During the Halloween season, I’ve always been partial to the mom and pop costume shops. For one thing, I like to support the little guy but, for another, they also tend to carry less of the mass produced products bigger chains do. Unfortunately those stores are becoming a rarity thanks, in large part, to chains such as Spirit Halloween and Halloween Town.
With little recovery time after The Fright Night Film Fest it was time to embark on yet another convention…well, technically TWO of them! Flashback Weekend is an annual Chicago horror tradition and by happenstance, Wizard Con (a giant comic convention and yet another yearly feature), was taking place the same weekend and directly across the street. This hurled the town of Rosemont, Illinois into geek gridlock with poor Flashback in danger of getting swallowed up by its much larger neighbor,
Ironically, before this site started, Flashback Weekend was the only horror convention I’d ever go to and yet the only one I didn’t attend after the fact. I’m not sure why that is but I’m thinking the numerous July season of events I started covering rendered me both too tired and broke by the time this August one rolled around. In that regard, the circumstances this year were no different if not more so.
Shout! Factory has done it again with their latest blu-ray offering, the 1985 George Romero classic DAY OF THE DEAD. I have always been a fan of Romero’s Dead Trilogy, and to be honest, this is my favorite of the three and I was very excited to hear that it was finally getting its long-overdue blu-ray release. Of the three films this one, in my opinion, is the darkest and why it works so well.
Most of the film takes place underground in an abandoned missile silo where a group of military personnel and scientists have gathered together to try and figure out what is going on above. The characters are perfectly cast and this film is interesting to watch as the group breaks down and collapses; much like the world on the outside did. You really get a sense of how bad things are in this movie whereas, in the two previous films, there seems to be actual hope. This is evident right from the beginning when a visit is made to Florida in search of survivors. The streets are empty and it’s obvious it has been this way for quite some time. The only signs of life are animals such as alligators and tarantulas who have now moved into the once-populated areas.
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.
Terror from Beyond the Dave 