That's one big ass shark...

Oh my gentle Jesus, if I didn't absolutely LOVE these ludicrous SyFy original movies before, I definitely would after seeing this gem. It's a giant shark, who can tear down oil rigs, bite jets out of the air, fly, walk on land, and fights a military prototype walking tank. Seriously, the 6 year olds who are writing this shit may have knocked it outta the park this time. Feast your eyes upon the single greatest trailer you are likely to see this decade, prepare for the awesomeness that will be Super Shark....and yes, that is Jimmy "JJ Dyno-MITE" Walker.

Scratch your shark attack movie itch with several other upcoming films over at Freddy in Space here, which is where I came across Super Shark.

Happy Memorial Day and Deftones pics!

First and foremost, hope everyone has a Happy Memorial Day. Fire up your grill and enjoy the outdoors for a while, get the fuck away from the computer! It won't go anywhere, and you certainly won't miss anything important, I promise.

This past Saturday, I ventured once again to downtown Atlanta, GA to the Tabernacle to see Deftones, my favorite band of all time. They are currently winding down their "Diamond Eyes" tour, with special guest Dillinger Escape Plan. It was difficult to get any good pictures from where I was because of the stage lights, but I did manage to get a couple of decent ones, so I thought I'd share.

As for the show itself, well I've seen Deftones several times over the years and this was probably my second favorite show that I've ever been to. That probably has a lot to do with the fact that I think Diamond Eyes is every bit as good as Around the Fur, and maybe even White Pony. I like it that much. Deftones are absolutely amazing live, if they hit your city, definitely don't miss them. For anybody who has maybe seen them before and is thinking about skipping this one, trust me you haven't heard Sextape until you've heard Chino sing it live.

Forbidden Future and Here's Johnny

In an amazing turn of events, one of the shirts I voted for in the Silver Screen derby on shirt.woot actually got printed! Behold in all of it's Futurama-themed glory, "Forbidden Future"! Congrats to artists rglee129 and kaseyfleming on getting the print, and for doing such a fantastic job. Great idea, beautiful result.

Not to be outdone in the campaign to destroy my bank account, TeeFury countered shirt.woot with an absolutely brilliant pop culture mash-up of Short Circuit and The Shining, "Here's Johnny". Fucking LOVE this shirt, there's no way I could pass it up.

Infinite Playlist - Rise From Ashes

FINALLY! Some of that new Solace Lost I've been bragging endlessly about hearing to those of you who follow me on Twitter has been released! You'll undoubtedly remember my constant pimping of the band previously here in the Batcave, but hey they're personal friends of mine and they make fucking great music, so of course I'm going to do whatever I can to get the word out. If you haven't checked them out before, I urge you to look back through my Infinite Playlist posts for some of their other stuff. If you like what you hear, and would like info on how to get a copy of their first album, contact me.

On to the new stuff! I can honestly tell you, all bias aside, and I've told them this as well, "Rise from Ashes" is the best song that Solace Lost has done so far. I have been listening to it for a while now, have heard it go through a few different versions and changes, and I feel like the end product is absolutely beautiful. I like it so much that I can't believe people that I actually know made it. If they continue to grow musically, and produce quality like this, there's no limit to where this band will go and they truly deserve to make it big. Give "Rise from Ashes" a listen, and enjoy.

Random Screen Grab

RADrospective

How in the holy hell did I not find out about this sooner? A 25th anniversary reunion and documentary about one of my favorite movies of ALL time, RAD! And that's the name of the movie, not me expressing even further excitement although if I'm being honest this news is quite rad. Get the full scoop from ESPN here and for god's sake if you're at all interested in a road trip to Canada in August, contact me!

25 Years Later: A RADrospective from Marc Dewey on Vimeo.

The Tunnel

I'm sad to say that I was so totally late to the party on The Tunnel that I almost completely missed it. Apparently it's creators managed to raise the budget for the movie through the internet, which is becoming more and more common lately especially amongst indie filmmakers. Of course it's also possible, and more likely, that it's always been happening, and it's me that is just now finding out about it. Either way, there was a countdown to the film's release, which was done simultaneously on both dvd and as a free torrent download. This is another practice that I would like to see more creators embrace, not because I'm looking to steal their hard work, but because the only real chance I would have of seeing it unless I blindly bought every dvd I came across online. We've all been burned by trailers and dvd cover art before, blindly buying indie dvd's online, especially horror ones, is a risky venture, and I'm not exactly rolling in the dough either if you know what I'm saying.

Back to The Tunnel though, I don't remember exactly where I saw the trailer for it, I think maybe a friend sent it to me somewhere online but not 100% sure. It looked good enough, another in the "Found Footage" sub-genre that is a guilty pleasure of mine, so I decided to look it up. It's then that I came across the film's website and read all about how it got made and saw what all I had missed. Such a shame, I would've enjoyed following along, and even doing whatever I could have to help get the word out. Love the indie scene, this guy does. Anyway, I won't bore you with details that you could easily read for yourself at the aforementioned website, so if you're interested visit it here.

In Australia, the government unveils plans to re-open abandoned tunnels underneath big cities, with the intention of building water recycling facilities to combat a water crisis. Shortly after breaking the story, no further mention is made of the tunnels and the idea appears to be abandoned altogether. Believing that the government is covering up something, a young journalist named Natasha, looking to make a name for herself by breaking a big story, begins to look further into what really caused the government to abandon the plans for the tunnel. After being denied access to the tunnels by the transit authority, she and a small crew of three other guys decide to sneak in and get their story anyway. As they begin to traverse the tunnels, recording footage for their story, they begin to hear strange sounds. Eventually one of their group disappears, and as the others begin to search for him, they discover the real reason behind the cover-up and end up fighting for the lives as they attempt to escape the tunnels.

As stated above, I'm a bit of a whore for the "found footage" genre, but I'm also a fan of documentary style film making, including mockumentary. The Tunnel is a bit of a mix of the two. It begins with a message that some of the footage in the film is actual police evidence, and most of the movie is comprised of this footage. However the movie is narrated by Natasha and another surviving member of the crew as they are being interviewed. So it's like a documentary movie being filmed about a found footage movie. If that makes sense. It works well enough, although it does take a bit away from the suspense as you already know who survives and who doesn't.

As for the movie itself, if I had to use just one word to describe it, that would be "atmosphere". I don't know if it was because the movie was that good, or if I just love found footage movies so much, but this movie had me from the beginning. Dragging me along, dropping little hints that sent my mind off in all kinds of different directions as to what was happening, and giving small sound bytes and almost non-existent glimpses of something but never quite giving it away until it was ready. Seriously, it's almost like this movie was a female. At one point I had all but decided it was homeless cannibals that were living down in the tunnels, but that seemed too obvious so the idea of sewer mutants came about, but then lots of mentions of World War II were made and what looked like a torture room was found, so I began to get excited about the idea of a forgotten group of Nazis living underground refusing to acknowledge the idea that the war had ended, but then there was  a growl, and again sticking with the Nazi thing I started to hope that maybe the Nazis had been experimenting with animals and had created some sort of creature with the intention of using it as a weapon, but then again maybe this would just end up being a monster movie, and I was ok with that too. I'm not going to spoil it here for anybody who still hasn't seen the movie, but one of those is right.

Now for the delivery, The Tunnel with all of it's atmosphere and raised questions, which had my mind racing, ultimately ended up disappointing me in the end. While I never expected what happened to be fully explained, I had at least hoped to be given a look at it. You know what you're getting with found footage, LOTS of shaking cameras, quick and blurry turning, and almost incomprehensible screaming followed by darkness and sobbing. I get that, I enjoy that and if that's all that The Tunnel had been I would've been a bit more forgiving. As it stands though, the teases are what ends up pissing you off in the end, as when you are given a quick glimpse, it's never really clear what you're looking at and despite several quick looks, it never gets any clearer.. Remember when you first got a look at the monster in Cloverfield, and it wasn't really clear the first few times but eventually you got a good look at Clovie? Yeah well you never get a good look here at what is going on, and I was disappointed with that. At least with the Blair Witch you never see anything, so you're left to make up your own interpretations, in The Tunnel you know what's there, you just never get a decent look at it. Everything other than that was great though.

I definitely recommend fans of the Found Footage genre to give The Tunnel a watch, especially fans of the Blair Witch's and Rec's of the world. This movie feels a lot like those two. As long as you're ok with no really clear look at what the crew is running from, you'll enjoy this movie. If you hate found footage, this one won't change your mind. As for myself, I'm on the fence here. I definitely enjoyed the movie and at one point was ready to sing it's praises, but the constant teasing with no real payoff left me cold at the end. I enjoyed it enough and will probably eventually track down a copy for the collection, hope it will grow on me if I watch it a couple more times. If nothing else I've seen what director Carlo Ledesma can do and will be keeping an eye out for his work in the future.

Infinite Playlist - Empire

I don't want to be too hasty, but I'm pretty close to sure that I want to go on the record as saying this is my favorite August Burns Red song ever. It's off their upcoming record "Leveler" which releases on June 21st. If this song is any indication as to how the album is going to be, go ahead and assume that the Bonesy for best album will be going to August Burns Red this year. I'm sure I'll be back to talk about the full album once it's released, in the meantime enjoy Empire.

Bring Home Your Very Own Dead Hooker!

Attention people in the UK and Australia! Today you can buy the debut film from the Soska twins, Dead Hooker in a Trunk on dvd! You're gonna want to do that, it's not to be missed. This is a huge deal for the Twisted Twins, so excited for them. Those of us Stateside will have to patiently wait a little longer, but rest assured as soon as an announcement is made I will be posting the details here in the Batcave.

Congrats ladies! Hope it exceeds all your expectations for it overseas, and I can't wait for a region 1 release. Don't waste too much time counting all that well-deserved money though, there's American Mary to be made!

Nowhere Bad

Attention t-shirt junkies! I was contacted by email by a brand new t-shirt company in the vein of Ript, TeeFury, and Shirt.woot called Nowhere Bad. You know the drill, a new shirt goes up and you have a set amount of time to buy before it's gone forever. Nowhere Bad changes things up a little bit though, instead of just giving you 24 hours to make a decision, they give you 72. Personally, I like this a lot.

As with the others mentioned, a brand new shirt from Nowhere Bad will run you only $12 shipped, and will feature a variety of designs from different artists from all over the interwebs. So any aspiring artists out there looking to get art printed might also want to take note. Currently the infamous Were-Rooster from one of my personal favorite artists, Captain Ribman, is up for purchase. You can check it out below, and be sure to bookmark Nowhere Bad. Cheap awesome tees are the best kind, yanno?

Batman

Even your Grandma has heard of him.

Movie Night - It's the End of the World as we Know It

So the world's ending today? Might as well watch some movies while I wait. Tonight's theme will be, you guessed it, post apocalyptic futures. I'm particularly fond of this genre, the idea of civilization being destroyed has always been one that intrigued me. I can totally see humanity reverting to a primal state with the lack of just the internet alone. Take away technology from some people, and things quickly go from bad to worse. Imagine taking away things like electricity, running water, or food.

Tonight I will start with the most appropriately titled "Doomsday". Neil Marshall's post apocalyptic Europe is definitely a place I'd like to visit. I absolutely love this movie, from it's Mad Max-esque beginning to it's medieval era finish. I saw it described somewhere as "a time-travel movie that never travels any time" and that makes perfect sense if you watch it. My absolute favorite part is when the cannibal savages barbecue Sean Pertwee while a song by Fine Young Cannibals plays in the background. A subtle little bit that a lot of people miss, but I caught it and loved it.









Will follow Doomsday with my favorite of the Mad Max films, The Road Warrior. Nothing I can tell you about this film that you don't already know, and if you don't know then shame on you. I will say this though,  if and when humanity collapses, I can only hope that I'm around to see it, and this movie is how it plays out. I'd put a .50 cal on the back of my Ranger, armor up the windows, throw on a hockey mask and ride all over the place tearing ass and blowing shit up. My God that sounds so much better than the bullshit I deal with on a daily basis now.









Hopefully by the end of The Road Warrior the world will have ended. If by some chance we still have a little time left, I may throw in Escape from New York, or maybe even Tooth and Nail just to pass the remaining time. See all you fuckers in the wasteland!

Random Screen Grab

They don't call him the "Hanging Judge" for nothin'

Resistance 3 Boxart is Revealed, and is Awesome.

Playstation Blog yesterday posted the boxart for Insomniac's upcoming third entry in the Resistance series. Personally I can't wait, and I love the propaganda poster look of this artwork.

Doghouse

I have a pretty serious love/hate relationship with Netflix. I love the service, love the convenience, and love the fact that I get the opportunity to watch lots of movies that I otherwise would never have even heard about. On the other hand, I don't have a whole lot of free time and anytime I log in to Netflix I'm assaulted with so many choices and movies that look good, I feel like I will never get caught up. Of course this plays hell with my border-line ocd, which is where the hate part comes in. I do make an effort to watch at least one movie on Netflix every week though, and last week a British zombie/comedy titled "Doghouse" caught my attention.

Going in, I knew absolutely nothing about Doghouse, other than I thought the cover was pretty cool. I read the synopsis and saw that it was a British zombie flick, and had the words "dark comedy" in the description. As we all know, these are usually pretty damn good. So I decided to give it a watch, and Doghouse definitely didn't disappoint. The funny parts were funny, the gory parts were gory, and the story at least attempted to do something a little different in a zombie genre that is well past done to death.

A group of friends all decide to ditch their wives, girlfriends, and significant others to go on a road trip in an attempt to cheer up a recently divorced member of their group. Their plan is to take a bus out into the country, to a small village named "Moody" where it's said the women outnumber the men four to one. When they arrive, the village at first appears to be deserted, but they soon discover that Moody is a village that lives up to it's reputation. The only problem is the women that outnumber them four to one are all flesh hungry zombies. The gang fight for their lives against a horde of zombie women, while trying to figure out what exactly happened and why there are no zombies of the male variety in Moody.

If nothing else, Doghouse is just fun to watch. It's one of those movies that as soon as it's over I'm ready to watch it again. I looked it up on IMDB after my initial viewing because the director, Jake West, was a name that was familiar to me but I couldn't remember where from. Turns out it's the same Jake West that directed Evil Aliens and direct to dvd sequel Pumpkinhead: Ashes to Ashes, both of which I liked. Doghouse is definitely his strongest work yet, and I'll be keeping an eye on him from now on.

This is the perfect kind of movie to grab a couple of beers and watch with your buds. I highly recommend it to fans of horror/comedy along the lines of Shaun of the Dead or Zombieland, but even die hard gorehounds will find something to like here. When you're done with Doghouse, track down and give Evil Aliens a watch too.  Jake West is a director who deserves more recognition, particularly from horror enthusiasts.

Infinite Playlist - Good Luck With Your Lives

Silverstein released their latest record "Rescue" a couple of weeks ago, and I've been listening to it pretty heavily since. At first I liked it, but didn't love it, but it has since grown on me quite a bit. Glad i didn't give up on it, as they are one of my favorite bands. There are a few standouts on the album, but this particular song speaks to me more than any of the others. Give "Good Luck With Your Lives" a listen...

A little leftovers from Friday the 13th

Don't even act like it has to actually be Friday the 13th for me to post something Voorhees related in the Batcave. This past Friday those of us who follow the fantastic Mr. Francesco Francavilla, acclaimed comic book artist who is currently working with Scott Snyder and Jock on an amazing Detective Comics run, on Twitter were treated to a gallery of 13 Friday the 13th related sketches that he had done. I thought they were awesome, so I figured I would share a few of them.

That last one was by far my favorite, would love to see it on a shirt or poster or something. I would also love to see Mr. Francavilla do a Friday the 13th series or sketchbook, I would definitely buy it.

The 30 Day Horror Movie Challenge Day Two

Day two is upon us, and I'm prepared to tackle Days 16 through 30 of the 30 Day Horror Movie Challenge. Let's jump right in here...

16. Horror Movie with a Great Soundtrack - Gonna come clean here, I don't really pay much attention to movie soundtracks. In fact I think a movie's music is working best when it's so seamlessly tied in with what's happening on screen that I don't even notice it. That being said, there are still great theme songs out there, like the Jaws theme. This isn't about great theme songs though, it's about soundtracks, and I suppose the hair metal badassery of the Return of the Living Dead soundtrack would be hard to top.




17. Favorite 80's Horror - In my opinion no other decade has done as much for horror as the 80's did. Almost every one of what I consider to be the true classics of the genre come from the 80's. Probably doesn't hurt that I'm a child of the 80's either, so 80's horror is what I cut my teeth on. Still, this isn't a hard choice at all for me, the single greatest entry in the Friday the 13th film series is from the 80's, 1986 to be exact. Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives is what 80's horror is all about for me.





18. Favorite Horror Movie Filmed in Black and White - While I'm a self-professed junkie for the classics from the 50's and 60's, especially the Universal monsters, Night of the Living Dead came out of nowhere in 1968 and blew movie goers away. Here we are over 40 years later, and I'd still put it up against any of these newer zombie flicks. For my money, it's hard to beat Night of the Living Dead in all of it's black and white gory glory.

19. Best Use of Gore - Hard to beat the goriest movie of all freakin' time for this category, isn't it? Easy pick here for Peter Jackson's Dead Alive. Two words: lawnmower scene.

20. Favorite Horror Character - I'm not sure if we're looking for a killer or just a regular character or what here, but these are my answers, and I usually root for the killer anyway as regular characters in these movies are almost alway so incredibly annoying that I can't wait to watch them get slaughtered. That being the case, nobody has dispatched as many annoying fuckers over the years as my all-time favorite horror character, the sparkle in Pamela's eye, Jason Voorhees.

21. Best Horror Franchise - If you know me at all, you already know the answer to this one. I worship the Friday the 13th series, even the ones that everybody else hates. Jason X was awesome, deal with it. But if there's one thing horror has plenty of, it's great franchises. I gotta give some honorable mention shouts to the Nightmare on Elms Street, Halloween, Evil Dead, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Ginger Snaps, Romero's "of the Dead", and Hellraiser series'. And yes, I like the Hellraiser movies, even most of the dtv ones.




22. Best Death Scene - What constitutes a great death scene? The killer? The weapon? Where it happened? How attached you had become to the character getting killed? To some extent I think all of those things are important. But the thing that really makes a death scene memorable for me is it's staying power, or how bad it fucks you up, at times even for the rest of your life. Only one kill fits that bill for me, and no matter how badly a character is getting it, I can always look at them and say "Hey, it could always be worse, you could be Quint from Jaws". The fact that my father let me watch this as a kid is the reason to this day that I refuse to go near the ocean, I am terrified of sharks. It screwed me up for life, and therefore is the greatest death scene ever put on film. In fact it's so effective that I even had a hard time looking it up to get a pic for this post.

23. A Great Quote from a Horror Movie - I'm one of those people who watches movies that I love to the point that I can recite them verbatim. I'm also one of those guys who will use obscure movie quotes in conversation where applicable, which often leaves me getting confusing stares and awkward sliences. Good thing I don't talk to many people, right? Anyway, few movies are as filled with movie quote gold as From Dusk Till Dawn. Here's one of my favorites: "Did they look like psychos? Is that what they looked like? They were vampires. Psychos do not explode when sunlight hits them, I don't give a fuck how crazy they are."

24. Horror Movie Character that Describes You - This one I probably put more thought into than any other, and still couldn't come up with a perfect answer. You would think a horror movie loving, comic book reading, video game junkie character wouldn't be that hard to find in the horror genre, but I can't think of any. I almost went with Mark from The Dream Child for the comic book thing, but he couldn't stand the sight of blood, and I work in surgery so that didn't make sense. Also Spencer from Freddy's Dead for the video game thing, but he was a stoner and I've never done drugs. I would've done Ed from Shaun of the Dead, but even he's not exactly right and I've already used Shaun of the Dead. So for this one, I'm just going to go with Ashley J. Williams  from the Evil Dead series because no matter what that dude does, shit just never goes right for him. That's me to a tee, plus I would totally cut my left hand off and replace it with a chainsaw if I could. Hail to the King baby!

25. Favorite Christmas Horror Movie - Pretty much all I saw for this one were picks for Silent Night, Deadly Night or Black Christmas. I don't really dig the Silent Night movies, despite the fact that I've seen them all, and the original Black Christmas was good, but certainly not great. I have a little Xmas Eve tradition of waiting for my kids to go to sleep so I can wrap presents while watching my favorite Christmas horror movie, Santa's Slay. I'd watch it any day over Black Christmas or any of the Silent Night movies.

26. Horror Movie for a Chicken - If we're talking best horror movie starring a chicken, I gotta give that to either Poultrygeist, Rottweiler, or even Paranormal Craptivity II (for the invisible chicken, duh). But I'm assuming this is for a horror movie to show to somebody who is afraid of horror movies. So, for that I'll say The Monster Squad. It is, in my opinion, fun for the whole family despite a little bit of bad language, oh and the whole exploding werewolf thing, but other than that, yeah the whole family.

27. Your Guilty Pleasure Horror Movie - Gotta admit, most people seemed to be disappointed with Dead Snow, but I love it. It's full of good gore, has some outstanding zombie make-up, is hilarious at times (the molotov scene!), and I don't know if you know this or not, but it's a movie with Nazi zombies. NAZI ZOMBIES PEOPLE. What's not to like?








28. Horror Movie You Would Like to See Remade - I may be drawn and quartered for this one, and believe me I agree there's nothing wrong with the original, but every time I watch Rosemary's Baby I can' help but think a little updating might do it some good. I honestly don't think anything needs to be changed, must less polyester in the wardrobe department if you know what I'm saying.

29. Worst Horror Movie - Ouch, impossible to pick. I haven't even seen every horror movie, but I have seen a TON of terrible ones. For this category though, I'm not just going to pick the one I thought was the worst, because in all fairness not every movie gets a multi-million dollar budget to work with, and a lot of times people just have to work with what they have. For my pick, I'm going with the biggest disappointment. A movie that I had high hopes for, that had the budget and people behind it to be something really good, and was so unforgivably awful that I felt betrayed. I felt like calling up Wes Craven and apologizing to him myself, and I didn't even have anything to do with the making of it. I'm looking at you, A Nightmare on Elm Street remake. For shame. Want more details on just how much I hated this movie? Allow me to direct your attention here.

30. Best Horror Movie - Yep, I've known this one was coming the whole time, I've thought and debated about it, I've come up with several answers but have changed my mind every single time. The only answer I could ever give and be completely happy with is this, there is absolutely no way I could ever pick just one single horror movie as the best ever. There are simply way too many variables, genres, sub-genres, and my tastes have changed over the years. For example, there was a time when I thought movies didn't get any better than Terminator 2, of course I was 12 at the time. So I'm not going to pick one here. Sorry if I've let anyone down by doing this, but I would literally come back to this post and edit this pick at least a million times long after it had published and no one would ever see it again. The fact of the matter is I would know it's here, and I won't do that to myself. I will however throw out a few of the contenders: Friday the 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter, An American Werewolf in London, Army of Darkness, The Exorcist, A Nightmare on Elm Street, A Nightmare on Elm Street III: The Dream Warriors, Aliens, Halloween, The Wolfman (original), and even though I used it in a different category Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives. See, all those and I still feel like I'm leaving a ton of stuff out. These are the kinds of things that torture me long into the night.

So there it is, my own little entry into the 30 Day Horror Movie Challenge. I hope you enjoyed it, I did. Do a list of your own? Or plan to? Drop me a link in the comments, or hell pick your 30 in the comments, I'd love to read them.