In The Helicopter Bay 9-3-11

Well, it has been a while, hasn't it?

Last time I checked in with a blog, I was in the middle of a vacation.  Since then, I've been rather busy, but have been rewarded with a new career after a very long search.  There was also the matter of that pesky Hurricane Irene.  I hope you dear readers who had to put up with that storm came through unscathed.  Real-life terror is far more frightening than what we see played out in fiction.  

Let's move on with this edition of In The Helicopter...

*  In taking an unintentional break from horror, I'm thinking of including more genre films under the banner of this blog.  Hey, it's my baby, I can basically write about what I want, but horror will always be the core genre featured here.  We'll see how that goes, but I'll still stick with the easy-going, drama-free, and friendly tone I've always maintained.

*  Speaking of blogs, I've been tossing around the idea of starting a blog about another strong interest of mine, comic books.  I've been reading them since 1974 and while I realize there are a million comic blogs out there, I'd just want to write a few words about the medium in the same tone as this horror blog.  None of the poison, none of the bitter dismissal of The Simpsons' Comic Book Guy, just a guy who grew up loving the art form writing about it.  Again, we'll see what I do with that.

 

 The Anti-Monitor?  Do not want.

*  Earlier this evening, I went to see Apollo 18, directed by Gonzago Lopez-Gallego for his first English-language film and produced by Timur Bekmambetov (director of Wanted and Night Watch).  While presented as "found footage," I did recognize one of the actors as Lloyd Owen, who played chaste James in three episodes of one of my favorite British comedies, Coupling.  The film's pace didn't gel well with me, but the performances of the three leads as well as the bleak, claustrophobic feel made it a pretty good movie.  I felt it should have been a different kind of movie, maybe more terrifying - and it could have been done - but it wasn't all that bad in my opinion.  It also made me think of the mixing of horror and science-fiction, and why we don't see more of that out there.

*  I'm also thinking of writing some "horror primers."  The approach:  what if someone who has never seen horror films asks me "give me five good movies to watch and tell me why I should watch them"?  Taking it a step further, what if they want to know five good movies I'd recommend in any given subgenre, like zombie movies or ghost movies?  What I'd like to do is write short paragraphs about each film and why I think they're important to the genre.  Maybe, if I'm lucky enough, I could have some of my horror blog buddies write about what they would recommend for their primer.  Stay tuned.  It might be fun to write.

Well, that's all for now, dear readers.  Back to regular programming for the next blog, and until then, take care of yourselves and make sure your door is barricaded.

In The Helicopter Bay 12-3-10

Just a real quick set of tidbits for the day:

-- I mentioned it at the end of my look at the film Ink (which I still love), but I wanted to bring it up again. Recently, I was honored to accept an invitation from Nate Yapp to write for a blog called Cinema-Geek, a collection of articles by horror bloggers...about non-horror movies. I'm in great company there, along with Nate: B-Sol of The Vault of Horror, Andre of The Horror Digest, Pax of Billy Loves Stu, and Ryne of The Moon Is A Dead World. Take a peek, and check out their individual blogs as well.

-- I was checking out the stats of my blog recently just for kicks and found some interesting nuggets o' trivia:

* The most popular blog entry is the one I wrote about Triangle: 2,707 views - almost 1,000 more than the one I wrote about Trilogy of Terror.

* Most of the traffic comes from Google, but some viewers have kindly jumped over after reading the fine blogs at The Horror Digest and Kindertrauma.

* Some interesting search terms led to my blog, including "divided by zero," "chiller theatre," "herb tarlek," and "corbin bernsen."

* Over 10,000 hits have come from the good ol' US of A. The United Kingdom had around 1,600, with Canada (1,150) not far behind. Sweden checked in with around 250 - I lived in that country for a year as an exchange student. I get some visitors from Greece, The Netherlands, Israel, and the Czech Republic. Welcome, everyone!

-- Take a gander at this indie vampire film with a twist, passed along to me by producer Matt Compton, called Midnight Son. Matt's one of the producers, along with writer/director Scott Leberecht, and executive producer Eduardo Sanchez (The Blair Witch Project). The cast includes Zak Kilberg, Maya Parish, Jo D. Jonz, Arlen Escarpeta, Larry Cedar, and Tracey Walter.

According to Matt, Midnight Son "is the story of Jacob, a young man confined to a life of isolation, due to a rare skin disorder that prevents him from being exposed to sunlight. His world opens up when he meets Mary, a local bartender, and falls in love. Tragically, Jacob’s actions become increasingly bizarre as he struggles to cope with the effects of his worsening condition. Forced by the disease to drink human blood for sustenance, he must control his increasingly violent tendencies as local law enforcement narrow their focus on him as a suspect in a series of grisly murders."

Here's a link to the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS2nLbEoMy8 and one for the website: http://www.midnightsonmovie.com/

Check it out - it looks very interesting!

In The Helicopter Bay 10-15-10

* So not only am I flying the WGON helicopter, trying to herd what's left of civilization into acceptable shelters, I'm finding a great deal of my time taken up by being a school librarian. There are going to be times where my posts are pretty sparse, but I will continue to throw my thoughts at the Inter-webs wall and see what sticks. Hopefully, I'll entertain and titillate, even if on some occasions, I'm just talking to myself.

* An interesting tidbit: during one of my assignments, I asked the middle school students to look up their favorite movie on the Internet Movie Database and jot notes down to answer general questions I provided (note-taking is part of the library curriculum...sometimes you have to be sneaky to get them to work on assignments). The movie that just about half of them listed as their favorite? The first Paranormal Activity movie, fully released last year. Many of them cited that it...and I quote..."almost made me pee my pants." Ah, youth.

* Anyone else excited to see what the film Monsters has to offer?


* It's no secret, I love t-shirts. Be sure to check out the great designs they have over at Fright Rags. Recently, they had a shirt created for Breast Cancer Awareness, but the link doesn't seem to work at this time. Plus, Crazy Dog t-shirts is having a sale, $5 off Halloween shirts on their site with the code HALLO5 through Halloween - there's even a t-shirt I didn't even know existed featuring the WGON logo from the original Dawn of the Dead, so you know I'll be checking that one out.

* This weekend, I'll be catching up on some movies to review. Not sure how good they'll be, but hey, that's part of the fun.

...And that's all for now, my friends. Keep hiding from the undead and shine a flashlight up into the night sky. I'll get to you momentarily.

In The Helicopter Bay 2-27-10

Just a few quick notes today while the helicopter gets some tuning-up and I take a break from looking for a misplaced wrench:



--With all that happens when you get a large group of people with a common interest together - the good and the sometimes not-so-good - it's always refreshing when someone does something for the right reasons. Carl over at I Like Horror Movies created a nice, respectful environment for horror bloggers of all stripes over at the online equivalent of a comfortable tavern (surrounded by all our favorite monsters, of course): The Horror Blogger Alliance. It's a fantastic place for some healthy debate, rightful bragging about our sites, news, reviews, and all-around friendliness. Go take a peek and if you're got a horror blog, take the time to join and get to know your peers.



--And check out the new official poster for George A. Romero's newest installment of his "...Of The Dead" series, Survival of the Dead. The undead will be unleashed on multiple platforms on April 30th, when it hits VOD, Amazon, Xbox Live, and Playstation. The final assault will take place in theaters on May 28th. For more information, check out the official website at Magnet Releasing.

--Next week, Thursday to be exact, marks the one-year anniversary of The WGON Helicopter. I plan on writing a little note about it, and it has been a fun ride so far. I hope Year Two will be even more of a good time.

--I haven't yet seen the remake of The Crazies, but I did do an extensive write-up on it last year, so please enjoy it here, maybe compare it to the new one. Once I see the remake, I'll say a little something about it.

That's about it for now. If I don't say it enough, I'll say it again: thank you all for reading!

Now, back to trying to find that wrench...

In The Helicopter Bay 1-27-2010: Horror Blogger Awards and Zelda Rubenstein

Just a few morsels for today while the chopper undergoes some routine maintenance:

* Over on the sidebar, I've added a list of the movies that I've reviewed for easier access. Just constantly trying to make this blog more interesting, more organized, and revenant-creating-disease-free.

* Bloody-Disgusting.com is holding its Horror Blogger Awards, for which this humble blog has been nominated. Hop on over there and cast a vote for this place, but honestly, if you enjoy another blog more, vote for them. There are some really amazing blogs also being nominated, and you can also find many of them over to the right in my blogroll section. Visit them all anyway - they're good people.



* It's my sad duty to share the news that a horror staple has passed away. Zelda Rubenstein, who is most known for her role as the psychic Tangina in 1982's Poltergeist, passed away at the age of 76 of natural causes. Who can forget this woman with a small stature but with a commanding and gentle voice? I get chills when I hear her give orders or reassure the family with confidence in Poltergeist with the line, "Now let's go get your daughter." She was pure power in that role. Check out her impressive resume here - she was in Sixteen Candles!



* Feeling chatty? Also on the right, I've added my screen names for AIM and MSN. If I decide to add any more places to chat - and I'm sure I will - I'll post 'em.

Take care of yourself, fellow survivors, and remember that when engaging hand-to-hand with zombies, fire isn't always your friend.

Tidbits for 4-19-09

There's a break in the horror movie-viewing schedule right now as I polish up the old whirlybird. Let me take some time to alert you to some other sites and items worth a peek or two:

* Have some memories from your childhood about something you saw on TV or at the movies or read in a book that was disturbing or frightening to you? Maybe you don't remember exactly what you saw, but I've got just the place for you to hang out: Kindertrauma. They were one of the first sites I plugged over on the sidebar because it is just the perfect place to reminisce about that strange Bigfoot movie from the 70's or some weird Carvel ice cream commercial or, hell, just that classic, Burnt Offerings. Uncle Lancifer and Aunt John, along with their many readers, offer reading material that will keep you busy for hours. Days, even. I can, and have, spent all day on Kindertrauma. Go. You won't be disappointed.

* This is old news now, but I think there's some serious potential here. Jackie Earle Haley (most recently Rorschach in Watchmen) is your new Freddy Krueger in the reboot of Nightmare on Elm Street, according to this item from Bloody-Disgusting.com. Finally, people are seeing what we 70's kids saw: the guy can act.

* While I've been concentrating mostly on film, I'm going to be covering some other media as well. Soon, I'll create a post about the disturbingly insane comic, "Crossed," by Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows, published by Avatar Press. If it doesn't classify as horror, I don't know what does.

* Food doesn't usually equate to horror (unless you're watching The Stuff), but the wonderful (and wonderfully gross) site This Is Why You're Fat could send many screaming to their fruit bowls.

OK, I have to go tighten the Jesus nut on the WGON chopper, then it's off to see where the zombie horde is today...

Tidbits For 3-24-09

From up here in the WGON traffic chopper, looks like a bottleneck of flesh-starved ghouls on Exit 126, so watch yourselves as you're escaping town. In the meantime, here are a few tidbits to gnaw on:

* Going to be off the grid for a few days since I'll be moving from one fortified shelter to another. Once I get all settled in, I'll have the bird up and hovering. Where I couldn't get Netflix at my current residence due to both the unfortunate dimensions of our mailboxes and neighbors we couldn't trust, it will be available at the new place. It has a real mailbox and good people. Expect my movie entries to increase.

* Tomorrow, the latest issue of Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows' insane apocalyptic comic Crossed comes out from the great Avatar Press. Inspired by a "zombie dream," according to Ennis, it is one of the most horrifying and bleak twists on the genre by one of the best comic book writers in the business, and an artist that delivers with every single panel. If you have a strong stomach and can take seriously over-the-top scenes of violence and human darkness, pick up a copy.

* Saya In Underworld is an informative and creative look at the different forms of Japanese horror. In one of the most recent entries, she presents some videos for Tarako Kewpie Pasta Sauce that may well cause you to go mad. Check them out, and check out the rest of the blog. It's good stuff.

* You knew it had to happen. A horror film centered around paintball: Paintball. Oh, yeah - I'm thinking sleeper hit here, fellow survivors.

* The great Vault of Horror blog has a wonderful comprehensive look at early Godzilla films as "I've Got Kaiju Under My Skin: A Guide To Showa-Era Godzilla."

Time to get back to the shelter and try to make the move while the living dead legions are distracted. Tune in again soon!

Tidbits For 3-9-09

From up above in the WGON traffic chopper, it's time for a few news and information tidbits:

*The great horror news site Bloody-Disgusting.com has an interview up with horror legend and pioneer Wes Craven. Whether you know it or not, you've probably seen something to do with Craven over the years from the original "Last House on the Left" in 1972 to the original "A Nightmare on Elm Street" in 1984 to "Scream," starting in 1996. Check out the interview here.

*In what is sure to make some people I know happy, prolific and creative producer Charles Band is planning on remaking his classic cult film "Puppetmaster"...in 3-D! Bloody-Disgusting.com has more here.

*The Vault of Horror's B-Sol has a GREAT article about growing up with horror films and television around the same time I did. Check out the article here and explore that whole place, it's really quite an informative and entertaining blog.

Alright, that's it for now.