August Free Giveaway - Midnight Syndicate Prize Pack

The August free prize giveaway is a Midnight Syndicate Prize Pack - 3 cds and a tshirt. Check out the video below to see details on how to enter - Good Luck!!

This week's movie on Creature Feature

This week's movie on Creature Feature is the 2003 film Absolon.
Airs Sat at 1pm on Nashville CW58.
Stars Christopher Lambert, Lou Diamond Phillips, Ron Pearlman.

The Dead Matter officialy released

The new movie THE DEAD MATTER by Ed Douglas and Midnight Syndicate is officially released today. It is available exclusively through Hot Topic Stores everywhere!! The set is 19.99 for the movie, a greatest hits Halloween cd and the soundtrack from the movie - pretty kick ass!

About The Dead Matter movie:
The Dead Matter is the remake of a film that director/composer Edward Douglas shot on a shoe-string budget of $2000 back in 1995.   The film tells the story of a guilt-ridden young woman (Sean Serino of The Rage) desperate to contact her deceased brother who discovers a powerful ancient relic that controls the dead.  Her dark obsession drags her into the tangled world of two warring vampire lords (Andrew Divoff of Lost, Wishmaster and Tom Savini of Friday the 13th, Dawn of the Dead) each with his own sinister plans for the artifact and a vampire hunter (Jason Carter of Babylon 5) who will stop at nothing to destroy it.  This chilling gothic dark fantasy co-produced by Robert Kurtzman (creator of From Dusk Till Dawn, KNB FX) and Gary Jones (Xena, Boogeyman 3), also features a score by director Edward Douglas of the Gothic Halloween music band Midnight Syndicate.  It's a mix of classic horror themes with modern twists and a touch of dark humor that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

About Midnight Syndicate:
Midnight Syndicate has been creating instrumental Halloween music and gothic horror fantasy soundtrack CDs for the past thirteen years.   The group’s music has become a staple of the Halloween season worldwide as well as a favorite in the haunted house, amusement park, role-playing game, and gothic music industries.   From Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights and Hugh Hefner’s Halloween parties to Monday Night Football, X-Box games, the classic Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, and Barbara Walters specials, their CDs are designed to take listeners on a journey into the darkest corners of their imagination.

Special edition The Dead Matter DVD set including soundtrack and Midnight Syndicate Greatest Hits CD available at all HOT TOPIC stores nationwide.

July 30, 2010 (Cleveland, OH) Midnight Syndicate Films is releasing a special edition of The Dead Matter DVD that will include two bonus CDs by gothic Halloween music artists Midnight Syndicate.  It will be available at all Hot Topic stores nationwide on July 30^th.   It will also be available online at Hot Topic, Amazon, and Midnight Syndicate’s site.  The specially-priced set will include The Dead Matter DVD, the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack CD by Midnight Syndicate, and a new Midnight Syndicate 13th Anniversary greatest hits CD entitled Halloween Music Collection.  

The Dead Matter DVD features the much-anticipated dark fantasy film produced and directed by Edward Douglas of Midnight Syndicate Films and Gary Jones and Robert Kurtzman of Precinct 13 Entertainment. DVD extras include two Midnight Syndicate music videos, the music video to Eternal Legacy’s song, The Dead Matter, three of the finalists from Midnight Syndicate’s 13^th Anniversary Video Contest, audio commentary with the producers, gag reels, and a feature-length behind-the-scenes production entitled Maximum Dead Matter.  Produced by Frank Purtiman of Smudgeline Studios, Maximum Dead Matter allows viewers to watch the film in one area of the screen while behind the scenes footage, interviews, location information, and concept art comparisons related to that scene play in other areas of the screen.

The Dead Matter: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack CD contains the score composed by the film’s director, Edward Douglas of Midnight Syndicate, as well as several limited-edition remixes of Midnight Syndicate songs performed by Jerry “Haunt Rocker” Vayne, Destini Beard, and Pat Berdysz of the industrial band Encoder.   The disc also features other music that appears in the film from bands like Lazy Lane, hipNostic, and Eternal Legacy. 

 

Midnight Syndicate’s Halloween Music Collection is a greatest hits-type CD that features over 60 minutes of songs hand-picked by Edward Douglas and Gavin Goszka to celebrate the band’s first 13 years.   Both new CDs will also be available at Halloween retailers nationwide beginning in August.

--- 7/30/10

Maximum Dead Matter behind the scenes trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzIYws_qb1U

The Dead Matter trailer on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liAifLs_8zk

The Dead Matter motion picture: www.TheDeadMatter.com
Midnight Syndicate Halloween Music Gothic Soundtracks: www.MidnightSyndicate.com
Hot Topic – Everything about the music: www.HotTopic.com

July Contest Winners - frightrags tshirt

I posted the winners of the July contest online today - Big Congratulations to The Kamisama and larr93!
I'll be posting the August giveaway online Friday - Stay Tuned!!

Rue Morgue #103

Rue Morgue Magazine just released this sneak Peek of upcoming issue #103 - due out Aug. 1st. Note the article at the bottom - Count Gore DeVol. Very cool!

My thoughts on Survival of the Dead…

I finally got a chance to see SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD late last week, and I decided to let it sink in a bit before writing about it. I had been looking forward to a new Romero zombie movie since the project was first announced. I’m a fan of Romero’s work and the first three movies in his “Dead” series are a really interesting trilogy of films.

Survival of the Dead, unfortunately, really struck me as kind of hollow. It kind of took a few days for me to be able to put my finger on just exactly what bothered me about it.

It wasn’t the plot that bothered me. Although this isn’t the story I had hoped to see, I was ok with it. Romero created this universe, and this threat, so I will go along with him on this point.

*Spoiler alert *

To recap, a group of soldiers make their way to an island and find themselves smack in the middle of a feud between two families who live on the island. This feud has been going on for years, and the zombie plague has served to intensify the rivalry. One family wants to exterminate the walking dead, the other side to capture and hold them in case a cure comes about. They hope to train them to feed on something besides human flesh.

*End of Spoiler alert *

Many of the special effects in this movie were done digitally, primarily the blood spray effects. However, this didn’t bother me near as much as I feared they would. It looked passable for the most part, although there were a few spots where it was pretty fake looking.

The main problem I have with this movie is with the zombies themselves, or rather the way they are portrayed. Look back at the 68’ NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. In that movie the dead are creepy, and scary, and a real threat. The living are in fear of these things, and don’t understand what is happening, and are running scared.

It’s been 40+ years and thousands of zombie movies later in real time, and unfortunately this has had an effect on the entire genre, Romero included. At the beginning of Survival we are told it takes place five days after infection. Five days. However, the people in this movie act as if they’ve been dealing with these things for years. They dispatch them with as little effort as taking out a bag of trash. There is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING scary about these zombies. People walk right up to them and shoot them, chop them, push them, hell, even punch them with no fear whatsoever. The islanders corral them and heard them like cattle, even keeping them in barn stalls like livestock. Oh, there are occasional adrenaline rushes where the characters jump into action at a moment’s notice, but little fear.

The zombies are relegated to a mere annoyance, and are robbed of everything that made them scary in the original. I think the reason Romero resisted making more zombie movies for so long is he felt he didn’t have anything more to say. The zombie genre is just tired, and Romero seems tired of it.

Come Check in to the Horror Hotel

Cool poster for the 1960 film Horror Hotel, a.k.a. City of the Dead, starring Christopher Lee. Man I love this movie - I have heard conflicting reports on it's legal status, public domain-wise. So when in doubt steer clear, I say, otherwise I'd air it on Creature Feature for sure. This is a cool poster, though, even if it isn't exactly representative of what actually happens in the movie...

Here is a trailer for the movie:

And for the fun of it, the song Horror Hotel by the misfits!

Very first "Final Girl" film ever?

I was doing some research today and writing some scripts for upcoming episodes of my program, Creature Feature. One of the episodes we're showing is the 1963 movie The Sadist, starring Arch Hall Jr. as a homicidal maniac named Charlie Tibbs who tortures an innocent group of motorists whose car breaks down.

I had this movie playing in the background while I was working, and it struck me just how far ahead of it's time this movie was. It is a really brutal movie for its time. Heck, it is still a brutal movie, so much so I had second thoughts about showing it at 1pm. It is a precursor to such movies as Texas Chainsaw Massacre, particularly in the graphic violence portrayed in it, the most shocking of which is a close up execution by pistol shot to the head of a man kneeling in front of Charlie.

I was also struck by another thought - this could in fact be the very first movie to feature a "final girl." If it isn't the first it is easily an early pioneer of this genre. Helen Hovey is the actress who plays our final girl Doris Page in The Sadist. This was the only film Helen ever made. She was Arch Hall Jr.'s cousin, her mother being Arch Hall Sr.'s sister. This makes the scene where Charlie oogles and near molests her extra creepy.

The scene where she is running down the dirt road fleeing the scene of terror in particular reminded me of Chainsaw. I put together a back to back comparison of a final girl flee scene from each...

pretty interesting, eh?


Arch Hall Jr. doesn't get much respect as an actor, and probably rightly so as his films are far from Oscar worthy. However, The Sadist is a movie that just might have been more influential than folks give it credit for. It is a really well made movie and this is easily Arch Hall's best acting job. Well worth a look if you've never seen it.

My God, its almost dark. They'll wake up soon.

I have to admit I'm feeling a bit guilty. I broke down and joined Netflix. After writing my previous post lamenting the fall of the mom and pop video shops I feel like a bit of a hypocrite, but we tried a one month free trial of Netflix and I'm hooked. Streaming movies through our Wii is simply amazing -instant access to an entire library of films and TV shows blows my mind. No wonder video stores are becoming obsolete. They can't compete with all the movies you could want for ten dollars a month right on your television screen, no late fees to ever pay. But that's the future of videos and dvds... hell, buying dvds will probably become a thing of the past. Why bother spending money when you can just call it up on your Netflix cue at a moment's notice?

I re-watched THE OMEGA MAN today, starring Charleton Heston. Man I really appreciate this movie. It's all about Chuck - he is the swaggering superhero, the tough guy struggling against all odds to survive in a world gone mad. Heston was in his prime here and it's a joy to watch him work. This film is a real reflection of the times - eight track tapes, vinyl records, seventies fashion and hip slang. It's a fun film and even the variations from the original Richard Matheson book work here.

So here's to Netflix and technology... and whatever advances the future holds!

An interesting show last night...

Interesting night last night! We were asked to play this gig by my friend Blake whose band, Armament, actually broke up. He asked if we could do him a favor and fill in for this emergency show. I said cool, we’ll do it.

In the meantime one of the employees of The Muse booked several bands, too. So I get there to find out there are actually 6 bands playing that night! 6 Bands! On a Wednesday in Music City! Music city – Ha! Let me tell you something about “Music City” – they are a fickle bunch. They won’t come out on a weeknight, generally, and many times that holds true for weekends, too. I think it’s because there are so many musicians in one town. Nashville is in that weird phase between big and small cities. We’re big enough to be considered a major city, yet we’re still a small town deep down at heart. In other words Nashville as a whole is still figuring out who they are and that trickles down to the music scene, meaning sometimes you get good crowds, other times not.

At any rate, we were playing a show that had absolutely no advertising, so I was glad to see anyone there at all. The general age of the crowd ranged from 15-17 years old, I’d guess. Very young crowd. The first band went on at 8:15 or so. The first singer was an acoustic act, one guy with a guitar doing Indy rock. Definitely not my scene. The second act was a pop punk band, not too bad. Third band was a Green Day influenced trio who were the best of the opening local bands. They were pretty good, except for the Brittany Spears cover – yeah, that’s right, Brittany Spears. Not sure what that was about !

Between the next set I struck up a conversation outside with a guy named Tim who was closer to my age – actually a bit older. He was the father of the drummer for the band that had just played (I apologize I didn’t get the names of any of the bands playing with us). Talk about a small world – turns out he used to run camera for a horror hosted show in Chattanooga, TN called Shock Theater. It ran in the early 70’s and was hosted by Dr. Shock, played by actor Tommy Reynolds. How cool is that!? Here we play this weird Wed. night fill-in show and I somehow end up in a conversation in the parking lot outside and meet a guy who ran camera for a horror host in Chattanooga in the 70s? What’re the odds?

I totally missed the band that was onstage at this time. Not sure who they were or even what type music they played, all I know is they were from out of town. We were up next. Considering the age of the crowd and their general temperament I decided to forego any costuming. Plus it was about 80 degrees inside the place, so I stayed in t-shirt and jeans. Definitely a low-key night costume wise.

When we went onstage there were maybe 20 people in the room. Small crowd but what the hell, we gave it our all. I honestly expected to clear the room by the third song, considering our stuff is a quite a bit harder than the other bands, but they not only stuck around they actually dug it. By the end of the set we had won the crowd over – they started a mosh pit and when we finished they chanted “One more song, one more song.” Sweet, an encore! So we finished with a sloppy version of The Misfits” 138.”

All in all a good night - Just goes to show you never know!

Spookhand Show tonight

We have a show tonight at The Muse - not sure who we're playing with, a friend just asked if we'd fill in for a band that backed out. So this ought to be an interesting night! Could be packed or could be an empty house - not really sure. Either way, we're bringing the graveyard rock!

Video Interview with Dee Snider!

I got a chance to interview Dee Snider when he was in Nashville a few months back. We talked about everything from his music to movies, Al and Tipper Gore to Pee Wee Herman and much more! Check it out - I had to break it into two parts as it was too long to upload into one part on youtube.

PART ONE

PART TWO

Complete Westmore Tribute available for free on IMDB

To check out Scott Essman's tribute to the Westmore's go here:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1688059/

 

Good stuff!!

Interview with Jimmy Psycho of Psychocharger

Greetings fright fans,

This week I’m talking with a guest who visits all the way from New York City. He’s the lead singer and guitarist for the Psychobilly band Psychocharger. He’s been rockin’ and shockin’ for several years now and keeping that horror flag flying high in the rotten big apple. It’s my pleasure to welcome into the rock and roll laboratory this week, Jimmy Psycho.

 Hi Jimmy, welcome to the lab. Hope you didn’t have too much trouble finding your way here. Just brush aside the cobwebs - I probably should clean them but they sort of make the place a bit cozier, don’t you think? 
 

Jimmy - Nah! your place is fine as it is!  Where’s Nurse Moan-eek?!?! Hubba-Hubba!!!

 Dr. G - So let’s talk about the origins of Psychocharger. You were originally called the Psychonauts, if I’m not mistaken. When did the band form, and what prompted the name change?

Jimmy - I was living down on Miami Beach at the time, and I had an idea to start a “horror influenced-industrial-psychobilly-surf” band…and no one was into the idea.  It’s hard to imagine that now with all
the “-billy” bands that are out there these days, but back then, most people were trying to be the second coming of Pearl Jam!  So, I set up a home-studio and started recording some tunes. I then started sending the songs out to radio stations and venues, and got a lot of requests to play out, so I booked a shitload of shows, and I didn’t even have a band together! Those early shows were pretty rough, I still didn’t have a consistent line-up for a band, I was pretty much just using random people, and I didn’t know exactly who would (or would not) show up to actually play the gig. A lot of times it was just me and someone running the samples and backing tracks! 

I relocated to New York City, and immediately brought in “The Diabolical Dr. K” on bass, who I have known since high school.  We got through a drummer about every two years…right now, we have DW Friend playing drums with us, and we also have our long-time friend Greg Jaw fill in on bass/second guitar on occasion. Originally, the band was called "The Psychonauts".  However, due to a pending legal action by a group of London-based DJs using the same name (who did nothing but shitty remixes of Oasis songs), the band changed the name to "Psycho Charger" in 2001.

 Dr. G - I know you’re a die-hard monster kid. Did your parents let you watch a lot of horror movies growing up or did you catch the horror bug later in life?

Jimmy - Oh yeah...I was watching horror movies ever since I can remember.  I grew up in Ohio, and we had a lot of television horror hosts that would always show them. I tried to catch them whenever I could. 

 Dr. G - What are some of your favorite horror movies?

Jimmy - We get asked this question a lot... I like movies that combine humor and horror...I think the gold-standard of that kind of film is “Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein”. Great movie.  More recent films that have really done that really well are Return of the Living Dead, Shaun of the Dead, and Bubba Ho-Tep.  I revisit those often!

But really, if I had to single out just one movie, it would have to be the film “Blacula” starring William Marshall as the Prince of Darkness. This movie has it all… it’s a vampire/horror flick with elements of
comedy and blaxploitation all-wrapped up in the vibe of a 1970’s crime-drama television show. That’s a lot of bang for your buck!!! I loved this movie ever since I was a kid…there’s a slow-motion scene of
this vampire patient running down a hospital hallway that terrified me until my early teens…

Dr. G - Psychocharger has a very distinctive sound – a three piece band playing guitar driven Psychobilly with industrial overtones. What would you say were some of your musical influences?

Jimmy - That’s really easy…it all started with Elvis, Baby…I know that sounds like a “safe” answer, but damn-hell it’s the truth! I heard those early Sun-era 45s and thought I was gonna lose my mind! Elvis had a PROFOUND impact on me…I knew that there was a party going on somewhere out there and I was gonna get in on it!!!

Dr. G - Your songs are filled with references to classic horror movies and monsters (My personal favorite Psychocharger song is Blacula). I’m guessing you write most of the lyrics?

Jimmy - Yeah, I’m the one.  I write most of the lyrics while riding the NYC Subways...a lot of true-horror inspiration down there!

Dr. G - Are the other band members big horror fans too?

Jimmy - Yes, they are, but Gregjaw is into horror comics and DW is into horror art.  So, we all have a common interest in horror, but it’s in different areas.

Dr. G - You appeared in the horror host documentary American Scary talking about your childhood horror host. Who was that, and did they have a big influence on you and your love of horror movies?

Jimmy - I grew up watching Dr. Creep out of Dayton, OH.  He had a show called “Shock Theater”.  He really made watching the movies a real special experience and I rarely missed it.

I finally got to meet him a few  years ago while I was visiting my family in Ohio...he was appearing at a Halloween Parade.  Since I flew in, I didn’t have a car, so I made my Mom drive me to go see him!!!  He was really cool, really appreciative of everyone who stopped by to see him.

Dr. G - The interviews in American Scary were shot at the Horror Hootenanny (an annual horror rock extravaganza held in Nashville, TN and hosted by yours gruely). Psychocharger has appeared several times at the Hootenanny, and always put on an awesome show. Your stage garb has varied wildly, from leather and gas masks to just your tighty whities. Talk about your stage show and prop/costumes if you would.

Jimmy - Thanks, glad you enjoyed the shows that we’ve done there, and we ALWAYS look forward to coming back, the Hootenanny is an AWESOME event, and it’s always one of the highlights of our touring year. 

Not to sound all “heady” but, we view the stage show as an extension of the creative process of the band...we are proud of the fact that, for better or worse, we have never played a “straight” show.  We change up our stage show pretty often…so, we try to keep people guessing as what we’ll do onstage…will it involve blood? Raw Meat? Several boxes of Count Chockula cereal? No one knows, and we never tell before we play…it’s all about the reveal!

At the core of it, they can ultimately expect a band of psychos that will be playing every single show like it’s the last show they will ever play, that is.…ALL BETS ARE OFF, AND ANYTHING GOES, BEEOTCHES!!! 

Dr. G - So tell me about the new Psychocharger CD.

Jimmy - Oh man, I could go on and on about the new CD...The new CD is called “Mark of the Psycho”...15 tracks of the best stuff we have ever written and recorded.  I think it sounds a bit louder and heavier than our previous stuff, but it’s still rooted in where we came from.  There’s a lot of great special guests on it...DJ Bonebrake from the legendary punk band X plays drums on a song, Nashville Madman Jeano Roid from the Creeping Cruds does some blistering guitar solos, Unkle Pigors of Toxic Toons, not only does the artwork for the CD, but he wrote lyrics and appears on a song.  Oh yeah, and there’s this guy named Dr. Gangrene that shows up on there as well...Can you dig it?!?!

  Dr. G - Yeah, that guy’s a freak! Will you be touring in support of the new CD?

Jimmy - Oh yeah. We’re always out playing...

 Dr. G - You put together a music video for one of the songs in a most unique fashion - using a variety of TV horror hosts. Tell my readers how that came about and where they can see it.

Jimmy - We are HUGE fans of TV Horror Hosts.  You guys and gals are really doing something special, and your dedication to the craft is most impressive!   The video is for a song off the new CD called “Blood!!! Shock!!! Kill!!! Rock!!!” and it’s a song that consists of nothing but horror movie titles.  We were inspired by the video that Bob Dylan did back in the day for his song “Subterranean Homesick Blues” where it’s him flipping poster boards with the song lyrics as they appear.  We thought we would be able to coordinate a bunch of Horror Hosts from all over to do the same kind of thing.  The video that came in was really, really great.  Everyone really put a lot of effort into doing a great job and it shows...in fact, all the video we received was so good, it became hard for us to select which takes to edit out...a lot of tough choices.  The video should be done soon...when it’s completed, we’ll be sending it out to the participating Horror Hosts to show...

 Dr. G - In that video you guys are standing in a snow covered field rockin’ out in just your tighty whities, covered in blood. Pretty crazy looking and I’ll just say you’re a braver man than me Jimmy.

Jimmy - HAHAHA...yeah, that was one of those things that was a great idea until it was time to do it!  It was thirty degrees that day and it had just snowed all the previous day.  We were out in the woods wearing nothing but our tighty whities, covered in blood...the blood actually started to freeze on us!!!

 Dr. G - Well thanks again for spending some time with me, Jimmy. Hope to see you again at this year’s Horror Hootenanny in Nashville on September 25th. There is a spot reserved for you if you ghouls can make it down.

Jimmy - Thanks again, always a pleasure chatting with you...the Psycho Charger-Nashville connection is super-strong...we’ll be back down sometime soon!!!

Dr. G - Keep rockin’ my fiend!

New PsychoCharger CD!!

Psychobilly rock and shock band Psychocharger has a new CD coming out called Mark of the Psycho. They just posted clips online along with preorder information. Psychocharger is an amazing band, and my buddy Jeano Roid of The Creeping Cruds helped produce this one, so I know it's gonna kick ass. Plus yours truly can be heard in the role of a demented psycho truck driver in the song Psycho Death Machine, which is online at the address below:

http://web.me.com/psychocharger/Site/Mark_of_the_Psycho.html

This is also the place to place preorders - so get yo ass on over and check out these tunes - then order YOUR copy of MARK OF THE PSYCHO!!!!

This week's Creature Feature - The Cave

This week on the CW58 I'll be hosting the 2005 film THE CAVE. Join us Sat at 1pm on the CW58 (Comcast CH 18) if you're in the Middle TN or Southern KY area.

The Ordeal of Dr Cordell and Miami Thrillers

I was watching some old Boris Karloff’s Thriller episodes this weekend and was reminded just how much I love this series. It may just be the finest horror anthology series ever aired on television. I don’t have the official DVD release, unfortunately, but I really need to break down and buy it.

One of the episodes I watched was “The Ordeal of Dr. Cordell.” It starred Robert Vaughan as a scientist named Dr. Cordell who has an accident in his lab and is enveloped in toxic gas. He survives the ordeal but afterwards suffers a strange side effect. Whenever he hears the sound of a bell ringing he temporarily blacks out and goes on a murderous rampage. Afterwards he remembers nothing of the incident. It is a sort of involuntary Jekyll and Hyde transformation.

One of Dr. Cordell’s victims is a very young Marlo Thomas. She is wearing a pair of bell earrings, and the ringing as she walks causes Cordell to blank out and go on the rampage.

Speaking of Marlo Thomas, did you know Marlo Thomas’ father, veteran TV actor Danny Thomas, was also a co-founder of the Miami Dolphins? He and lawyer Joe Robbie were awarded the expansion team in 1965 for 7.5 million dollars. Thomas later sold his portion of the team to Joe Robbie, who became sole owner until his death. The team thrived under his ownership, becoming the NFL’s winningest franchise and taking home two Super Bowl wins (including the only perfect season).

When he passed away his family sold the team to businessman Wayne Huizinga for 138 million. Huizinga proceeded to run the team into the ground through a series of bad decisions and bad head coaching hires, culminating in an abysmal 1-15 season. He then sold The Dolphins to a team of owners headed by Stephen Ross for 550 million dollars. Ross and co. finally appear to have the team headed back on the winning track.

From Karloff to Thomas to the Miami Dolphins, you never know where you’ll find a real THRILLER!

July Free Giveaway - Fright Rags T-shirt

Hey Ghouls, just wanted to spread the word that we've kicked a new segment on the show, a free merchandise giveaway. I will be running ads on my TV show and youtube both, and picking a winner at the end of the month.

This month's freebie is a THEY LIVE T-shirt from Fright Rags.com. It's a really cool tshirt and is printed on both sides. Check the video below for details on entering.

We'll be doing this every month, so keep checking the youtube channel and the blog here for more details!

New Young Werewolves music video

 The Young Werewolves have a new CD coming out, and have released a music video from one of the tracks - this is 12 Steps to Rock n' Roll!

AVATURD

Did you guys hear about the re-release of Avatar? Director James Cameron and Fox have decided to re-release the film in 3D and Imax theaters with an additional 8 MINUTES of footage. Woooo – boy, doesn’t that just make your wallet itch to shell out hard earned cash for THAT bit of lameness?

8 minutes – are you kidding me? This is the biggest greed gimmick I’ve ever heard of. I hope it fails miserably. This is a trend I DON’T want to see catch on. Just release the best version possible in the theaters and be done with it. I can see a future where film makers intentionally hold back certain special scenes for the second theatrical run of a movie if this catches on. If people are stupid enough to shell out for this garbage then I guess we reap what we sow, eh?

Worst of all you just know that there is more additional footage that’ll in turn be released on the special director’s cut DVD, Blueray. Etc etc. … I tell you, they should call this new version AVATURD – cause this stinks to high heaven!

Horror Rock Pioneers - Screaming Lord Sutch

Continuing our look at the pioneers of Horror Rock we today take a look at what I consider one of the big three of horror music – Screaming Lord Sutch (the other two members of the horror elite being Screaming Jay Hawkins and Alice Cooper). 

Lord Sutch was actually born David Edward Sutch on November 10, 1940.  He played during the 60’s and was best known for his signature song Jack the Ripper. Screaming Lord Sutch and the Savages, his backup band, were early shock rock pioneers. Screaming Lord Sutch was quite the character. He was a British musician who was directly influenced by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, so much so he changed his name to Screaming Lord Sutch.

Sutch, like his idol, Jay, emerged from a coffin at the beginning of shows. He had an array of onstage props that included knives, skulls, axes, bodies and severed heads. He wore makeup and had long hair, a definite no-no at that time. His costumes ran the gamut from leopard skins, loincloths and buffalo horns to Roman soldier outfits, but he is probably best remembered for dressing as Jack the Ripper onstage. His onstage antics included attacking his piano player with a knife during the song Jack the Ripper and reportedly flinging heart and liver into the audience (real hearts and livers from a butcher shop).



Horror songs by Sutch included Big Black Coffin, Midnight Man, Jack the Ripper, She’s Fallen in Love with a Monster Man, Monster Rock, Murder in the Graveyard, Monster in Black Tights, Dracula’s Daughter, Only here for the Blood and many more.

One interesting thing about Lord Sutch is the caliber of musicians he either played with live or recorded with. Among them were: Ritchie Blackmore, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, John Bonham and Noel Redding – talk about an all-star brigade!

Sutch wound up, incredibly enough, in politics after leaving the music scene. He formed his own political party called the Official Monster Raving Looney Party. He ran for parliament close to 40 times and never won once. He was known for dressing outlandishly and brandishing such slogans as “Vote for Insanity, You Know it Makes Sense.” Sutch claimed he stood for the four R’s “Reading, writing and rock and roll.” You gotta love it!

Sutch suffered from depression, and committed suicide June 16, 1999 by hanging. He was definitely a pioneer of shock rock, so let me raise my bloody knife in salute to you, Screaming Lord Sutch.

Wanna hear some Screamin Lord Sutch? Go here…

 SCREAMING LORD SUTCH
and click away to hear snippets of his songs!

And here are some music videos from SCREAMING LORD SUTCH:

House of Dan Curtis

My good friend Jeff Thompson, horror author and Dark Shadows aficionado, has been quite busy lately. His second book within the past few months hit the stands this week. It is called “House of Dan Curtis: The Television Mysteries of the Dark Shadows Auteur.”

Jeff is quite a unique guy – he is an English Professor at Tennessee State University, a collector of horror and sci-fi memorabilia, a horror host fan, and a Dark Shadows expert. It is the latter that he has explored in this book, which is actually his second book on Dark Shadows creator Dan Curtis.

House of Dan Curtis provides an overview of Dan Curtis’ 40-year-long career, as well as an examination of 15 mysteries and crime dramas Curtis produced, co-wrote, and/or directed. It is chock full of photos and has a foreword by John Karlen, one of the stars of Dark Shadows and many other Curtis productions.

Both books, "House of Dan Curtis" and “The Television Horrors of Dan Curtis: Dark Shadows, The Night Stalker and Other Productions, 1966-2006” are available through Amazon, or, as a special offer, Jeff will sell either of his books directly at a much discounted rate of only $20 plus $5 shipping. Or, come to the Nashville Comic Con in September (September 25 – 26) and meet Jeff in person and pick up a copy for only $20.

You can contact Jeff directly at: jthompson@tnstate.edu.

Dr. Gangrene's Creature Feature Returns this Sat...

This Saturday the newest season of Creature Feature kicks off with the movie Deep Shock, from 2003. This season we also are proud to announce we will now be returning to a weekly schedule. For those of you in the Middle TN area, tune in every Saturday afternoon at 1pm to the CW58, WNAB, (Channel 18 on Comcast) for an all new episode of Dr. Gangrene's Creature Feature.

As a treat for the readers of this blog, I present the all new open for the 2010 season.

And here's the trailer for this week's movie, Deep Shock...

Happy 4th of July! Let's blow up Sh*t!

In honor of the 4th of July weekend, let's honor a time worn tradition, especially in the south, of blowing up sh*t! The following video is a clip where we destroyed some action figures a viewer mailed in by a monster firing squad! huzzah!

Monster on the Campus

Ran across this beautiful poster for Monster on the Campus. This is a Universal movie from 1958 - boy they knew how to make movie posters back then. This, to me, screams fun. I love this movie. We showed this at Wonderfest a couple of years back, with the help of special guests Bob Burns, Frank Dietz, and John Goodwin.

The following video contains highlights of the live shows at Wonderfest from 2006, 2007, and 2008, including the Monster on the Campus show where Bob, Frank and John all were accidentally turned into prehistoric creatures. Fun stuff.

Dr. Gangrene's Anniversary

Today is the anniversary of the very first broadcast of my TV show, on July 1, 1999. My how time flies. Since then I have changed format, rotated cast and crew members, and moved the show to regular broadcast TV. We're now a 2 hr program - it was just a half-hour one when we started. The show is now called Creature Feature - the half-hour program was called Chiller Cinema. It ha been a fun ride and the next phase of it begins in a couple of weeks when we go back to a weekly broadcast. Thanks to everyone who has watched and supported and helped make this program a success.

Here is the original open for my show and a brief part of the pilot episode. I didn't have any theme music when I began, so I went to a neighbor's house and played a moody tune on his keyboard. Worked well for a while... the house is an old abandone house in Hendersonville. It is no longer standing - it finally collapsed in a storm. I always thought it was cool and eerie looking, so when we began the show I called the realtor for the property it was on (which was for sale) and asked if I could use it for the show. He said fine... we had to scale a fence to get to the house. The close-up portion of this is actually my Grandmother's basement. I always  used to get creeped out down there and loved it! I remember going down there with the lights off and seeing how far i could walk into it before I got freaked and ran out. Then I'd go back and try again when my courage got up!!

Funny stuff there. You'll notice the scars on my face. Yeah, that lasted for a while until I got tired of using spirit gum all the damn time. I wrote them out in a later episode. When I call for Oogsley in this bit, my assistant, that is me doing his voice. I didn't have any editing facilities at the time, and was doing all my cuts with two VCRs. Any effects I used were real time - so my director and camera guy, Chuck Angell, just hit play on a tape recorder to play a pre-recorded bit.

Man, seems a hundred years ago. Funny to go back and look at the early stuff. Let me know if you guys want to see more of this. I have every episode saved, on either VHS-C, SVHS, Mini-DV or DVD. I can post some segments from time to time if there is demand for it.