The Horror Of...Halloween Night, Monster Management (Web Series)

Well there is another choice for a fun web series to enjoy this Halloween night.

Monster Management

Coming from Cracked.com, it's another fun short series. This one tells of the efforts to manage and rebrand classic monsters by a pair of marketing specialist.

Here's a playlist for the series. It's still in the process of being released.


The first episode was about their efforts with Frankenstein's Monster. Time to be more...CW.

Episode 1 - "Rebranding Frankenstein"

Episode 2- "Why People Want To F#@% Horrifying Movie Monsters"

Witches are up. No more retro. Time to represent modern sexy sexy young women, not child eating.

The Horror Of...Bedlam, In Short

A fun film to while away a bit of an afternoon with is a lesser known work by Boris Karloff. It's interesting in allowing Karloff one of his opportunities to play a monster of a very human sort. From 1946, an RKO Film...

Bedlam

It's a story of late 18th century England. A time when hospitals for those with psychiatric issues were horrible places meant mostly for locking them away. ...And it's not like that issue continued at all in the the 20th century... One such place is Bedlam, as it's called.

We meet our heroine, Nell, a protege of a rich lord.

They are out for a ride when they pass Bedlam. People are gathered, as an inmate of the asylum has died while trying to escape.

They see it is a man that was a friend of the lord. Angered at this, the lord demands the head of Bedlam come and see him at his home.

Enter Karloff. He's playing Sims. He's a struggling playwright and poet who's worked his way up in the world to be in charge of Bedlam. But he would rather spend his time writing plays, and currying noble favor.

What you should know about Ebola.

A lot of bad information and a lot of panic has swirled around the topic of Ebola. News media has largely been seeking BREAKING NEWS. And some governors have been aching to engage in some overkill, to look more like Alpha Males.

Here's a nice, calm and humorous look at what Ebola is and isn't.

Better than being scared is to be informed. And then we can help.

The Horror Of...The Uninvited (1944), In Short

Looking for some light and good horror movie fun to round out this week? An excellent choice would be a classic of haunted house movies. A house with two sides.

1944's The Uninvited.

The movie centers on two siblings from London. Roderick and Pamela Fitzgerald. And there dog.

The pair live together in London, but are away for a weekend at the coast. As they go rambling, they come across an empty old house. It's a grand thing.

Thanks to the dog, they end up inside the home, and become smitten with it.

Stricken by an impulse, they decide to try and buy the house. They visit the owners of the house, who live nearby. The house is owned by Commander Beech, who lives with his granddaughter Stella.

She's not eager for them to buy, and first tries to convince them it's not for sale. But Beech is of a different attitude. He wants done with the house.

He admits that their are stories that the house is haunted. But he doesn't believe in ghost. Still, to get rid of the house, he sells very low.

Pam and Rod move in, and plan the layout, including using the large windowed room on the second floor as Rod's music room. But in the room they feel such a chill. And it feels so damp. Rod can feel is mod drop temporarily in the room.

They also find that the dog wants nothing to do with the home's second floor.

Later, Rod meets Stella. She tries to explain why she was so brusque about him and his sister buying the house. It was her childhood home. It was also where her mother died. Ever since then, her grandfather has tried to keep her away from the place, but she's just drawn to it.

The Flash - Episode 3 - Things You Can't Outrun - "So what would he have become if they still hanged people?" *UPDATED*

Flash continues to pick up speed as Barry trumps a malicious multiplying monster, and now finds himself facing a dissipating danger which may be his end.

This week Barry faces a new type of trouble. An enemy that can become gas. In that form, he's poisonous as well.

With these abilities, he strikes out and kills a restaurant full of a mob family. Doesn't sound like the worst thing.

But killers are killers. So Barry and Joe need the science nerds of STAR Labs to figure out what they are dealing with. And they are excited to figure the new baddie out.

"You hang out with these people?" "I believe you left me with them for nine
months, comatose." "...Sorry."

The Horror Of...Cockneys Vs Zombies, In Short

This Halloween we all need some fun and gruesome horror. And one pathway to that is a fun zombie flick. And, in my opinion, among the best of the fun zombie films is...

Cockneys Vs Zombies.


This 2012 film is a bit of joy out of the United Kingdom. Centered in the east side of London it follows some cousins who are in dire straights. Their granddad's retirement home is about to be closed down, and then tore down, by a greedy industrialist.

With no options at hand, they turn to the old family business. Armed robbery. The trouble is they aren't exactly skilled at this. So they bring in a friend who is a bit more knowledgeable, and infamous for bungling robberies. And they bring in a contact who has lots of guns, and a reputation for uncontrolled aggression.

So they hatch a plan to rob a bank, And it goes as well as you would expect.

Among the cousins we have have Michelle Ryan,well known to fantasy and Doctor Who fans, and Harry Treadaway, who's in the series Penny Dreadful currently. But the whole crew make for an amusing cast of character.

At the same time, a construction crew comes across a sealed crypt from 1666...I just got that joke.

And opening the crypt ends up bringing the results we would expect. The zombies are out and feeding.

Trailers In Short - Star Trek You Should Be Seeing

These days it seems we have one source for our new Star Trek needs. J.J. Abrams. (And now I guess we're relying on his conspiracy minded minion, who will be directing.)

But is that true?

Welcome to the world of fan films. And fan films are a vast world, with serious efforts to tell tales of beloved characters and worlds and films that are just for laughs, or love of the franchise.

In that gulf of fan films are many very amateur efforts. Labor of loves that end up put up on places like YouTube for everyone to enjoy. But there are also films that are a serious and skilled effort. These have a lot of blood, sweat, and tears invested in them. They also get cash (and need it) and professionals.

So let's delve into Trekdom and see a couple of the amazing, exciting, and very Trekkie works going on.

Sleepy Hollow (S2) Review - Episode 4 - Go Where I Send Thee - "Ah! That's where the saying "Pay the Piper' comes from."

From cursed coins we move on to evil bone flutes...I'm not reviewing Friday the 13th the Series, am I? Still, a lot of good horror fun makes use of cursed and magical items.

This time around Sleepy Hollow has a new threat that I can't say for sure is tied to the great Moloch threat. They try to imply it may be connected, but...eh. Still, it may be a force willing to do his bidding.

It seems a child has wandered out into the forest outside Sleepy Hollow. Out of her palatial home, she walked out into the deep deep woods. But it isn't a simple case of sleep walking. The child is lured. Music to sooth the savage...kid?

The Horrible Disgusting Treehouse of Horror Title Sequence Master Post!!!

Here we lay out the compilation of posts of the terrifying and terrible openings to the many many many years of Simpson's Treehouse of Horror.

Peruse if you dare.


The TREEHOUSES OF HORROR!

• Treehouse of Horror
• Treehouse of Horror II

• Treehouse of Horror III
• Treehouse of Horror IV

• Treehouse of Horror V
• Treehouse of Horror VI

• Treehouse of Horror VII
• Treehouse of Horror VIII
• Treehouse of Horror IX

• Treehouse of Horror X
• Treehouse of Horror XI

• Treehouse of Horror XII

• Treehouse of Horror XIII
• Treehouse of Horror XIV
• Treehouse of Horror XV

• Treehouse of Horror XVI
• Treehouse of Horror XVII
• Treehouse of Horror XVIII

• Treehouse of Horror XIX
• Treehouse of Horror XX

• Treehouse of Horror XXI
• Treehouse of Horror XXII

• Treehouse of Horror XXIII
• Treehouse of Horror XXIV

• Treehouse of Horror XXV

The Flash - Episode 2 - Fastest Man Alive - "Copier ink is thicker than water."

With the pilot out of the way it's time for the Flash to get up to speed as a hero.

Gotham - Episode 4 - Arkham - "You'd have to be crazy to pass on a plan like this."

Last week Gotham through some vigilantism at us. This week we get back to some good old fashion out and out murderous crime.


Let's start with the main trouble of the episode. And hitman, or an assassin if we're being fancy, is walking the streets of Gotham. That is not too amazing a thing. Plenty of people are up for offing someone else's problems. But in this case, someone is killing off councilpersons.

The first one is a sly affair, approaching the politician at night as he goes to his car. He walks up as an eager voter. This puts his bodyguard and him off guard. Then he gets to his killing.

This hitman has a gimmick. Any worthwhile comic book assassin has to have a gimmick. His is the fact he uses an ornate sticking blade. A lovely bit of craftsmanship.

"Yeah. No naked lady. But there is a lot of caked blood..."

He convinces the bodyguard to look into the tube that holds the blade. Idiot.

Then he stab and then slowly finishes off his target. He apologizes to him first, saying that he's voted for him.

So, yeah, he's a cool and efficient killer. Looking at him I feel like there's an unspoken trope in the air.

Feminist Horror...Movies

Laci Green has done a short video looking at some horror movies with a feminist message. Nice to have some options for this Halloween week.

Those clever and wonderful crows.

Apt for Halloween, let's marvel at those crows. They, and their cousins, always prove to far more crafty and aware of their world then we give them credit for.

We too often like to pretend that we alone can reason things out. That in nature, we are the only one that can truly solve problems.

How many humans would be oblivious to this puzzle?

(Thanks to Funny Wildlife.)

Remember the Treehouse of Horror 25 title sequence?

The 2013 show proved to be quite a spectacle. But will 2014 try to top it, or go another way?

This year they open on some planet and the big show there. They begin announcing an array of stars that will be appearing. They also start playing the classic Tonight Show music. Is that still being used? If not, when was the last time it was used since the days of Johnny Carson?

We then get a variety of shots from various Treehouse of Horrors over the years. It is a nice call back to many of the stories that they told. I actually am blanking on some of them. Makes for a good excuse to go and enjoy them this weekend.