OPEN GRAVE REVIEW

A man wakes up in the wilderness, in a pit full of dead bodies, with no memory and must determine if the murderer is one of the strangers who rescued him, or if he himself is the killer.

Starring: Sharlto Copley, Joseph Morgan, Thomas Kretschmann, and Erin Richards

Directed by: Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego

Written by: Chris Borey and Eddie Borey

  

  Not knowing much about "Open Grave" definitely makes it more enjoyable. Speaking of not knowing, John (Sharlto Copley) wakes up at the beginning of the movie not knowing who he is, or where he is. That is of course besides the fact that he just woke up in a huge grave. He's rescued by a group of people who don't know who they are either. This causes immediate tension, and caution among the group.

  The fun part about this movie is trying to figure out what is happening to these characters at the same time as they are trying to figure it out. At first it might have horror fans thinking it's one type of horror movie, as each character is suspicious of the next. They know a mass murder has taken place, and aren't sure which one of them did it, or maybe it's someone who is watching them. Soon enough, the characters realize something else is happening, and there are different questions that need to be answered. The audience also realizes it's a different kind of horror movie.

  To no surprise, not all of the characters survive to see what is truly going on. There are some decent deaths, but that isn't the focus here. It's more about the suspense and mystery, which is perfectly constructed. Because of how well this story unfolds, I give it 3 pools of blood.

  HorrO

DARK FEED REVIEW

When a film crew moves into an abandoned psychiatric hospital with a shadowy past to shoot a low budget horror film, they get more than they bargained for. The late nights and lack of sleep begin to take a toll, and the longer this crew works, the more the leaky, wet building seems to be coming back to life, feeding off its new inhabitants. As the shoot wears on, members of the crew exhibit increasingly strange behavior leaving those still sane realizing they need to get out of this place before they too succumb to the building's infectious hold, the only problem, the old hospital is not ready to let them go. 

Starring: Evalena Marie, Michael Reed, Jonathan Thompson, and Michael Scott Allen

Directed and written by: Michael Rasmussen and Shawn Rasmussen

  An abandoned psychiatric hospital usually is a good setting for a horror movie, and it certainly works in "Dark Feed." Maybe because they stick to the title and make it very "dark,” maybe even too dark in some scenes. There are lots of rooms in the hospital, where light is hard to come by. It maintains a creepy feeling throughout the movie, which works perfectly with the craziness that ensues.

  The craziness is great because no one is safe. One by one the characters either go nuts, or become a victim of someone who has already gone nuts. There are some good deaths, include one of the actors who wanted to become an actress! If only they would have shown a little more blood to match the craziness.

  The darkness and craziness save what is a really slow start to the movie. There is a long process of introducing a lot of different characters, and setting up their movie shoot. If "Dark Feed" would have gotten to the point a little quicker, and used some more blood I might have given it more than 2 pools of blood!

  HorrO

HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS 23: BICYCLE GIRL

Here is video of Bicycle Girl from The Walking Dead at Halloween Horror Nights 23. Of course this drew a huge crowd of people. I really didn’t expect to see this, but it was pretty awesome. In case you are wondering it isn’t a trick. The scareactor really doesn’t have legs. They have done work for Halloween Horror Nights before, and were all in on being Bicycle Girl! 

  HorrO

HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS 23: ZOMBIE EATS DEER

Here is video from one of the scare zones at Halloween Horror Nights 23 featuring The Walking Dead. You see a zombie eating a deer. As everyone stands there taking pics and video, you get squirt with blood (water) when the zombie takes a bite.  

  HorrO

Halloween Horror Nights 23: Pictures

The video below contains most of the pictures I took at Halloween Horror Nights 23 (HHN) not including the tour pictures. Most of the pics are from the scare zones. All of the scare zones this year featured scenes from The Walking Dead, and were obviously filled with zombies. Under the video I highlighted a few things you will see in the video (in order) in case you are wondering what you are looking at.

-Posters of some of the houses hung at the entrance to HHN

-Scareactors walking away from The Walking Dead House. Most of them stayed in character outside of the house.

-A deer that you will later see a zombie chewing on

-Michonne’s pets (but you knew that)

-Bicycle girl crawling around

-The barn

-Daryl’s crossbow on a truck

-The zombies are looking in the water. They had a fireball go off every 5-10 minutes and all the zombies would walk over, and investigate the explosion

-Remember the truck that drives into the prison and lets out all of the zombies. Well they play out that scene a few times a night. They let zombies out of the truck and onto the streets. You see the guys that were in the truck.

-The posters again but this time at night

I hope you enjoyed the video. If you have any questions about a certain pic, please let me know. I have a few more videos coming soon of the zombie eating the deer, bicycle girl, and some scare zones.

  HorrO

BEHIND THE SCENES: "THE WALKING DEAD" HOUSE AT HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS 23

Part of my Halloween Horror Nights 23 (HHN) adventures was taking the Unmasking the Horror Tour. This tour takes fans on a behind the scenes look at their haunted houses. Our tour took us into 6 of their 8 houses. I decided to break them each up into their own post in order to give a better look at each of them. This is a behind the scenes look at the “The Walking Dead” house.

The above video is a series of photos that I took while on the tour. What I will be doing now is describing some of the things you saw in the video, so you might want to read this and then go back and watch the video again. Hopefully you will be able to recognize some of the things in the pics from the show starting with the outside of this house. Before walking inside, we are in the yard where the Governor had people fight while surrounded by zombies. The chains on the ground are actually attached to zombies at night. There is also a cage, which some people didn’t realize had an opening for zombies to come out, and scare you before entering the house. 

The first room was where the Governor tortured people as you can see from all of the tools. At night, zombie Milton was standing behind the table to greet you. The pathway leading to the next room had a cool zombie trapped in the corner. This was to keep you distracted for what came next.

Now I’m sure you recognize this. My face lit up when I saw all the heads in the tanks. Of course at night they were filled with water, and lit up so that you could see them better. While you were checking out the heads, the Governor’s daughter would come running out from behind the tanks to scare you. She even had the bag over her head.

After that awesome scene you had to duck down, and go through this small fenced in pathway. Ok, you could go around, but that’s no fun. At night there would be zombies on the other side watching you. The best part was the surprise waiting for you as you stood up after getting out. In the video you see the Woodbury Post Office, and behind that fence you would find a scareactor-playing zombie Merle. 

From there you see the flatbed that was by the front of Woodbury. You can see things like a machine gun, ammo, and some golf equipment. At night there was often a scareactor with a machine gun up there watching for zombies. 

Then we enter one of the best rooms in any of the haunted houses. Here we go through the fences that surround the prison. It might be hard to tell in the video, but you basically had fences on both sides of you as you followed the path. At night there were plenty of zombies on the other side of the fences, including the awesome zombies in the riot gear. Also, it was very dark, and misty making it quite the scene to walk through. It was cool looking up at that guard tower. 

Once inside the prison there is a sad reminder that T-Dogg is dead. Yes that is a representation of him dead on the ground. You then move into a room with a telephone in it. Every once in a while it would ring, and you were supposed to pick it up. When you did, you would her Laurie start talking. 

As we move forward we see another scare similar to what we saw in the An American Werewolf in London house. Our tour guide demonstrated how the scareactor would squeeze into an opening, and come up as part of the body on the ground. At night the scareactor would be reaching out at you as you passed by. It was another cool little effect.

We end the house in one of the cellblocks. At night you could only walk straight through it, but during the tour we could go in the cells. This was obviously an area that the zombies occupied because at night they were the ones coming out of the cells. On the table you will see part of a leg. You guessed it, that is supposed to be Hershel’s leg. 

If you are a fan of the show I don’t see how you could not like being in this house. It was such an awesome feeling being in scenes similar to the show. It was also great seeing scareactors that looked like characters on the show. And like I said, that fenced in area to get in the prison was one of the best rooms of the whole event. This certainly topped last year’s Walking Dead house. So that was a look at “The Walking Dead” house. If you have any questions about the house or HHN, please feel free to ask. Also if you want a better look at a specific pic from the video just ask.

  HorrO

BEHIND THE SCENES: "AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON" HOUSE AT HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS 23

Part of my Halloween Horror Nights 23 (HHN) adventures was taking the Unmasking the Horror Tour. This tour takes fans on a behind the scenes look at their haunted houses. Our tour took us into 6 of their 8 houses. I decided to break them each up into their own post in order to give a better look at each of them. This is a behind the scenes look at the “An American Werewolf in London” house.

The above video is a series of photos that I took while on the tour. What I will be doing now is describing some of the things you saw in the video, so you might want to read this and then go back and watch the video again. The first few pics are of the outside of the house, or should I say pub. You can see the name of the pub, “The Slaughtered Lamb,” as you enter.

While there were no scares in the pub scene, there were several key moments of the pub scene in the movie pointed out when you entered. As you can see in the pics, some of those things were the pentagram on the wall, the dartboard, and the chess game. There was a recording from the movie pointing out those things, along with a small spotlight on them as you passed through the room.

From there we get a look at a small graveyard. In this graveyard, HHN pays tribute to some Universal Studios figures like the Mummy, and the recently retired Jaws ride. If you look closely you can see a small Mummy in front of one of the tombstones. In front of another tombstone, you can see a small Jaws. One of the good things about the tour is that you get to see these things. At night, they are hard to see, and everyone is pushing the line along.  

Then we get our first look at the werewolf. You will see several scenes of the werewolf in this house, and I have to say they did an excellent job of making it look real. These are stationary wolves, but later you will see some puppet wolves.

After that, we get to see David in bed after he was bitten. At night, when you come around his bed, there was a scareactor hiding behind the curtain next to the bed. You are an easy target as you are looking at the dead nurse on the ground.

Passing another room of victims, we get to one of the more interesting rooms of the house. It’s here that we get to see David transforming into a wolf. You see the body on the floor, and at night a scareactor sticks his head out from under the floor to finish off the effect. It’s a very cool effect, and certainly had everyone watching as they passed through the room. 

Here are a couple of other notes about the room. If you notice there is Mickey and Minnie Mouse figures placed in the room. Also, they wanted to do “An American Werewolf in London” last year, but couldn’t so this house was actually where the “Silent Hill” house was last year. The set up for this room was saved from last year. 

From the transformation we move to the subway. At night this area was pretty dark. Why? Well because a puppet werewolf was waiting for you as you passed by. It definitely had people screaming. There were also cool werewolves sound effects going off as the wolf popped out at you.

Then we move to another popular scare at HHN, a movie theater. I’ve seen them do this in several houses over the years. The difference here is that you are actually walking into the room by going through the movie screen. It’s usually the other way around. As you see there are several dead moviegoers in the theater. At night, there are a couple of live moviegoers waiting to scare you, along with another wolf making sure you leave the theater.

Making your way out of the theater, you find yourself on the streets of London. We find another victim on the floor, and a big red bus. As you see, I took several pictures of the inside of the bus, and its passengers. You can see that one of the windows is cut out, and at night that is where a scareactor would pop out at people. You will also see a phone booth, which hid another scareactor. A scareactor playing a policeman would jump out from behind the booth, and blow his whistle. Let me tell you he scared the hell out of some people. He then would tell you to get off the streets. Again, there was one more wolf waiting for you to pass by.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this house, but I turned out liking it the more times I went through it. The werewolves were really well done. There was a good variety of how they used them. The transformation room was really cool to see. The final scene on the streets didn’t seem special, but the policeman was hilarious to watch. So that was a look at the “An American Werewolf in London” house. If you have any questions about the house or HHN, please feel free to ask. Also if you want a better look at a specific pic from the video just ask.

  HorrO

HALLOWEEN LIGHT SHOW 2013

Forget waiting to put up the Christmas lights. Check out this awesome display of music, and Halloween spirit…

BEHIND THE SCENES: "LA LLORONA" HOUSE AT HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS 23

Part of my Halloween Horror Nights 23 (HHN) adventures was taking the Unmasking the Horror Tour. This tour takes fans on a behind the scenes look at their haunted houses. Our tour took us into 6 of their 8 houses. I decided to break them each up into their own post in order to give a better look at each of them. This is a behind the scenes look at the “La Llorona” house.

The above video is a series of photos that I took while on the tour. What I will be doing now is describing some of the things you saw in the video, so you might want to read this and then go back and watch the video again. One of the first things you see in this house is a trick they often use. There are several mannequins sitting on benches, and at night there is also a scaractor sitting along with them. As you enter, it’s your job to figure out who is real.

In the next room, you walk up on a small coffin with a boy in it. There are also two other children who have passed away on the sides. The children are now property of La Lorena, as the scaractor playing La Lorena comes from behind the coffin to scare guests out of the room. I have to say as fake as it was, I was a little surprised to see them have a child in the coffin.

As you move on, here’s another trick that I happen to like. There are several statues, and again you have to figure out which one is real. It works well the first time you go through, but once you know where the real one is it loses the effect. Last year they did this expect that they interchanged where the scaractor could stand. It kept me on my toes each time.

If you look closely in the above pic, you can see some small wiring. They are triggered to touch guest’s legs as they move through this part of the house. I always enjoy when they do things that touch your feet cause you are rarely looking at the floor.

From there we move into an open room where we cross a bridge. Looking down you see two kids in the water. Yes, at night there is actually water there. During our night tour we learned that these kids were actually faced up, but executives told them to flip them over. This is why I was surprised they had the kids in the coffin. You will also see a person with a black cloth over their head at the top of the stairs. I was a little disappointed that this wasn’t an actual scaractor.

As we move along, we are taken underwater with La Llorona. You see white sheets, but at night they use lighting effecting making it feel like you are going underwater. As you can see it gets dark, and has a very mossy look. 

In the final scene of the house at night, La Llorona is standing there reaching out to guests passing by. What’s hard to see at night are the little skeletons behind her holding her back. The scaractor playing La Llorona here actually has a rubber band like rope attached to their arm to they can lean forward, and pull them self back. It’s really supposed to be the children that she has taken holding her back. And finally below is a look at the front of the house. At night there is a projection of La Llorona on the wall above the entrance.

Overall, I can’t say this was a very scary house. It did tell a good story about La Llorona, and there was a good attempt to take guests underwater. The most interesting thing about the house was the use of the children. Using children in haunted houses always seems to be a touchy subject. So that was a look at the “La Llorona” house. If you have any questions about the house, or HHN, please feel free to ask. Also if you want a better look at a specific pic from the video just ask.

  HorrO

BEHIND THE SCENES: "THE CABIN IN THE WOODS" HOUSE AT HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS 23

Part of my Halloween Horror Nights 23 (HHN) adventures was taking the Unmasking the Horror Tour. This tour takes fans on a behind the scenes look at their haunted houses. Our tour took us into 6 of their 8 houses. I decided to break them each up into their own post in order to give a better look at each of them. This is a behind the scenes look at the “The Cabin in the Woods” house.

The above video is a series of photos that I took while on the tour. What I will be doing now is describing some of the things you saw in the video, so you might want to read this and then go back and watch the video again. There is no better way to start a house then with a body without its head. The representation of a now dead Jules is outside the house, as the chaos has already started inside. 

In the first room, on your left hand side is a couch where a scaractor is yelling. In the pic above you can see a trigger they use while standing on the couch. If he’s on your left, then you better bet there is something scary on your right. You know that missing head? Well, a member of the Redneck Zombie Torture family is standing there with the head. In the video, you can see that the college students were having fun drinking before the family crashed the party. 

From there we travel into a bedroom. Seems like a safe place to sleep, but at night another member of the Redneck Zombie Torture family is standing behind that sheet in the background. On the other side, the mirror might distract you. As we move along, you will start to see some familiar things from the movie like the painting. Then there are dolls like Raggedy Ann, and the Dead Silence doll that seems to appear in a house every year. 

Again, the zombies are hiding waiting for guests to pass by. This time they are hiding behind the film you see. In the light you might not think they are well hidden, but in the dark they are. We move on to see the dollhouse, and some tools that the family used on their victims. Of course, the family isn’t too far from their tools.

Then we move onto where the fun begins. I mentioned in my look at the “Evil Dead” house how I liked how bloody it was. Well that was nothing compared to this house. We see a dismembered body as guests are warned not to go into the elevator room. You all remember that scene in the movie right? The blood is everywhere as you saw in the video. It’s all over the walls, and the ground. There are dead security guards in pieces all over the floor. At night there are still some creatures hanging around the room to catch people who are paying attention to the mess around them. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised to see them go all out with the blood, and body parts.

We then move into a control room, where you see the Merman on the floor. At night he does have water coming out from him. Up on the wall you will see the famous board they used to place their bets with. You will find choices like “Deadites,” Zombies,” “Hell Lord,” and “Angry Molesting Tree.” Next is the break room, where at night you will find some creatures hanging out by the snack machine. You will also find them having a snack on that dead body. And don’t forget to watch out for the tentacles hanging from the ceiling.

The fun isn’t over yet. Just like in the movie, we get a look at some of the evil that roams the Earth. You will see some really ugly looking creatures, and then some more familiar faces. One of my favorites is the representation of “The Strangers.” As you can see in the video there is space between the mannequin Strangers for a scaractor to stand. Of course I tried to have a conversation with them every time we passed them at night. For HHN fans, there are some characters in that room you might recognize like Jack the Clown.

“The Cabin in the Woods” house had similarities to the “Evil Dead” house, but it wasn’t as focused on the characters as in the “Evil Dead” house. Here it was more about the scenes and creatures, than the college students. There were some good scares at night, especially from the Redneck Zombie Torture family at the beginning. As you might have guessed, I loved the bloody mess. I was excited every time we got close to the elevator room. I also liked the display of creatures, and characters to end the house with. So that was a look at “The Cabin in the Woods” house. If you have any questions about the house, or HHN, please feel free to ask. Also if you want a better look at a specific pic from the video just ask.

 

  HorrO