Fan Movies

I'm just not a fan of fan-made music videos. However, I am a fan of Roger Corman and his cycle of Edgar Allen Poe films (most of which starred Vincent Price), so I'm really torn over Nate Yapp's new homebrew music video.

Yapp, who runs a great website over at classic-horror.com has stitched together a well-made little Corman/Poe groove, set to Kasabian's Club Foot and featuring memorable moments from Fall of the House of Usher, Pit and the Pendulum, Tales of Terror, Tomb of Ligeia, The Raven, and The Haunted Palace.

It might not change my opinion on music video fan edits in general, but it's certainly cool enough to pass along. You can watch the whole thing after the jump.

That's right, today we celebrate the birth of one of the great pioneers of both horror and sci-fi: Mr. Ray Harryhausen. His work is legendary and undeniably signature. I am sorry to say that I did not discover Harryhausen as a child but rather when I moved to Austin and began watching a new film every day. However the reason behind my youthful ignorance of Harryhausen is as much a compliment to the artist as one can pay: I was scared stiff of his monsters. Fleeting glimpses of his beasts as my father would channel surf on a lazy Saturday would send me running from the room in desperate retreat. Given that horror films are now akin to the air I breathe or the Hostess snack cakes I devour, this man can definitely be credited with leaving an impression on me.

So in honor of the birth of this genius, I will do my best, meager though it may be, to pay him adequate tribute. Jump past the bump to hear me gush about the man and some of my favorite Harryhausen films. Warning, I may spoil some unseen fare. Further warning, a kraken may or may not jump out of a birthday cake.

I stumbled upon this video whilst browsing reddit, with a link title that simply said, "This s**t would have freaked me the f**k out." Naturally, my curiosity was piqued. Sadly, there really isn't much I can say about the video, considering it's all in German. Accompanied by a creepy piano score and some effects, it depicts what can be considered a flash mob dropping to the ground like flies. Some simply slump over in their chairs, others fall down concrete steps. Confused passersby stop to help the fallen, with some appearing to shout for help. The film ends on a somber note, with the words wissen sie in welcher zone sie leben?

For those who don't speak German, this translates to "Do they know what zone they live in?" Still utterly confused as to what's going on, I did a little bit more investigation. According to one commenter, the film highlights the risk associated with a nuclear accident. This is given credence by the map on the webpage which appears to show how far the effects of a nuclear accident would reach.

Whether or not this can be considered explicitly horror is up to you; the combination of sudden death and a resulting post apocalyptic scenario with the incredibly haunting music certainly lends itself to the genre. It's then made all the more frightening due to the perceived reality of the situation. Give it a look and decide for yourself. If you can read German or have the desire to translate all of it in an online translator, please enlighten us.

The internet is absolutely insane. In between the news, social media and delightful pictures of otters being tickled, you often come across things that make you wish the internet never existed. And in between that you have videos like Tma, Svetlo, Tma, a 1989 Czech short film that translates to "Darkness, Light, Darkness."

Created by Czech surrealist artist Jan Svankmajer, the film follows a pair of clay arms and hands, seemingly trapped inside a room with a solitary window, a hanging light and two doors. As the film progresses we're greeted with other body parts, the inclusion and actions of which would do well in a Tool video. I don't want to spoil what happens, but let's just say there's a scene at the end that could be deemed not safe for work.

A closer look at Svankmajer's work reveals far more than just creepy surrealistic short films. He's the director of over two dozen shorts and is currently working on his sixth feature length film titled Surviving Life (Theory and Practice). His influence is seen in the works of Terry Gilliam, Tim Burton, and stop-motion auteurs The Brothers Quay. After giving Tma, Svetlo, Tma a whirl, check out the rest of his films, the majority of which can be found on YouTube.

The internet: bringing us the best in nightmare-inducing short films about claymation body parts. Special thanks to reddit for bringing this to my attention.

While I'd never join a cult in real life (famous last words), years of film viewing has shown me more than a few fictional groups I'd sign up for in a heartbeat. Inspiring yet loony leaders, hippie ideals, and the occasional encounter with real supernatural power are all things that turn up in cinematic cults -- making them seem so alluring. With that in mind, I decided it was time to make a list of five cults from horror films that I know I'd happily join. It's a little heavy on the Ivan Rassimov and Christopher Lee, though. Is that because these guys were in a lot of movies about cults or because I'm a little obsessed? I'll let you figure that out ...

We've all spent those bored, insomniac nights browsing YouTube and getting caught up in a link chain of poorly made hoaxes. You know the kind. Some teenagers just happen to have a camera, more often than not one that's shoots strictly in 'night vision', rolling at just the right time to capture a ghost or an alien or some kind of creepy shadow. But since anyone with half a brain knows how they made the video, they're all just interchangeable time wasters.

Mountain Devil Prank Fails Horribly, however, is not a time waster. Sure, it starts out just like all the other videos; and it heads directly where you're expecting it to go; and it arrives at the predicted destination; and it's as generic as you thought it would be. But it doesn't stop there. No, the boys behind this video know how to cap things off just right. Enjoy.

Many horror fans reminisce about the days of old, when trips to the local video store wowed them with wide-eyed wonder. Gory cover art, hefty clamshells and aisles upon aisles of dusty boxes crammed together and stacked a mile high all left a huge impression upon our twisted, horror-loving hearts. If you worship the the rare, esoteric, out-of-print and underappreciated at the altar of VHS, then you'll want to read on.

Fellow videovores Josh and Ted run Lunchmeat -- a magazine that celebrates the best of VHS. I asked them to collaborate with me on a video box art column showcasing the badassery of their personal VHS collection and they did not disappoint with this first installment. This is a pic post, so think of it like a stroll through the video store. We're going to be highlighting various goodies from different releasing companies and will be mixing things up a bit in the months to come. If there's something you want to see (a theme/topic/genre) let us know in the comments section below and if they have it, you got it!

So hit the jump, travel back in time to that favorite video store haunt and feast your eyes on some delicious doozies!

Sometimes life just gets you down in the dumps. Maybe you're having trouble making a car payment or Sonic Drive In stopped carrying your favorite chili-covered hot dog sandwich. Maybe you found a lump on your testicle or Ziggy just isn't giving you that life-affirming chuckle. While I'm a firm believer that most problems can be solved with a cheap bottle of Scotch and another viewing of the Texas Chain Saw Massacre, everybody has to chime in when you have problems. People love to take you under their wing and spew faux-Jedi wisdom. Friends have advice. Strangers have advice. They even come unbidden to your home and bang on your door, telling you to read this book, take this class, or swallow this pill.

But let me tell you this --- they are all just maggots writhing across the flesh of the earth.

You can keep your L. Ron. Keep your Jesus. Tony Robbins ain't got nothin' on Abdul Alhazred. Abdul has penned the oldest and most effective self-help book since all of the cosmos was belched forth from the mewling idiot mouth of Shub Niggurath, the Necronomicon. Jehovah's Witnesses may knock on your door, offering you a way to salvation, or some unctuous man in a cheap suit may show up to sell you the carpet cleaner of the future, but if a dead eyed, mad Arab comes knocking, you should listen.

Ia! Ia! Cthulhu Fthagn!

Embrace the gibbering chaos of the Old Ones. Click past the jump and prepare to have your mind torn asunder.

No, it's not an April Fool's joke, though don't let the production value of this trailer fool you: this is most definitely a parody. It's not the first Pac-Man movie trailer to arrive online (remember this one?), but it's definitely one of the better made trailers - complete with quick swooshing cuts and a Saw-inspired story that kinda makes you interested in what happens next. I'm pretty positive we'll never see a real Pac-Man movie (or at least not one that's live action), so these parodies are nothing more than some harmless fun to help pass the time. If I were to fault directors Patrick Brady and Allyson Schettino in any way, I'd say that their ghosts weren't freaky enough. Should've upped the ghost factor; thrown in a gruesome ghost killing and upped the weird level to about an 11. Right now it's an 8. Overall, though, good job.

The synopsis: Pharmaceutical CEO Michael Pacman is forced to take his own dangerous medications in order to survive a maze designed by a sadistic patient out for revenge. This 2-minute trailer satirizes and skewers Hollywood's love for taking video games with barely any plot (e.g. Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, etc.) and turning them into abominably bad feature films. In this trailer, Pacman is given the "Saw" treatment - enter a dark and disturbing world filled with pellets, ghosts, and yes, Pacman.

Watch it over at Cinematical.

I know at this point you're probably exhausted reading about SXSW on Cinematical. At first it's great to read about all the hidden film treasures people are discovering at the film fest, but after a while it just becomes frustrating to know that you're probably not going to be able to see said treasures any time soon. Sad thing is, that pessimism is going to be right more often than wrong. But there's still hope! I don't have any distribution news or release dates for you, but I can share with you right this very second one of the most talked about films at SXSW! Better yet, it's completely free!

Okay, so the film in question is only two minutes long, but I'm not kidding when I say it was one of the most talked about things at the fest. Joe Nicolosi made this brilliant bumper to play before all of the SXSW midnight films and even halfway through the fest, after many of us had seen it well over a dozen times, it still got a healthy round of applause every time it played. I even once witnessed a standing ovation for it, though in full disclosure I think that particular guy was a little too enthusiastic to have been completely sober. That or Nicolosi's short got him high, which I wouldn't entirely rule out.

I don't want to say what it's about if you haven't seen it, as that would slightly rob the fun of discovering it for the first time. But I will say that it may be, depending on where you work, slightly NSFW. There's no profanity or sexuality, but there is a drop or two of the red stuff (this is the midnight bumper, after all) that may raise the eyebrows of any innocent bystanders.

Head over to Cinematical to check it out.