Horror Kickstarter: Squib

As an aspiring filmmaker, I'm always on the lookout for awesome-looking Kickstarter projects related to horror. This week, I stumbled upon a small project with an intriguing plot: independent filmmakers trying to make a low budget slasher film end up 'cutting corners' to get their movie made. But let the director tell you about it.

As you know, the best bit about Kickstarter is that there are usually some pretty awesome gifts offered to anybody contributing to the project. Squib is no exception, and I encourage anybody who has a bit of extra cash and the desire to see independent filmmaking thrive to maybe swing by the kickstarter page for Squib and toss in a couple bucks.

Horror Flick of the Week: White Zombie (1932)

A year after the success of Dracula, Bela Lugosi found himself onscreen in another (though much more independent) feature which featured his piercing gaze at it's best. Oh sure. White Zombie is not an excellent example of acting, most of it is your typical 30s low-budget ham. But...there's a certain charm in this film.

One thing I particularly like is that the heroine shares my name, but a more relevant aspect I'd like to mention is her acting in particular once she becomes zombified. The lead actress, Madge Bellamy, was a relatively popular silent film actress. So her over-the-top gesticulating and posing is really a relic of the previous decade, and it's very clear in this movie how drastic the transition between talkie acting and silent acting was becoming. Now I'm not criticizing the style at all, I actually love it...in a silent movie. Somehow when she's this angelic zombie, though, it really works. I suppose it helps that she doesn't say anything else until the very end of the picture. She's rather like the ghost of the 20s, stepping through into the 30s to give a final good-bye to the old style in exchange for the new.

If you are a fan of zombie pictures, this is an essential...because it's one of (if not) the first zombie movies. Not your Fulci-style corpses, but the old-fashioned voodoo kind. People seemingly dead, put into mental slavery through means of a devilish concoction and...if the lobby card up there isn't a slight hint...the gaze (and I guess hands) of their zombie master.

The combination of some silent film style acting, the music, and the constant close-ups when Lugosi uses his powers...reminds me of ballet. It's really quite beautiful.

Lugosi is great in this, in the way only he could have been, dastardly and disturbing. There's no doubt the man had massive screen presence. Some of the pacing is slow, which is to be expected, but I think anyone who really loves the horror genre really needs to devote some time to White Zombie, if not from an entertainment perspective alone, then at least for the historical aspects.

For a Gory Cause: Charlie Lives

Hey guys, I'm taking a break from the regular routine of comics and reviews today to let you know about something that's got me pretty excited. It's an awesome kickstarter projected for a concept that I could really get behind.

You've got your Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Your House of 1000 Corpses. Your general classic slasher flicks that are inspired by real events, but have very little to do with them...and then you've got Charlie Lives. But I'll let the page to the talking for itself.

Charlie Lives: The Family's Return

Book of the Week: Horror Show

Last year, I was browsing at Half Price Books. It's pretty much a regular haunt for me, and a lot of times I'll find odd little books there that I might not have found out about otherwise...their vintage collection is especially worth a browse. Anyway, directly at the end of each shelf there's always one of those spinning wire racks filled to the brim with books on discount (usually 1-2 bucks.) That's where I spotted this beauty, in all it's schlocky glory.

It makes an excellent companion, by the way, with the last book I reviewed (Interviews with B Science Fiction and Horror Movie Makers.) Upon a first glance, I thought it was a murder mystery novel set in the 50s. Thankfully, I was wrong. It's actually a spooky novel about a young reporter investigating an old movie director, Landis Woodley. Think William Castle + Ed Wood + A hint of Tod Browning, and you get an idea. Landis made a lot of crazy films in the 50s on micro-budgets, the most infamous one in particular carrying it's own curse.

Then we learn the story of the curse, the movie, and Landis Woodley. This is really my favorite part of the whole book, perhaps because I have such a love for a good back-story. A satanist steals a sacred item from a tribe, summons a demon, hell nearly unleashes itself on earth, somehow this all falls on Landis Woodley's set when he finds an incredibly disgusting body at a local morgue to use in his movie.

If you've read the other book, you'll learn that there are quite a few questionable films (especially Spanish ones, apparently) in the 50s wherein actors have actually dealt with dangerous animals, dismembered human body parts, and all manner of situations I doubt the SAG would approve of. Reading this book, you can almost believe the writer experienced working on a few of these movies himself.

Ultimately, it's a great 'weekend' book. Something you'll read when you want a spooky feeling, but you don't want to invest the whole week reading it. Well-developed characters, nice transitions between past and present, and even an ending I didn't see coming. I suppose you'd say that's always the best bit.