Cthulhu Cake

Cthulhu4, a photo by The Bleeding Heart Bakery on Flickr.

My recent search for pictures of wedding cakes lead me to this, made by Bleeding Heart Bakery. All I can say is wow. Cthulhu is much more dapper a gentleman than I ever expected.

Carrie....My favorite Prom Queen

Tragic tragic Carrie.  I love this flick.  It is arguably the best adaptation to film of Stephen King's books.  It has so many nightmarish moments: bullies, getting your period in school, bitchy teen girls, getting your period at school, scary religious moms, getting blood dumped on you at school, dating the Greatest American Hero, and competing with Amy Irving's hair...and so much more.  It is a great high school revenge story for all those girls who want to not only stick it to the popular girls, but see them burned alive for their crimes.  yet, it is still extremely tragic in tone and you feel for Carrie...you cheer for her when she gets crowned even though you know what is coming...

A can of scary psycho-kinetic whoop ass...not how you want to end your most magical night of your high school career.

And Piper Laurie (who also has fabulous hair...) is quite possibly the scariest mom on film.

Also..."dirty pillows" is by far my favorite boob euphemism...boobiphism...whatevs.

The Private Hell of a Sociopath

Sometimes the greatest horror is not the masked dude with a butcher knife under your bed that stinks of teenage pheremones. Sometimes the true, unbridled horror lives within yourself.
Such is the case for Charlie Bronson. The most violent man in England. Check out this movie. It is a true story. I know, it is not really in the horror genre. But, when I can't sleep and my head swims with resentment and delicious plans for extreme violence to be imposed on the fetid scum that dared disrupt my private Idaho I think of this man, take a deep breath, count to ten, and offer forgiveness to the world at large. Some horror is too much for my mortal frame to endure.
Again, check out this movie (titled BRONSON). One of the best performances I've seen.

The PROM NIGHT sequels (and one crappy remake)

As any self-respecting horror fan knows, the Canadian slasher PROM NIGHT represents one third of the Jamie Lee Curtis trifecta of 1980 (THE FOG and TERROR TRAIN being the others). It's an okay flick, but managed to be surprise hit, catching the first curl of the slasher wave and having the teen scream queen headlining didn't hurt.

It also spawned three in-name-only sequels (as well as a heartbreaking cash cow remake in 2008). To wit:

Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (1987)
Prom Night III: The Last Kiss (1990)
Prom Night IV: Deliver Us from Evil (1992)
Though all the plots center around a prom of some sort, none of these "sequels" relate directly to the 1980 Jamie Lee Curtis slasher flick. Instead, the next two movies in the series follow the exploits of slattern-literally-from-hell Mary Lou Maloney, who seeks vengeance upon those who robbed her of her rightful place among the corsages that fateful night. A supernatural thriller more than slasher, Part II features a smashing lead performance from Wendy Lyon as the Mary Lou-possessed protagonist and some startling visual effects (the blackboard stunt is awesome, as is the locker room sequence). PMIII is more of the same, though not nearly as inspired or gory. The last movie returns to its slasher roots, with a fanatical priest targeting impure co-eds out for a good time. The biggest problem is that too much time is spent with the main foursome of would-be victims without actually developing characterization (no mean feat, that). There are a couple decent kills, but overall fails to hold one’s attention.

Prom Night (2008) (1st viewing)
Trying to make a PG-13 slasher movie seems like an exercise in futility to begin with, but further lousing up the fun is the excessive emotional hand-wringing that the film does after each victim is discovered. For better or worse, body count movies are supposed to be fun. Watching someone agonize in numerous scenes over the loss of their high school boyfriend or girlfriend is not fun (nor, dare I say, interesting, especially when the acting talent is this slim). Couple this with the fact that we know who the killer is from the get-go and the results are thoroughly unsatisfying. Luckily, I had no illusions to the contrary, so the disappointment barely registered.

H.P. Lovecraft's Favorite Artists

Over at Tor.com, John Coulthart has written a nice piece on Lovecraft and his favorite artists. It  even brings up what might be the very first sketch of Cthulhu by Lovecraft himself (see below).

Wildclaw can see your dirty pillows! It must be Prom time....

Share your favorite Prom Night horror story...be it real, in print, music, on film, or elsewhere.  We will be talking about it all week on this here blog thing.

The Joy of Cooking Humans

One of our favorite horror hotties, Natalie Slater of Bake and Destroy fame and former DEATHSCRIBE judge, has put her cookbook, The Joy of Cooking Humans, up on the worldwide interwebs for free. (Art by Putrid!) Get it here.

Fright Night 2011 trailer

Everyone has their opinions of remakes -- personally, except for a few here & there, I am not a fan of them... until now. Choosing Colin Farrell to play the sexy vamp next door may change all that. Throw in a little David Tennant and you cannot go wrong! I only hope this does not disappoint me the way Y2K did.

More Fright Night (2011) Videos

CDC Preparations for the Zombie Apocalypse

This awesome link to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was brought to my attention by Jonathan Mayberry, zombie author.

The CDC has now provided guidelines for surviving a zombie apocalypse.

Mini-Susan Sarandon Film Fest

Very very mini. But Lady Morlock and I were entertaining a friend last night and in the interest of *ahem* setting the mood... we queued up a couple minutes each of The Hunger



and Rocky Horror.



Ah Susan. So willing to bare your lovely breasts and kiss other women... Some have said you're a good actress too, but I don't want to see you in a nun's habit. Unless that's all you're wearing--the habit and nothing else.

The Future's So Bright...

... I gotta wear... these ears...

Now THAT'S scary.

GRIMM

GRIMM - from the producers of "Buffy" and "Angel". What if the fairy tales were true?

This Machine Kills Fascists

While not horror related per se, I thought I would throw up this image from comic book artist Philip Bond which expresses the power of art quite simply. As a horror theatre, WildClaw would like to think our art can someday attain that much power.

Oh yeah...and it's Friday the 13th

I pity the hyper-sexually active camp counselors of the world on this most unholy of holy horror days...

Charlie Bit My Finger...Short Horror Film

I liked this...you might like it too.

What if HP Lovecraft Taught Sex Education?

A must-see short film over at Geek Tyrant. "Late Bloomer"

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter Movie NYT's Article

The New York Times has a nice piece on the upcoming movie, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. The book on which this is based is by Seth Grahame-Smith who wrote Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

(Side Note: I actually enjoyed the AL:VH novel. Very creepy vampires.)

Stretch those creative muscles!

For the horror fans and fan-ettes who pick up a pen now and again to scratch a ghoulish line or two... well, definitely save your best radio drama ideas for Deathscribe 2011! But if your gruesome whimsy takes the shape of short stories, original art, or poetry, you might find a place to publish in Dark Highlands Anthology, Vol. 3.

Dark Highlands is self-described as "a professional, semi-annual collection of artwork, poetry, and short fiction in the subject areas of horror, dark fantasy, and the supernatural. All are welcome to submit, but preference is given to submissions from the Midwest region. Visit http://www.darkhighlands.com/ for submission guidelines and compensation rates."

Preference to the Midwest?! What a fabulous opportunity for horror from America's Heartland!

Zombie Proof House

The folks at All That Is Interesting have a nice piece with lots of cool photos on this zombie proof house. It is awesome.

Free Comic Book Day is Saturday May 7th..that's is tomorrow BTW.

Seriously..you have no excuse NOT to go into that store and get some comics.  Bring a kid too.  Kids would love comics if they had them...and they would do this thing they aren't used to...reading!  See it is a win win.

Besides the obvious capes and tights books, there are a few dark offerings.  For the kids...there is a Dark Crystal book.  For grownups, Dark Horse is giving us Baltimore & Criminal Macabre (from the Hellboy folks) and they sound awesome.  Spontaneous also sounds interesting.  And don't forget Discovery's Deadliest Sharks.  Not even the comic book store is safe from Shark Week!

Clive Barker interview

Crawl To Me

New IDW horror comic, Crawl To Me.

for the late Yvette Vickers...

To many of our readers she is probably best known for her roles in Attack of the 50 Foot Woman and (As Svengoolie would show us every so often)Attack of the Giant Leeches -- but her IMDB page will tell you she had a lot more going on than just that, including a Jazz CD in honor of her parents and a role in a straight-to-dvd film called Evil Spirits.

Sadly, as the Hollywood Reporter notes, her body had recently been discovered by a concerned neighbor -- no foul play is suspected.

Yvette, thank you for your contribution to the entertainment industry! This one's for you!

Dead Weight Teaser Trailer

Check out the teaser trailer for DeadWeight.... featuring many a friendly Wildclaw face!!!!

Stake Land- Beware the Vampire Apocalypse!

The good ole Music Box is showing Stake Land.  I am officially intrigued.