THE COLLECTION REVIEW

  While it seems a good deal of people enjoyed "The Collector," I have an issue with it that just continues to bug me. The movie just ignores who the Collector is way too much. All the audience knows is he collects people, and that's it. No reason why, where he came from, and why Arkin couldn't seem to kill him. So would "The Collection" give audiences a sufficient look at who the Collector is?

  “The Collection” takes place not long after the previous movie. Early on, Arkin (Josh Stewart) manages to escape the Collector (Randall Archer) at a warehouse party. In the same scene, the Collector collects another victim, Elena (Emma Fitzpatrick). Being the only person to escape the grasp of the Collector, Arkin is approached by Lucello (Lee Tergesen) about Elena’s whereabouts. Lucello, who works for Elena’s father, forces Arkin to help him and his team find the Collector, who is held up at an abandon hotel.

  There is nothing like starting off the holidays with a blood bath. That is pretty much what happens in the warehouse scene, and sets the stage for plenty more blood splattering, bone crushing moments. As in the first movie, the death scenes are on point. Yes, the special effects could have been better at times, but it’s still pretty good for those looking for some gore. The audience also gets to see him torture a few souls, and what he has done to others. He's definitely a sick and twisted individual.

  Which leads me to all the aforementioned questions about the Collector. No, I won’t ruin it and tell you everything about him, but they do shed some light on who he is. As expected, they didn’t answer all the questions, for example how in the hell does he know how to build all these traps. In “Saw” the audience gets to see Jigsaw working on his traps, so at least they see him experimenting. However, after finding out the Collector’s background, it explains more about what is he is doing to his victims, but not how he can do all of the trap building.

  It just seems to be one of those horror movie things that typically gets a pass, which there is plenty of in this movie. There is a totally unbelievable escape from one of the Collector’s suitcases, another not so simple as it seems escape from a cage, and for those that don’t know you don’t preserve bodies in water. After seeing it, come back to me, and we can talk more specifically about that. Going back to “Saw” for a moment, this movie reminds me of “Saw II” in some ways (a group of people trying to escape a building that is totally booby-trapped.) Not too shocking considering this movie is brought to us by some of the same people who worked on the Saw movies.

  In the end, I guess I got what I wanted, which was answers. Yes, not all of it makes sense, and there is still some things left untold, which is expected. The final scene does leave the door open for more, so maybe they can complete his story one day. If you enjoyed the deaths scenes, and gore in the first movie, then you will probably enjoy them in this movie as well. While I enjoyed the blood bath plenty, there are just too many coincidences, and things they let pass. If they could’ve just tightened some of those things up, I might have given it more than 2.5 pools of blood.

  HorrO

SPOOKY EMPIRE'S ULTIMATE HORROR WEEKEND 2012

  This was a year of change for Spooky Empire’s Ultimate Horror Weekend, as they changed venues. Regardless of the new hotel, the Hilton Orlando, the convention still proved to be a terrific show for horror fans. As usual, there were panels, Q and A’s, movie showings, merchandise and autograph room, and several special events.

  Instead of going day by day, I’m going to change it up this year and give you a few thoughts on some of the activities I attended in general. Some pictures and videos’ll help me along. Also, I’ll let you in on some of the activities and celebrities that were there whether or not I saw them.

Zombie Walk:

  As usual the convention kicked off with a zombie walk, and definitely as usual I caught the end of it. Why… because I was busy being zombified!

  It’s always fun seeing all the zombie costumes, and taking pics like the one above. I especially find it awesome when parents dress their little kids up as zombies.

Q and A’s:

  There were many great Q and A’s, but my favorites were The Devil Reject’s and John Kassir (Crypt Keeper). If I had known they were going to turn out to be so awesome, I would have recorded the entirety of both. As you might expect, The Devils’s Rejects was filled with many crazy stories. Sid and Ken were definitely having a good time, and loved every second they got to talk. Hopefully you watched the video, as Tyler also had a funny story about Halloween.

  When I got to meet John prior to the Q and A, I quickly realized what a cool person he is. He was having a great time interacting with fans, as he signed autographs and took pictures. He continued the great interaction right into his Q and A. I have to admit, I didn’t know much about his career besides being the Crypt Keeper, and it was extremely interesting hearing how he got started.

  Two more standing room only Q and A’s were with the cast of A Nightmare on Elm Street 4, and Rosen McGowan. Of course, I’m always interested to hear stories from Robert Englund, but it was cool seeing the rest of cast as well. I was surprised to see how young many of them looked. I never realized they were that young when they made the film. Also, I never realized Rose had such a strong following, but I wasn’t surprised that she didn’t hold back when answering questions.

Other Q and A's: Heather Brewer, Cast of Zombie, Tom Savini, R.L. Stine, Kane Hodder, and Cannibal Holocaust

Special Events:

  These special events were something new to me. The MuckleBones Monster Museum had its own room for all the displays you see in the video. They did a wonderful job making everything look so real. You can also tell they made for fun photo ops. As far as the Hearse and Creepy Car Show, there weren’t as many hearses as I thought there would be, but they certainly picked some good ones for the show. As you can see, the coolest one was the coffin car. Now I would love to see people’s expressions as that thing drives down the street. The Evil Puppets table was also interesting; as it brought back memories of puppets I haven't seen in years like Critters, and Dark Crystal.

Other special events: Tattoo Festival, Celebrity Charity Poker Tournament, Bands and Live Performances, and the Bloody Mary "Hands On" Makeup To Die For Zombie Workshop

Merchandise and Autograph Room:

  If you were looking to spend money on horror merchandise, then this was the place to be. There were all kinds of great things to buy like old movie posters, figures, exclusive merchandise from other conventions, and plenty of other oddities. The room also featured many artists looking to sell their work. It’s always amazing to see some of the creative stuff they come up with.

  More of my money went to autographs. It’s not ever day you get a chance to get meet these people, although I still can’t believe I’ve met Robert Englund twice, and Kane Hodder multiple times. I chose not to have anyone else sign my “Icon” T-shirt this year. Instead, I had Robert and Kane sign the shirt you see in the video (at least I thought it was funny). I was excited to get some new autographs this year from the likes of Tyler Mane (damn is he tall), Sid Haig, and IronE Singleton (R.I.P. T-Dogg). Yes, I can’t believe he got killed off right after I got to meet him. He was super cool, and having a blast with all the fans.

Other celebrities signing autographs: Rose McGowan, Heather Langenkamp, Steve Dash, Lawrence Harvey, the cast of A Nightmare on Elm Street 4, and many more.

V.I.P. Party:

  As you might be able to tell, there were several firsts for me this year, including the V.I.P. party. The party provided a good chance to mingle with some of the celebrities. I’m not sure how they decided to do it, but it seemed like celebrities would come in and talk with people for a while. Then they would leave and other celebrities would come in, and do the same. Some of the celebrities that attended were members of the cast of Nightmare on Elm Street 4, Tyler Mane, Ruggero Deodato and Lawrence Harvey.

  Story telling time… as you can see from the above pic, I jumped in for another hard choking pic with Kane. When I stood next to him he mentioned that he had the shirt I was wearing. Of course, I reminded him that I gave it to him. He told me that he actually wore it during a webisode he filmed. Yes, it made this horror dork extremely happy to hear he actually wore it. The next day was when I actually got his autograph again, and of course I mentioned the shirt to him. He said he wore it while filming a paranormal webisode at the Stanley Hotel. I will definitely be on the look out for that. Oh… and Robert said his wife wears the shirt I gave him. Ok sorry for the story telling.

Freakshow Horror Film Festival:

  I didn’t get to see as many of the movies as I wanted to. I was interested in several of them because I featured them at PromoteHorror.com, but they weren’t playing at times I could make it to. However, I did see “Spiders 3D” in 2D, and lets say the best thing about that was getting a free T-shirt. I did see a short film called “DeadBox,” which was based off of the Redbox machines you might have seen that was actually pretty good. They were also showing movies besides at the festival where I got to see “Zombie” for the first time. It was definitely pretty good in its time.

Other movies being shown: A Nightmare on Elm Street 4, Frankenhooker, and Cannibal Holocaust

Panels:

  They had many great panels as usual. Most of them were held by some of the authors that attended the convention. They usually put a great group of authors together with an interesting dynamic, and definitely opinionated. One of the more intriguing panels I attend was the one about remakes. Yes, the R word! Not only was it interesting hearing the panel’s opinions, but also it was interesting hearing the opinions of other fans. 
Other panels: What Scares Us, Cryptozoology, Sick and Twisted, and Vampires.

  Well, I could go on and on, and even tell more stories, but I will leave it there. There will be more videos of some of the other Q and A’s and pics on the Spooky Empire 2012/2011 Pictures and Videos page. I hope this gave you a little taste of what the convention was all about. Maybe I will see you there one day!

  HorrO

HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS 2012

  The theme for Halloween Horror Night’s (HHN) 22 was “No Way Out.” Maybe the theme should have been “No Way Am I Missing HHN’s.” Like many people, with houses dedicated to The Walking Dead and Silent Hill, there wasn’t much more they needed to do to convince me to attend this event. While there was plenty to talk about with those houses, the original HHN houses held their own. The big change this year was that they did away with the scare zones, and let the scaractors roam free in what they called “Street Experiences.” Also, there was the totally awesome Bill and Ted’s Excellent Halloween Adventure, and a new live show 20 Penny Circus.

  I was lucky enough to attend the event on 3 different nights, each providing a different experience. On the first day, I actually went on the “Unmasking the Horror Tour” in the afternoon before HHN. I’ll have more on that tour in a behind the scenes post. As far HHN, that was the first night it ever rained while I was at the event. That sounds bad, but it actually became a good thing because not everyone wanted to stand in lines out in the rain. So if you want a sure way to get through HHN in a hurry, grab yourself a poncho, and brave the rain. The lines were cut in half, and I did all the houses in about 2.5 hours. There was a downside besides the rain, there were no scaractors roaming the streets while it rained. However, it still was fun, and definitely a new experience.

  Speaking of new experiences, I had another on the 2^nd night, as I went on the “Arcane Insights Tour.” This tour is similar to the R.I.P. Tour (a guided tour through all the houses), except one of the designers from HHN went on the tour along with the guide to give us even more detail about the event. Again, I’ll go more into what that tour was all about in a behind the scenes post; however I might refer to it while talking about the specific houses.

  On the 3^rd night, there were no tours and rain to help me out. However, being a HHN pro, I still was able to make it through each house in pretty good time. You might wonder why I try to go in the houses more than once. Well, that’s because each time is a new experience. There are scares you might have missed, or sometimes different scaractors play a role better than others. Sometimes you just want to try to figure out how exactly they pulled off a certain scare. I’ll give some examples in my thoughts about the houses. 

  Now onto the good stuff, below is a description of each house, the street experiences, and live shows from the event guide followed by my thoughts about each of them. I hope I give you a good feel for the event, and if you did go, maybe I saw something you missed. As you can see, included are some pictures, and videos I pieced together as well.

The Walking Dead:

Band together as you escape infection and face hordes of walkers from AMC’s hit The Walking Dead. There's no way out.

This house really made you feel like you were on the show. It started off in the mall from season 1, and ends in the barn from season 2. They carefully placed several items throughout the house fans of the show might recognize, such as bunny slippers, Rick’s bag of guns and his hat, Daryl’s crossbow, and the ax-saw Merle sawed his hand off with. This is one of those examples of why going on the tour is good. While I noticed some of those things, I might not have been on the lookout for them without our guide telling us to look for them. Going in the house more than once, allowed me a good chance to find those items. As far as the zombies, yes there were plenty of them. I wouldn’t say any of them really scared me, but they were certainly cool to see. There was also a cool scene outside of the house with the school bus, and car they left the message for Sofia on.

5 pools of blood mostly cause it was cool feeling like you were on the show, and we love zombies!

Silent Hill:

Dare to venture to the ghastly town of Silent Hill, where an alternate dimension of horror awaits. Nothing is what it seems.

Another house that I was very much looking forward to. Again, this house wasn’t that scary, but it was awesome feeling like you were in the middle of movie/game. The nurses were well done, and cool to be standing so close to. A few rooms stood out in this house. One was where several nurses were standing together and one had to be real, but which one? Also, right next to them was the little girl standing at the top of some steps. That definitely was distracting me. Another room had a guy who was lying on his stomach, and looked as if his back was bending backwards. That kind of made my back hurt. Then the room I was most looking forward to seeing… the room with the pyramid guy. I was really disappointed with this room because it took until the third and last time I went into the house for the guy to move. The first two times he just stood in the corner looking around. I was really mad until the third time when he was actually walking around trying to scare people… finally!!!

4 pools of blood because I had to wait so long to see the pyramid guy do something.

Alice Cooper- Welcome To My Nightmare:

Face your demons in legendary rocker Alice Cooper's twisted mind and bear witness horror and music become one.

Nothing against Alice Cooper, but I’ve never gotten into his music so this house wasn’t as big of a deal to me as the previous two. This house was a mixture of different things with an Alice Cooper look alike at the end. One of my favorite rooms in the house was actually more of a hallway. In each section there was a statue to your left and right. There was a series of them, and of course you had to guess who the real person was. I liked that each time we went into the house they were in different places.

3.5 pools of blood for a good effort, and certainly an awesome entrance.

Penn and Teller New(KD) Vegas:

World-renowned magicians Penn and Teller have accidentally nuked Las Vegas, but don't worry, it's all part of the show… or is it?

Every year they seem to have a house that is meant to be more fun than scary. No surprise here, this was the fun house. A perfect example of this is the buffet room. On one side, you would look at the buffet and have a bunch of weird things happen to you like getting blasted with air. When you came around the other side, there was a series of buttons that you got to push to make those weird things happen to the people who were still on the other side. It might not be for everyone, but the thing I liked about the house was that it was 3D. Everyone got a pair of glasses as they went in, which was really cool to have on in a room that was filled with Christmas lights.

3 pools of blood cause while it was fun and the 3D was interesting, it was barely scary. (You can see more about this house in my behind the scenes post)

Dead End:

In Carey, Ohio, the Hartford Mansion was cursed after horrific acts occurred inside. And the truth is the deadliest part of all.

I want to save some of the more detailed descriptions for my behind the scenes post because when you see the pictures you will be able to get a better understanding about what I’m talking about. I will say that this house was much better than I anticipated. It starts off with some tricks like an old lady that floats back and forth over stairs, and a surprise-spinning tunnel. It all ends with a ghostly scream, and an interesting scare.

4.5 pools of blood for many great attempts to scare you!

Gothic:

By day, the Cathedral de Caementum Animus is being restored. By night, the gargoyles that keep watch come alive.

Going into the event I expected The Walking Dead house would be the best. While it was extremely cool, I couldn’t say it was the best house. When discussing the houses, this seemed to be most people’s favorite. Well, it was mine too! Again, I will give more details in my behind the scenes post, but I’ll say the tricks they did with the gargoyles were pretty awesome!

5 pools of blood for making gargoyles cooler than I ever thought they could be!

House of Horrors: Face the original masters of terror in blinding black and white as lightning slices through the surrounding darkness.

I really didn’t expect much from this house. I mean, Frankenstein, the Wolfman, etc… we’ve all seen them before. Well, this house turned out to be pretty awesome. First, it was probably the darkest house. You got helped through with the flashing lights, but I swear at times I wasn’t sure which direction to go. There was a nice room, where all of the monsters came at you, that had streams of big movie film coming down from the ceiling. Also, there was another room where you actually had to bend down to walk under a net and when you came up there was a creature right there to scare you. I liked that that creature really didn’t have to move. It was just to startle you. They definitely saved the best for last. There was what appeared to be a Frankenstein at quite a distance from you, and then in a flash he was breaking through a branch coming right at you. Yes, there was a second Frankenstein that was the one coming at you when the light flashed. It was intense, and extremely well done.

4.5 pools of blood that could have been earned just for that final room.

Street Experiences

The Iniquitus:

Rooted in evil, these are the patrons of death, and those who have risen from the cemetery. The Iniquitus are those who summoned the Dark Legions to come and feast here.

The first of some good costume designs to scare people with, or have their pictures with instead!

Vampires:

From all eras of time, worldly vampires are summoned here to Halloween Horror Nights to feast on living.

I know a lot of people are tired of vampires, but these vamps were cool looking and were definitely hard at work scaring people.

Beasts:

These legendary animal-like creatures will prey on those with a taste for horror.

They did a good job making some of these creatures pretty ugly.

Warriors:

This ancient army was slaughtered in war and now they seek revenge. Be aware as they approach under a cloak of darkness; their attack may catch you off guard.

Ended up being more like a bunch of half naked guys marching around. Nothing scary here.

Prisoners:

Horrifically burned in a woman's prison fire, the dead remain caught between life and death. They seek their release to the afterlife, killing all who stand in their way.

Anyone with chainsaws is sure to scare plenty of people. I liked that women had the chainsaws this year, but prisoners aren’t that scary either.

Traditionals:

The traditional ghost and goblins of Halloween past come together to try to feast more than just once a year!

Again, some pretty cool, and scary costumes.

Overall, I’m still not sure whether I liked the scare zones, or this street experience more. They are almost the same thing, as the scaractors were still in the streets, but there were no themed areas. One of the cool things was that they could go almost anywhere, including in the restaurants, which I caught a quick video of. Maybe one more run at the street experience, but with different scaractors will help me decide.

Bill and Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure:

A MUST SEE! Party on as those two most excellent dudes return to skewer the biggest names in entertainment and pop culture.

If you read my HHN post from last year then you know I’m a huge fan of this show, but for once didn’t like it last year. Well, I was glad to see they rebounded, like I knew they would. They put on another hilarious show with the theme centered on the election. It had characters such as, Honey Boo Boo, Katniss, the Avengers, and of course the candidates for President.

20 Penny Circus- Fully Exposed:

The 20 Penny Circus brings their “Magic For People With Questionable Taste” to an unsuspecting Halloween Horror Nights audience.

I would like to think I have questionable tastes at times, but this was not one of them. I didn’t care for this show. I could see it being for a certain audience that attends the event, but this wasn’t my cup of tea. It was basically magic tricks with a lot of sexual innuendo.

  Overall, I had a terrific time. Going on all the tours was well worth it, especially if you are really interested in the houses. As a group, this was one of the better years for the houses. I can’t say there was one that was a complete waste of a house. They definitely tried to take the scares to a new level. The street experience could have been better. Maybe with a different mix of scaractors it could have been scarier. Bill and Ted rebounded nicely, while the 20 Penny Circus just wasn’t for me. I hoped you enjoyed this look at Halloween Horror Night’s 22, and don’t forget to check out my behind the scenes found here. Also, you can find more videos here.

  HorrO

BEHIND THE SCENES OF HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS 2012

  As mentioned in my Halloween Horror Night’s 22 (HHN) post, I was lucky enough to attend the event on 3 different nights, and went on two different tours. Much of the focus of this post will be on the “Unmasking the Horror Tour, but I will conclude it with a little about the “Arcane Insights Tour.” As far as the “Unmasking the Horror Tour,” it’s basically a guided tour through three houses during the daytime. It’s a great tour to go on if you are interested in knowing about the inner workings of a haunted house attraction.

  Unlike last year, this time they only let us take pictures on the tour. So what I’ve done is put together all the pictures in one video so that you can easily see all the pictures. After each video, I tried to describe some of the pictures, and what they tried to do in the house. You may need to go back and watch the video a second time to see exactly what I’m talking about. It was a shame they didn’t let us record the tour because in two of the houses they had the effects going on while we were inside. It would’ve made for some cool videos. However, I did go ahead and add my own cheap sound effects!

  Every year they seem to have a house that is meant to be more fun than scary, and the Penn and Teller house was that house. Apparently Penn and Teller have wanted to do a house for HHN for a long time, and this was finally the year. They had some input on the things you see in the house, like the doves. Also, you may have noticed there are a lot of pictures with them on it. That is all stuff from their shows that they supplied HHN with. And to top it off, they not only visited the house before HHN began, but they visited the house on one of the nights HHN was going on (too bad it wasn’t on a night that I was there).

  The above video starts off with a look outside of the house, including a shot of a guy standing over a can that was actually taken at night. Not long after that are some shots of the room that they actually took the promo pictures for advertising. Moving on to the “Honeymoon Suite,” you see some good examples of what I meant about having stuff from their shows in the house. You can see the small bed with a mirror above it. There was a French maid in this room who was supposed to scare you.

  You can also see the doves I mentioned, which had glowing red eyes that you could see at night with the 3D glasses on (yes this was also a 3D house). Speaking of red, the guide told us they use red in a lot of the houses because people seem to be attracted to red. There are a couple of pictures of a notebook, which isn’t that interesting right? Well, I included them only because it’s actually the script for Mortal Kombat. You can also see some X-Mas lights, which looked pretty cool with the 3D glasses on.

  What would Las Vegas be without some slot machines? While you were busy looking at them and trying to push the buttons, there were scaractors dressed as Roman soldiers roaming the room. Another popular Vegas theme is the wedding chapel. You see a few dead visitors sitting in the chairs. This chapel actually featured an Elvis look a like as a distraction. After that, you can see the buffet that I mention in my HHN post. There was a lot to look at as the people pushing buttons on the other side abused you. Not only are people attracted to the color red, but also like pushing buttons, which is why they set this room up.

  This was one of the two houses that had the effects going on while we were touring it. They seem to always have a house that looks like the typical haunted house on the outside, which you can see in the first few pictures. Then you see the old lady, who floated back and forth over the stairs. At night it was harder to see the wire, as they hide the effect pretty well. After that there seemed to be a normal walkway, but when the lights went out it was actually a spinning tunnel with ghostly faces.

  Moving along, you might recognize the doll on the wall. This was one of the houses that used a lot of the props from last year. Then you can see some pictures that were on the wall that changed depending on the angle that you look at them. I always have fun looking at those, but am careful of people lurking in the shadows.

  After that comes one of my favorite tricks, as you see three chairs and two ladies sitting in them. As you might have guessed, a scaractor sits in the empty chair waiting for the perfect to time to jump up and scare guests. Following those pictures, it’s hard to make out but there is a guy sitting in the bathtub. He’s the distraction because there was a scaractor standing behind the tub waiting for you. Also, there is a sink to the right of that with a fake mirror. Ever once in a while, it would slide down, and a scaractor would pop out.

  Sometimes they go for the camouflage scare, which is one of the scares going on in pictures of the room with lots of plants and windows. There was a scaractor placed in that room dressed as a big bush. Of course there are other scaractors in the room distracting you just in time for the bush to surprise you. Not long after those pictures, you might notice two quick pictures of some clothing. Well, the clothing belongs to Leatherface and Freddy, whose sweater might be easier for you to make out in the picture. They were definitely hard to see at night.

  Speaking of hard to see, one of the following rooms was a hallway of books. There were some books missing so that scaractors could stick their hands out at you. Those missing books just might be the books that were floating above you. You can see them in the pictures, but they were a little harder to see at night.

  The final room in the house was pretty cool. As you can see, there was a projection of a woman screaming. The projection is actually on top of a bed that was turned sideways on the wall. Where do creepy people sometimes hide in movies… under the bed. As you turn the corner there was a scaractor under the bed scaring guests on their way out of the house. It worked well as long as the line was moving.

  

This haunted house (the second one with the effects on) was set in a cathedral that was being restored, as you can tell from the outside of the house. If you previously visited Universal Studio’s and their Ghostbusters attraction, you will notice the gargoyles in the front of the house are the ones from the attraction. The bigger gargoyles are ones that Universal used to have at the entrance to the park along time ago. Just as you are about to enter the house, you see a statue to the far right. To your immediate left is another statue, which you don’t see in the pictures because it’s a scaractor statue. In the picture, you will see the device the scaractor used to set off some effects when they scared guests.

  As you can see there were a lot of things to look at as you made your way through. As I mentioned, they like to place things for you to touch, grab, pull, etc. Well, in the room with the giant bell there were ropes for you to pull on. As you did that, there were also scaractors in the room ready for those not paying attention. After that comes the first of several rooms with awesome gargoyles. You see a series of candles, which were especially made so that anyone who tried to light one couldn’t! Above you was a gargoyle strapped to the harness you see in the picture. It would stand still and then fly across the room with some sound effects playing.

  After a series of pictures of statues, you will see some pictures that look like I was taking pictures of some pieces of wood. It was hard to get a picture of, but on the inside of the wood and downward was where the church was. There was also a reflection so that you could also look upwards in the room and see it as well. And what was all that for? Well, when you walked forward looking in that direction, there was a hatch in the ceiling with a gargoyle waiting for you to pass.

  Moving along you will see a big black curtain with some small shiny objects on it. It’s supposed to simulate the night sky. Why… for the gargoyle that flew back and forth. You might be able to see the bar and harness that it was hooked up to. To your right you will see what looks like a small house, where a scaractor was sometimes hiding.

  Then onto the final and best scare in the house, and of the event. There was room that was pretty dark, and didn’t look like a lot was going on. You could see the opening you can see in the picture, but there didn’t appear to be anything there. That was until a gargoyle sprung at you stopping at the wall. You can see the place where the gargoyle grabbed onto to the wall to hang on, and pop out at you. The first time experiencing this was the best, even though we were tipped off of this happening as you can see. They did a really good job of hiding the gargoyle until it was flying towards you. It was funny because every time we went into the house after seeing it the first time, we would stop there and yell for the gargoyle to come out. It was that cool.

  Now for a few thoughts about the “Arcane Insights Tour.” While I’ve done the regular R.I.P. Tour over the past few years, this was definitely an upgrade. The difference between the two tours is that the Arcane tour not only has a guide taking your group around, but your group is also accompanied by one of the designers of HHN. I had my doubts about how this would turn out, but it was well worth it.

  T.J. was the designer that accompanied our tour, and he was fantastic. He’s been working there for over 16 years so he had plenty of stories to share. Before going into the houses, both T.J. and our guide, David, would give us the background on the house, and things to be on the look out for. After walking through the house, we could ask them about things we saw, and maybe didn’t see. At one point, we stopped touring the park and had a Q & A session, where we all got to ask him questions. It was nice not only hearing about this year’s event, but he also referred to many of the events in the past. We also got to hear about how they plan the houses, the challenges they face putting the houses together, how the marketing was done, and a little about possible future plans for HHN. I would say this tour is definitely for people who are really interested in HHN both past and present, and enjoy learning about the inner works of these kinds of events.

  So I hope this has given you a good inside look at Halloween Horror Night’s 22. This was certainly one of their better years, and I’m glad I got to experience it on multiple levels. If you have any questions about the event, the tours, or any of the videos and pictures I shared, please feel free to ask me about it. In case you missed it, you can read my post on HHN 22 here, and see more videos here.

  HorrO

VOTE FOR PRESIDENT OF THE HORROR WORLD

Romney or Obama. Obama or Romney. Today’s a big day for them and the country. It’s been a long and exhausting process watching ad after ad so I thought we would have a little fun. After voting for Obama, Romney, or whomever, cast your vote for President of the Horror World. Here are your candidates:

Vote now in the comment section. Election rules… vote only once except for the special few that get to do it twice. Feel free to write in a candidate. Hopefully there will be no need for a recount, or legal battle.

  HorrO

THE WALKING DEAD EPISODE 4, "KILLER WITHIN"

After watching last night’s episode of The Walking Depression, I mean Dead, I thought it was an episode worthy of talking about. So here are a few thoughts about episode 4, “Killer Within.” If you haven’t seen the episode… DON’T READ…but of course come back after you’ve seen it.

-When you are the leader of a group in the zombie apocalypse, you’re always faced with difficult decisions. Where to go, how to get food, and who to kill? Well, Rick decided to let Andrew try to escape the zombies on his own as opposed to killing him. This episode magnified the consequences of his decision. While at the time it really didn’t even seem like there was a decision to be made, but boy did Andrew’s brief moments on the show change the group forever. Even the smallest decision can cost you big time!

-Coming into the season, we all knew people in the group would die, and I asked people who they wanted to see go. Lori was among the names mentioned, even by myself. However, when the time came I just couldn’t celebrate the fact that she is gone. It was just too damn depressing of a moment, even with the baby surviving. Depressing mostly because Carl was right there by her side. I absolutely loved how they flashbacked to the conversation Rick had with Carl. There couldn’t have been a more perfect moment for that, as it just drove the point home. Poor Carl, that couldn’t have been easy. What a bitch the zombie apocalypse can be!

-Does it seem like whenever someone goes against the group bad things happen to them? There was no one more opposed to the group’s views as Shane, and he died. At the time of Dale’s death, he was against what Rick wanted to do with their hostage. And now T-Dogg, who wanted to show the two prisoners some compassion, has passed on. I have nothing against him, but you could almost see his time coming. His character faded into the background as characters from the farm have stepped forward. At least he went out a hero, which is what you would expect. I’m kind of disappointed we won’t see him meet up with Merle again.

-Speaking of people who have gone against the group, and deserve to die, let me talk about Andrea for a moment. What a bad judge of character she is. First Shane, and now the Governor. Michonne is clearly a survivor, and if she says go, then they need to go. Andrea is not only endangering the two of them by sticking around, she is endangering the group as she continues to spill the beans to Merle. Shut up already!!!

-Obviously I was very impressed with this episode, as I decided to talk about it. I really wonder if this means the show has learned its lesson from last season. I thought after the first 2-3 episodes of last season the show just became a big set up for the mid-season finale, and discovery of Sophia. Knowing that another mid-season finale is coming, I feared they would drag their feet again just setting that up. Well, I can’t say they dragged their feet with last night’s episode. Really, last night’s episode could have been a mid-season finale because nothing will be the same from this point on.

So far season 3 has been amazing. So much has happened in so little time, and there are so many possibilities coming. I hope everyone else is enjoying it as well. And I can’t end this without saying I love how many zombies have been killed. They just keep coming, and keep getting taken down. Now to episode 5!!!!

  HorrO