Logo by Kristian HornWhat the &#$% is ZOMBIES & SHARKS?

Greetings, all. Ambush Bug here with another AICN HORROR: ZOMBIES & SHARKS column. There’s so much horror this week I needed two columns to post them all, so look for another column at its regular time tomorrow, but until then, here are a handful of releases you may be interested in.

But first, I wanted to announce the winners of THE HAUNTING OF HELENA Contest we ran a few days ago. Though the winners have already been contacted, the following will be receiving a poster of the new film; David Dworak. And below are the winners of the tickets for the free screening of the film which premieres tomorrow in select theaters; Daniel Zunk (Phoenix, AZ), Ernesto Ramirez Sanchez (Los Angeles, CA), and Jose Acosta (New York, NY). There are also premieres in Columbus, OH and San Diego, CA. If you’re looking for more info on THE HAUNTING OF HELENA, follow this link and look for my review of the film in tomorrow’s AICN HORROR column.

On with the horror reviews!

Today on AICN HORROR
(Click title to go directly to the feature)
Retro-review: THE HOWLING (1981)
Short Cuts short film review: SLASHER HUNTER
EVERYONE MUST DIE (2012)
MILLENNIUM BUG (2012)
SKULL WORLD (2013)
AMERICAN MARY (2013)
Advance Review: MANIAC (2012)
And finally…LIGHTS OUT: POLTERGEIST!

Retro-review: New this week on BluRay from the Shout Factory (Find this film on Netflix here)!

THE HOWLING (1981)

Directed by Joe Dante
Written by Gary Brandner (based on his novel), John Sayles (screenplay), Terence H. Winkless (screenplay)
Starring Dee Wallace, Patrick Macnee, Dennis Dugan, Christopher Stone, Belinda Belaski, John Carradine, Dick Miller, Slim Pickens, & Elisabeth Brooks
Retro-reviewed by Ambush Bug

It’s debatable, but THE HOWLING is probably the best werewolf film ever made. I say this knowing that there will be others who will tout WOLFEN or SILVER BULLET or AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON as such. And on some days, I agree that all of those are damn fine werewolf films. But THE HOLWING almost gets it all right, in my book.

I say this after rewatching THE HOWLING for this column and realizing that director Joe Dante seems to be taking this deadly serious one minute, then switching gears and winking to the camera the next. How he can he have an ending so powerful as Dee Wallace wolfs out on camera for the world to see and then follow it with an actor winking to the camera and saying a bad pun is beyond me. It’s one of those last moments in a film that almost ruins the entire experience. There are quite a few of these moments in THE HOWLING where some moment of ultra heft is torn asunder by a quirky coincidence that Universal’s WOLF MAN or Loony Toons’ THREE LITTLE PIGS is playing on the television as a real werewolf is attacking someone. It’s almost as if Dante didn’t have the courage to make a serious examination of man’s more primal side, so every time there’s a moment of real fear or depth involving this fascinating theme, he guffaws and reminds the audience that this is just a movie. To me, that proved to be the sole frustrating aspect of this otherwise awesome werewolf film.

I mean, John freakin’ Sayles wrote the screenplay of this one. I’m sure the dingy themes of animalistic sex and violence and man’s psychologically darker side come from his input. Having this film start out as a reporter (Karen White, played to perfection by Dee Wallace) confronts her stalker in one of the worst stakeouts ever performed by an inept policeman is some pretty heavy stuff. She meets this heavy-breathing stalker in a porn shop back room with a rape movie playing on the screen. This is a grimy scene of absolute abandonment of everything that makes us human played out to perfection. Dante’s camera doesn’t blink as the stalker forces the stalkee to watch this deplorable act on screen, then loses control himself and begins to turn into something monstrous. Upon watching this scene again, I realized that had Dante wanted to go there, he could have really made a film dissecting the animalistic side of humanity and how it’s in all of us.

And for the most part, he does that. There’s a psychologist spouting psychobabble: “repression is the father of neurosis…self hatred.” are the first words of THE HOWLING, followed by the psychologist’s suggestion that Karen take in some nature and go to a retreat called “The Colony.” There they meet quirky and wholesome characters alike, but things start to go dog-eared pretty quickly and soon Karen’s husband is scrogging a nymphomaniac she-wolf (played by Elisabeth Brooks) by the fire and the supposedly deceased stalker who she confronts in the beginning shows up for round two.

Though I was disappointed that the heft was lightened most of the time, this is a fantastic film nevertheless. There are a lot of fun little cameos in this film, too. Slim Pickens plays the backwoods sheriff who spits tobaccy, eats beans from a can, and sings out heeds and warnins’ and no-never-minds to the city-folk. John Carradine is a suicidal local old timer. Dick Miller shows up as an occult shop owner who serves as Mr. Exposition and explains the rules of lycanthropy--but it’s Miller delivering his usual gruff charm, so despite the heavy-handed way of explaining these rules, it’s still fun to watch.

The effects in THE HOWLING are wholly unique. One of the old werewolf film standbys is the transformation sequence. It’s the point of the film where everything narrative skids to a halt and everyone (screaming woman witness included) stops everything to wonder at the special effects the FX wizard came up with to make this transformation unique from all others. I have to say, the transformation scene in THE HOWLING is impressive. Rob Bottin did a fantastic job of making the central transformation piece unique with clothes ripping, craniums de-and reforming, muscles quivering and expanding. As a spectacle and an example of what your FX team can do, it is a marvel to behold. But as a point in the narrative, it’s excessive and does get a bit ridiculous as Dee Wallace stares and stares and screams and quivers and stares and screams and stares as this vivid and detailed transformation happens over the span of two or three minutes. Not until the very end of the transformation does she act by tossing a jar of acid into the werewolf’s face. I would have beat feet at convulsion one. Later, everyone begins this transformation as the hero easily picks them off with a rifle. Apparently, aside from an allergy to silver bullets, werewolves tend to have these epileptic spasms prior to transformation which puts them in a ridiculously vulnerable spot, and allows the intended prey to a) run off, b) blow you away with a gun, or c) stand and stare like a deer in the headlights. In most werewolf films, c) is the most popular option which to me is beyond annoying.

Dee Wallace really deserves credit for shooting for the moon with this role as the lead. She has a wholesomeness that mixes strength with vulnerability that stays consistent throughout the film, though after everyone knows werewolves exist, it sort of turns into an INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS/FREAKS “one of us” typical scenario where everyone seems to be a werewolf, Wallace is the constant that brings a quality of acting to the role that I don’t think many others could have done.

I know I spent a lot of time talking about what annoys me with THE HOWLING, but I guess you’re hardest on the ones you love. There are moments where THE HOWLING teeters on the brink of awesome and debates whether or not it wants to dive in to the well of poignancy regarding a dissection of what separates man from beast, but just at the last minute, it decides to wink at the camera and say “It’s only a moobie” instead. Because of that, THE HOWLING is a classic that I love with all my heart, but frustrates me at the same time.

SLASHER HUNTER (2010)

Directed by Steve Rudzinski
Written by Steve Rudzinski & Ryan Sullivan
Starring Brent Bruno, Ben Dietels, Jason Genet, Rolland Kerr Jr., Megan Nichols, Nic Pesante, Tyffani Richards, Derek Rothermund, Steve Rudzinski, Shawn Shelpman, Rachael Sullivan, Ryan Sullivan, Aaron Wilkinson, Zach Wilson, Zoltan Zilai,
Find out more about this film here and on Facebook here
Reviewed by Ambush Bug

This is a low, low, low budget movie, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a wry wit and a lot of fun scenes taking full-on kicks to the groin to the horror genre, specifically slasher films. Not going in expecting a multi-million dollar show is going to help you if you decide to give SLASHER HUNTER a chance.

Written and directed by Steve Rudzinski (who was also behind the film EVERYONE MUST DIE, which I review later in this column), SLASHER HUNTER follows a character who is just that: a vigilante who hunts slashers. He’s kind of like Dexter without the needles or jittery sister. Slasher Hunter goes around in this one stalking slashers just before they do their thing and doing away with them in just as grotesque a fashion.

OK, this is not the most original plot and the spoofs on Leatherface (here it’s Pleatherface) and Chucky (here it’s Charles) and Jason (here it’s Jason…you’re starting to see the trend) are not the most imaginative, but they deviate enough to avoid legal attraction, but hit the mark enough to poke fun in entertaining ways. Focusing on a kid who has a survivor gene, a gene shared by most final victims and shared in women more than men, is actually a pretty inventive little detail.

The humor here is pretty spot on and I couldn’t help but chuckle quite a bit at the way the victims boastfully parade around thinking they are unstoppable until the slashers band together. The roundtable meeting of the slashers is fun as well, though corny at times--for instance, the Freddy riff died by freezing instead of burning and hase icicles hanging from his chin. Now, if that makes you chuckle at the corniness of it all, this might be the short for you. If it caused a pain and a groan, maybe not. Me? I went with it and found myself laughing quite a bit.

The Slasher Hunter himself could have been fleshed out more instead of just being some guy in a tank top flailing a machete. Still, if you’re a fan of slasher films and are willing to look past the low budget, you’re likely to giggle with SLASHER HUNTER.

Here’s the first episode of SLASHER HUNTER below!

New on DVD from MVD Visual!

EVERYONE MUST DIE (2012)

Directed by Steve Rudzinski
Written by Steve Rudzinski and Derek Rothermund
Starring Nicole Beattie, Aleen Isley, Seth Joseph, Nick LaMantia, Zoltan Zilai, Rebecca Campbell
Find out more about this film here and on Facebook here!
Reviewed by Ambush Bug

I don’t want to oversell this film. EVERYONE MUST DIE is a no budget indie film with non-actors spouting lines to fill the space between killings by a maniac who simply kills a bunch of people. There are some pacing problems. There are some line delivery problems. And in the end, it doesn’t really explain much more than the fact that there’s a killer out there who wants to have a high body count…

But dammit if I didn’t laugh a lot at this farce on the slasher genre. EVERYONE MUST DIE has a ridiculous body count as a serial killer moves seemingly without motivation from one group of partying twenty-somethings posing as teens to another, whacking at them with a machete and shooting the ones who get out of slashing distance. The gratuitous body count is exceedingly fun to see pile up.

The best part about this flick is the script, which is filled with clever and snide comments piled onto more clever and snide comments. The actors delivering the lines may not be completely great with the timing and affect, but still, there are some one liners that had me laughing out loud. At the same time, there are plays on slasher clichés that are equally clever. Case in point: four campers (a nerd, a white rapper, a biker babe, and a wiccan) who in real life would never be out in the woods together are out in the woods and when it’s time for them to pair off and go to their tents to screw (as all teen campers do), the ladies go off in their tent and the boys to theirs. It’s that way of bitch-slapping expectation that illustrates the snarky and self-aware tone of this film.

Again, this is lo fi fare all the way, but if you’re looking for gratuitous kills, gratuitous nudity, off-color humor, self-aware jokes, and snark by the boatload, this film delivers all of that. EVERYONE MUST DIE is one of those films that makes me interested to see what the filmmakers have up their sleeves next once experience, hopefully a talent scout, and some more cash are accrued. As is, EVERYONE MUST DIE heaps everything you’ve come to expect from a slasher film, tosses it in a blender, and frappes the hell out of it.

If your interests lean towards low budget slasher films, EVERYONE MUST DIE is definitely going to please.

Available now on RedBox, iTunes, & Amazon!

THE MILLENNIUM BUG (2011)

Directed by Kenneth Cran
Written by Kenneth Cran
Starring John Charles Meyer, Jessica Simons, Christine Haeberman, John Briddell, Ken McFarlane
Reviewed by Ambush Bug>

THE MILLENNIUM BUG plays out like a love song to all of the horror films we all grew up watching. There’s a dash of GODZILLA, a sprinkle of TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, and hell, even a bit of JURASSIC PARK mixed in. The folks behind this film seem to be fans of the genre and it shows in every frame. To top it all off, not an ounce of CGI is used in this film. Everything you see is hand made and happening in the frame…at least, that what the makers of this film boast. Now, I’m sure that what they mean is that the monsters in this film are old school. That’s right: it’s a man in a suit, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it may have you youngsters used to your green screen computer monsters rolling your eyes a bit. I guess I’m showing my age that I enjoyed the hell out of this film, mostly for the heart behind it and the dedication to making an old school horror romp.

The story of THE MILLENNIUM BUG isn’t going to leave many scratching their heads. There’s a hillbilly family living in the woods who have inbred so much that all of their kids come out mutated or dead, so they set out to find some fresh meat for breeding. Along comes a vacationing family who are unlucky enough to run into the hillbillies and…well, you know what happens.

Or maybe you don’t. You see, this film is set during December 31, 1999--the last day of the millennium, when Y2K was a fear on everyone’s minds. On top of all of the breeding and threats of the world ending at the stroke of midnight, there’s a giant monster in a hole in the middle of the woods that comes out to mate every 100 years (yes, it’s a bit of a coincidence, but hell, let’s roll with it for the sake of fun). Soon the inbreds, the vacationing family, a cryptozoologist, and a bug the size of Mothra collide in a climax that leaves no one left standing or not splattered with blood, gore, grue, and goo.

The best part of THE MILLENNIUM BUG is that it relishes in the real effects made famous by Tom Savini, Rick Baker, and Rob Bottin and also the rubber suited monster fiascos starring Godzilla, Mothra, and Rodan. Fake heads are really whacked with axes. Giant monsters smash through mini replicas of barns and trees. Plus we get to witness an extremely gross third nipple, so there’s that.

Acting: spotty. Story: a bit lacking and owing a lot to the inbred families we’ve seen before in TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, WRONG TURN, and a million others. But to me, none of that matters. I can’t help but get behind this film for the special effects above all else.

Find out more about THE MILLENNIUM BUG on Facebook and its website .

New this week on DVD!

SKULL WORLD (2012)

Directed by Justin McConnell
Written by Justin McConnell
Starring Greg Sommer, Jason Pluscec, Shane Patterson
Find out more about this film here!
Reviewed by Ambush Bug

Greg Sommer believes in three things: fun, rockin’ large, and making armor out of cardboard and then taking part in organized gladiatorial combat. Greg’s alter ego is Skull Man, a personality he created in high school which has evolved into somewhat of a cult status in his hometown in Canada. SKULL WORLD follows Greg around for three years as he lives his over the top lifestyle. Though some might laugh at the fact that Greg is leading the life of a typical man-child one often jokes about in the talkbacks of AICN--living in his mother’s basement, unmarried, and interested in hobby-dominated culture--director Justin McConnell pulls back the curtain further to reveal a truly unique and surprisingly inspiring individual in Sommer.

Though the title might suggest that the main focus of this documentary is on the BRAVEHEART-style battles Sommer and his cohorts began doing in the backyards of their parents’ houses garbed in cardboard armor and brandishing elaborately crafted cardboard weaponry, McConnell actually is telling a story of a dreamer, an optimist who seeks to get the most out of life and encourages the same in others. Though the battles are brutal, McConnell deftly shows that Sommer has a huge commitment to making the entire event safe for all who attend, and most of all, have fun doing it. It isn’t about flexing muscles and hurting folks; Box Wars is about the thrill of the battle and the fun of creating stuff and then tearing it to shreds. The battle scenes are a lot of fun to watch as Greg and his buddies attempt to win the competition by tearing the armor off the bodies of the other warriors on the battlefield with their cardboard axes and swords or with their bare hands. But I had just as much fun watching Sommeer maintain his positivity at all times. The guy exudes so much positivity in this film that it’s downright infectious. He’s the guy at the party that doesn’t give a fuck in a good way and everyone loves him for it.

You can’t help but cheer on Sommer to succeed as he attempts to make a TV pilot centered around the Box Wars and his character of Skull Man. Though success may not happen anytime soon for the guy, it still seems that it’s not getting him down. And though this documentary doesn’t have much of a character arc as far as narrative drama goes as Sommer maintains his chipper disposition throughout the entire running time, it does serve to show in great detail a man with unflinchable optimism and an admirable outlook on life. There’s a hint of drama when Sommer has a phone conversation with his father who he hasn’t seen in years that I was hoping would come to some kind of resolution later in the film, but unfortunately this didn’t happen and the chance for a little dramatic payoff in the end as disapproving father accepts son didn’t come to pass. But this is real life, and most of the time fairy tale happy endings don’t happen.

I wish the makers of this film luck and do the same to Sommer, who definitely deserves some kind of success and notoriety for the dedication and positive spirit this documentary encapsulates. Though the doc doesn’t quite fit into the mold of the usual AICN HORROR fare, SKULL WORLD falls firmly into realm of the cinema of the weird, which has its own nook reserved here at AICN HORROR from time to time. Those looking for high energy battles and an individual who truly understands how to live life to the fullest despite difficult odds should definitely check this documentary out when it is released later this year. I had a lot of fun getting to know Sommer in this film and so will you.

New this week on DVD/BluRay (Find this film on Netflix here)!

AMERICAN MARY (2012)

Directed by Jen Soska & Sylvia Soska
Written by Jen Soska & Sylvia Soska
Starring Katharine Isabelle, Antonio Cupo, Tristan Risk, David Lovgren, Paula Lindberg, Clay St. Thomas, John Emmet Tracy, Twan Holliday, Nelson Wong, Sylvia Soska, Jen Soska, Paul Anthony, Travis Watters, Marius Soska
Find out more about this film here!
Reviewed by Ambush Bug

If one has never seen recreational body modification in its various forms, I can understand why some folks would be seriously ooked out by AMERICAN MARY, the latest in what seems to be a new wave of body horror films which may have been restarted with HUMAN CENTIPEDE, but has really taken shape with this past year’s VICTIM (reviewed here ), THE SKIN I LIVE IN (reviewed here ), EXCISION (reviewed here ), ERRORS OF THE HUMAN BODY (reviewed here ) and ANTIVIRAL (reviewed here ), to name a few. I don’t mean to sound jaded, but while I don’t have any body mods myself (besides tattoos), I have seen my fair share in my time. So on that initial shock level, I wasn’t taken aback as much as I imagine one unfamiliar with the subculture would be.

That said, AMERICAN MARY is one hell of a movie. It’s well acted by GINGER SNAPS’ Katharine Isabelle and newcomer Antonio Cupo. Both actors do well with their characters, exhibiting an attraction, yet an inability to show that toward one another because of the situation they have found themselves in. The story follows Mary (Isabelle), a down and out med student in need of a quick buck answering an ad as a stripper in a gentleman’s club. While there, Mary’s skills as a future surgeon are called upon when she is offered $5,000.00 to illegally operate on an associate of the bar with his eye gouged out. Mary takes the offer and finds herself spiraling down the rabbit hole into dark subcultures and deviant body modification for an immense amount of profit which would shut those student loan callers the hell up.

The way this film is put together is eloquent and delicate, yet occasionally stone cold. Even the opening scene, as Mary practices her operating skills on a dead plucked turkey, the camera zooms in to show this delicate operation with thin instruments making precise cuts. That’s how this film is throughout. AMERICAN MARY is slow to develop and shows a patient hand storytelling-wise, but I wasn’t bored a tick as we see Mary get further and further entrenched in this shadowy world. The directors, Sylvia & Jen Soska, are twins who also appear in the film as…what else…twisted twins with a unique request for Mary’s operating skills. The story keeps things pretty distant, though, only showing us slight peeks as to what’s going on inside Mary’s brainpan with only a few scenes of her reacting to these intense situations like vomiting and taking a shower in her clothes, both clichés but appropriate given the extreme circumstances.

The music is amazing, mostly consisting of Rod Stewart songs, and proves to be amazing juxtapositions accompanying scenes of medical nightmare operations. And the gore is pretty intense with quite a few brutal kills, scenes of torture and more than enough scenes of medical procedures gone pretzaline. This film is definitely something I can see gore hounds delighting in.

While showing these procedures is enough to gross out some, I found myself wanting to see a bit more of Mary’s struggle with tossing her dreams of taking the Hippocratic Oath out the window for profit, and once tossed, seeing her struggle with the increasingly bad decisions she makes as the story goes on. There’s a lot of attention paid to body mod, which is indeed a fascinating subject. And while Katherine Isabelle gives us a slight glimpse of what it would be like trying to get a grasp on how a doctor might deal with the inner conflict modifying a body unnecessarily would create, especially one as unfamiliar with the culture as Mary is at the beginning, I found myself wanting to know more about her inner tickings. I guess that’s the sign of a good character—the fact that I wanted to know more about her and keep the movie going and delving into how this fringe culture affects the uninitiated.

Aside from that, I really liked the film. Sure, the ending felt a bit rushed, but that goes back to me wanting to see more of the character of Mary rather than the pacing of it all. AMERICAN MARY is definitely one of the best films I’ve seen this year in its attention to a subculture that has been relatively unexplored in horror films and some extremely effective scenes handling some extremely sensitive subject matter (rape, torture, body mod, self expression, empowerment). It’s a testament to the actors and the filmmakers that I wanted this film to keep going.

Advance Review: In select theaters Friday and available now on Video On Demand and iTunes from IFC Midnight!

MANIAC (2012)

Directed by Franck Khalfoun
Written by Alexandre Aja, Grégory Levasseur, C.A. Rosenberg (screenplay), Joe Spinell (original screenplay)
Starring Elijah Wood, Liane Balaban, America Olivo, Nora Arnezeder, Morgane Slemp, Genevieve Alexandra, Sammi Rotibi, Megan Duffy, Jan Broberg, Steffinnie Phrommany
Reviewed by Ambush Bug

WARNING, IF YOUVE SEEN THE ORIGINAL MANIAC, THERE MIGHT BE A SPOILER OR TWO IN THIS REVIEW. IF NOT, PROCEED.

Though I am not a fan of all of these remakes these days, when one is good, I feel the need to commend it, even if it means a bunch more shitty remakes are down the pike. I’ve always treasured the original MANIAC as a perfect little shot of sleaze with its focus on greasy, sweaty, overweight Joe Spinell, who one would believe to be a homicidal maniac. When I heard Elijah Wood was cast in the remake, at first I was angry: another film miscast with a Hollywood pretty boy in hopes of attracting a demographic. Then I remembered that Wood is anything but your typical Hollywood actor. Just look at his unconventional role in the TV series “Wilfred” or more importantly his role as Kevin the emotionless maniac in SIN CITY, and you can see why he was chosen for the role.

Wood plays Frank Zito, the owner and sole employee of a mannequin restoration shop and yes, that job is as creepy as it sounds. Frank spends most of his days reworking mannequins and talking with them. At night, Frank has creepier activities as he stalks and murders beautiful women, saving their scalps to be stapled to a special set of mannequins he has in the back room of his shop where he lives. When Frank meets Anna (Nora Arnezeder), a photographer with an interest in using Frank’s mannequins, he tries hard to keep his psychotic tendencies at bay.

Compared to the original, which isn’t really fair, but inevitable, this new MANIAC keeps a lot of the details the same and adds quite a few which really add to the story rather than detract to it. The main deviation is the fact that 90% of this film is shot through Wood’s POV with Frank only appearing in reflection and during some of the key kills where Frank seemingly leaves is body while doing the evil deeds. This makes for a pretty unnerving and otherworldly experience that some might feel uncomfortable with. We literally sit in the seat of the killer in this film, stalking victims, and even killing them. As if they were our own eyes, we see Frank stalk, scalp, and kill these people, an effect that has been done in plenty of films before, but never at this level of intimacy.

The other thing that impressed me was Wood’s convincing performance. As I said above, I knew he could play a psycho, but looking at his big Frodo eyes, one can’t help but be brought back to the Shire, making these evil deeds all the more shocking to see. It’s the baggage the actor carrying with him that that adds to, not detracts from, this performance and makes it all the more effective.

One thing that most fans of the original MANIAC were concerned about was the fact that there would be no way a modern filmmaker would go down the gory avenues the original did. Well, turns out director Franck Khalfoun didn’t get that memo as this is one of the goriest major film releases I’ve seen in years as scalps are sliced off, stabbings are doled out in the dozens, and the final scene, which I won’t reveal here, is as gory as the original, albeit slightly different. Though a lot of the gore is digital, most of it is top notch and seamless. I’d be curious what Tom Savini has to say about this, because this serves as an excellent homage to his work on the original slasher opus (minus the shotgun scene, which was a bit over the top in the original and I’m glad they left it out here).

Those leery of remakes can rejoice that this is definitely a good one. There’s a beat in the final scenes that moves a bit quickly for my tastes, but it is necessary in order to keep the film moving along. I guess it says something about me that I was both disgusted and intrigued in slipping into the shoes of Wood’s Frank Zito. Wood is amazing here and pulls no punches. His Frank Zito is as much his own as Joe Spinell’s was in the first MANIAC. Though it may be a tough pill to swallow for the queasy among you, MANIAC is an excellent film with the original taken seriously and respectfully. I’ll keep you posted when this film slithers off the festival circuit and will be available for everyone.

Warning: This trailer has boobs! NSFW!

And finally…Here’s another episode of the classic radio show LIGHTS OUT, this one telling a ghostly tale called POLTERGEIST. It may be a bit dated, but it still is cool to listen to in the dark! Enjoy!

See ya next week, folks!

Ambush Bug is Mark L. Miller, original @$$Hole/wordslinger/writer of wrongs/reviewer/interviewer/editor of AICN COMICS for over 12 years & AICN HORROR for 3. He has written comics such as VINCENT PRICE PRESENTS THE TINGLERS & WITCHFINDER GENERAL, THE DEATHSPORT GAMES, & NANNY & HANK (soon to be made into a feature film from Uptown 6 Films). He has co-written FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND’s LUNA: ORDER OF THE WEREWOLF (to be released in 2013 as a 100-pg original graphic novel). Mark wrote the critically acclaimed GRIMM FAIRY TALES PRESENTS THE JUNGLE BOOK from Zenescope Entertainment & GRIMM FAIRY TALES #76-81. Look for GRIMM FAIRY TALES PRESENTS THE JUNGLE BOOK: LAST OF THE SPECIES available in February-July 2013 and the new UNLEASHED crossover miniseries GRIMM FAIRY TALES PRESENTS WEREWOLVES: THE HUNGER #1-3 available in May-July 2013! Follow Ambush Bug on the Twitter @Mark_L_Miller.