I never thought The Wisconsin Dells had more to do than their World famous water parks. Well “Surprise” they have a museum dedicated to all things…torture devices! Located just off the main strip lies the Museum of Historic Torture Devices which will have you happy you can experience these as a spectator ONLY!
It really amazes me these days how certain movies are able to be made and get distributed even though they’re horrible and yet certain films, that are really good and original, can’t get a distribution deal to save its life! This was the case with Trick r Treat from 2007, a phenomenal Halloween-themed movie that took a good two years to see the light of day. It happened again just recently with the film The Black Waters of Echo’s Pond; a movie made in 2009 that just got released this month…four years later!
Not long ago I posted a list of things I’d learned from attending so many Svengoolie public appearances; listing “making new friends” as Number Seven. Today I’ve been given a painful reminder that this should actually have been number one. I received a call from my friend, Bill Yingst, informing me that his beautiful wife, Joan (far right in the above photo) had died, suddenly, this morning. Joan was not only a contributor to this blog but had become a dear friend and I felt as if I’d been hit with a baseball bat.
The seeds of this event were actually sewn during Svengoolie’s appearance at “The Squared Circle” (covered HERE). I mentioned in that post meeting a couple of zoo keepers from The Lincoln Park Zoo; one of whom, Marisa, had arrived with local Chicago Red-eye writer, Elliott Serano. Elliott’s a fellow Svengoolie fan and had just written a big story on the host. He’d brought Marisa along that night so she could sign folks up for her zoo’s AAZK Chapter’s (American Association of Zoo Keepers) “Bowling for Rhinos” with Sven as one of their celebrity guests. Svengoolie has graciously assisted my own Brookfield Zoo AAZK chapter with our annual Vital Grounds fundraiser (providing opportunities for the New England Terror Dave, David Albaugh, to meet him as covered HERE and HERE) and accepted her invitation…even if appearing only as his mild-mannered alter ego, Rich Koz.
I have a confession to make – I didn’t see the original Insidious in theaters when it came out. It was only when Terror Dave Fuentes asked me to review Insidious 2 that I rented it via Red Box. I watched it just two days before seeing Insidious 2 so it was very fresh in my memory – and I’m glad that it was!
I have so many great memories in my life; many stemming from cheesy monster movies. As a kid I was glued to the television set every Saturday afternoon for the CREATURE DOUBLE FEATURE and as an adult, I was glued to the television set every Saturday night for MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000! It was such a disappointment when Comedy Central cancelled MST3K and the SyFy Channel picked it up. Like all good things, the SyFy Channel usually ruins it. Thankfully it wasn’t long before the guys who made a career out of riffing on movies, something many of us did anyway, went on to create CINEMA TITANIC, THE FILM CREW and RIFFTRAX, all variations of the original concept.
Terror from Beyond the Dave 