. He descends into a maelstrom of alcohol and drugs, then turns to Black Magic. He winds up possessing a mysterious box called the Lament Configuration, which turns out to be a portal to Hell, and Spenser becomes Lead Cenobite, one of the screen's most frightening characters of all time.
The Dream Killer
Freddy Krueger, the infamous slayer of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, is a monster who strikes at his victims in their dreams--often with 6-inch blades that protrude from the fingers of his gloves.
Nothing Sweet About This Man
Another Clive Barker creation, Candyman (1992), shows what happens when an enterprising student (Virginia Madsen) sets out to explore an urban myth.
Instead, of course, she learns that the myth of the evil being who appears when one says his name five times in front of a mirror is not only true but more horrifying than she could ever have imagined.Played by Tony Todd, Candyman went on to appear in two sequels.
Look Out for This Hockey Puck
How did the number 13 get such a bad rep in the first place? Especially when it falls on a Friday?
Capitalizing on our dread of the number and the squeamish thrills created by invincible celluloid slashers, Georgetown Productions Inc. released the 1980 movie Friday the 13th, starring, among others, Kevin Bacon as Jack Burrell and Ari Lehman as Jason Voorhees, a deeply disturbed, goalie-masked killer who goes on to butcher his way through teenage campers in a series of grisly films.Jason, born deformed, has supernatural strength and stamina to go along with his workmanlike approach to hacking kids to pieces.
His dislike of campers stems, in part, from a bad experience in his youth involving two counselors who were too busy making love to rescue him from drowning.
The Original Scary Guy in a Mask
First serialized between September 1909 and January 1910, mystery novelist Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera, about a mysterious figure who haunts the catacombs of Paris' Opera Garnier, has become a French literary classic.
Leroux's Phantom, Erik Claudin, is a disfigured composer obsessed with a beautiful soprano, Christine Daae. His love, of course, is unrequited and grows increasingly dark and dangerous.
This tale of suspense has captured the imagination of generations of readers, and has been translated to both the stage and the silver screen.
Perhaps the most famous screen adaptation is Rupert Julian's 1925 silent film starring Lon Chaney.
This Woman Really Bites
Such a sweet-looking girl. Dawn (Jess Weixler) (above), the protagonist in director Mitchell Lichtenstein's Teeth (2007) has a set of choppers that would strike fear into any red-blooded heterosexual male. That's because the deadly teeth in question are not the ones in her mouth. They're the ones she carries downtown. The condition, known as vagina dentata, is the subject of mythology dating back to ancient times. At first, the bizarre chompers seem to be a curse for the poor girl, who is traumatized by the damage it does to would-be lovers. However, thanks in part to her terrible luck with men, Dawn shakes off her disgust with the damage done by her dentata and develops, well, a taste for it. The sometimes darkly humorous and often squirm-inducing film earned Weixler a Special Dramatic Jury Prize for Acting from the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.
They're Altogether Ooky
Combining horror with humor is a risky gambit that misfires more often than it hits the target. In television, the most successful attempt at comic creepiness was probably The Addams Family (1964 to 1966).
Based on the cartoons of New Yorker artist Charles Addams, the ABC-TV show revolves around the exploits of a family of darkly funny sociopaths. Gomez (John Austin) is the wild-eyed patriarch of the clan with a fondness for gunplay, whips and the tango, among other pastimes. Morticia (Carolyn Jones) is the matriarch, who delivers comically inappropriate advice and commentary in a deadpan manner rarely broken by anything other than her appreciation for Gomez's steamy advances. Lurch, the butler, is a Frankenstein monster with a deep voice and, occasionally, issues of his own. Uncle Fester is something of a mad scientist and a masochist. Other characters include a pair of morbidly curious pre-Goth darkside children and an animated hand called Thing.
Some argue that The Addams Family was a ham-handed spinoff of the often-biting Addams cartoons and the short-lived series probably mined the potential plot lines for all they were worth, but the show is genuinely funny in its own twisted way, features lovable crazies and holds up well.
Go SmartWith these bargain-priced GPS units, you'll always know where you're going.
