My Thoughts on "AMC Fearfest" 2008 ,to AMC and the viewers...

First, I would like to thank AMC for putting on another horror movie marathon. To my knowledge, AMC is the only station to do so, and for that I am thankful. It's so great to have a week or longer of horror movies around Halloween, and I would hate for it to ever be taken away, or disappear.

I totally understand that AMC doesn't have the budget to get all of the most popular horror movies. I realize that at least half need to be on the more affordable side, and to be honest, many of the coolest horror movies are the ones that are not as popular as their counterparts.

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Eve of AMC Fearfest

This is the first time I have posted on this site and I have a lot to say. First of all,for the past few weeks I have been following everyone's comments on Fearfest and have read some great insights. I used to post on the old AMC Monsterfest boards years back and nothing has really changed. People are still complaining about Monsterfest or Fearfest,whatever you want to call it. I used to complain about it,but I had to realize with all the schedule's flaws it is the ONLY horror/sci-fi/fantasy marathon in town. Sure I cringe at the thought of seeing "Pinata:Survival Island" come on the screen,but that is when I pop my own DVD in of something else. I don't think people shouldn't voice their opinions to AMC,but lets do it in a suggestive and constructive way. I would hate to see Fearfest be pulled off the schedule because of too much complaining.Personally,I would like to see more classic horror like Universal's or Hammer's ,but there is some . I think my favorite Monsterfest was in 2000and I will post that schedule of that year and I would like to hear what everyone thinks of those films. In the meantime lets just enjoy Fearfest and have a great Halloween!

AMC FearFest DVR

Moving away from bad-mouthing AMC, I was just wondering if anybody else records some of the movies from MonsterFest on their DVR??? I hope I'm not the only ONE! I still have Friday the 13th (DVD on TV version) from Monsterfest '05.

Something I want to share with everyone

Heritage Auction is having a Music and Entertainment auction October 4-6th 2008. There are some really neat things going up for auction such as the script from "Young Frankenstein". There is the Boris Karloff estate with many candid pictures of him on set. A huge painting of Bela Lugosi that would look good on any horror enthusiast wall.
Check it out here
HA.com

I've finally had enough...

This is coming in response to the ridiculous and unintentionally funny complaining I've seen both here and on the main blog page. I wrote the same thing on the main page, but I have to post this twice, as I think I've finally snapped. Honestly, I've held my tongue long enough on these people that keep coming and whining about every little thing. Here's the thing people, AMC DOES look at everyone's comments. Case in point, the blog writers put out a statement regarding the blog's name change after a rash of more idiotic and pointless complaints about the blog's name change, as if that mattered at all. Because they do look at our comments, they see complaints like this every year, and they do try to accommodate us however they can. Here's the big kicker, when you guys come on here and complain every year no matter how good Monsterfest may or may not be, they are going to try to change things. Monsterfest X was one of the best Monsterfests of all time, they mixed up classic and modern horror after years of playing mostly modern movies, and they expanded it to a 24/7 marathon. Still, after all that, people complained. Here's what could be seen, just like every year...

"There's not enough old-school horror"

"Friday the 13th movies? How lame!"

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Have We Seen Enough Zombie Movies?

This month George A. Romero released what must be his quadrillionth zombie movie, Diary of the Dead. And though the film proved to be extremely competent and unique in that it followed movies like The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield in the cinema verite genre, I couldn't help but think to myself: how many zombie movies can we possibly watch before it gets old?

Now first of all, I love zombies. In fact I think the shark-fight scene in 1964's Zombies is one of the greatest in horror history. But by this point we've seen every single iteration of zombie possible, we've seen remakes of the originals, spoofs of the remakes, and on and on and on. The SciFi Department's Kevin Maher interviewed Romero and asked him what the evolution of the Zombie would be, and Romero said that honestly he saw nowhere else for the zombie to go. Essentially, a zombie is a zombie is a zombie.

So my question is, if there's nowhere else for zombie movies to go, why do filmmakers keep making them and why do we keep watching them? It seems to me that the horror genre in particular is extremely adept at exploiting a trope that "works." That's why we have 20 iterations of each Freddy, Jason, and Michael Myers movie. But is that necessary? Are we in danger of quashing fresh ideas, concepts, and themes simply because we know people will line up to watch Freddy Krueger terrorize some child, or a horde of flesh-eating zombies march through town?

Horror vs. Sci-Fi: A Line in the Sand

I love my horror films, I also love Sci-Fi films and many times the two genres cross-polinate. Recently under the subject "Definition of 00's Horror" Clayton brought up a point that neither I Am Legend nor Cloverfield are horror films but rather Sci-Fi and a Monster Movie, respectively. This got me to thinking. I Am Legend is populated with "vampires" while Cloverfield has a giant monster running about destroying Manhattan. Are these two films really that set apart from my beloved genre? What about films like David Cronenberg's The Fly, it has so many horror moments but it's really based in Sci-Fi.

So let's have at it, is there a line in the sand? Should we not mix our peanut butter and chocolate or should we keep them separate when discussing films that fall into both genres?

Definition of '00s Horror

Horror movies have evolved over the years. Each decade can lay claim to its own genre, especially those in recent history. The 1980s were the era of the undead slasher, which actually began in 1978 with Halloween, and went on to include Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Child's Play.

In the 1990s, the form morphed yet again. Although slasher flicks were still the way to go, the villain got real. No longer was he a vengeful spirit; now he was a serial killer. Movies like Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer adapted the conventions of their predecessors then riffed on them in inventive ways.

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To Gore or Not to Gore, That Is the Question

So I was reading the blog the other day about gore not saving your independent film and I thought to myself, "Well, it won't save an independent film but it does make a bad one better sometimes". It reminded me of the 2004 film Bone Sickness. It was shot on the cheap on weekends by a guy and his friends. It wasn't groundbreaking or new, but the gore made it the most enjoyable part of the whole thing.

So my question for you Goatlings is how does gore rank for you in a film, does it kill it or help?

Who's Your Favorite Vampiress?

This is a sad week for the undead as we learned of the death of Maila Nurmi (a.k.a. Vampira). Afterwards, we took a moment to give her a proper YouTube retrospective.

And then we realized the only way to properly honor Vampira would be to pay heed to her legacy, her successors, her sisters in bloodsucking. You've already decided which vampire movie is your favorite, now pick Dracula's Bride: