The Horror Hut: The Caller

Welcome back, dear readers, to another terrifying edition of ‘The Horror Hut’. In previous columns, I’ve showcased many different kinds of horror, in many different ways. But the generally common thread between a majority of my pieces is that they’ve come in the form of 1980’s slashers. Today I take a departure from that time period to focus on a current day plot. Although I have always fashioned myself as an easy-to-please viewer that can find enjoyment and positives in just about any movie, I absolutely abhore some of the modern day conventions of ‘scary’ movie making. Everything is convoluted, the violence and nudity is overdone and outside of the context of a story, and twists are added just for the sake of shock value. But I chose this 2011 release because although the storyline has been done before, very few people seem to know about this movie, and it’s slow build and simplicity deserve a glimmer of relevance.

The Horror Hut Presents: Childs Play

Dear readers, welcome back to another installment of The Horror Hut. In keeping with our general theme, I want to delve back into horror in it’s purest form, during it’s most popular time period. In knowing I had to come back strongly after a weeks absence, I want to revert back to another classic 80’s slasher. Sometimes a lot of these films asked us to suspend disbelief while exploring premises that were a little ‘out there’ to say the least. But maybe none moreso than the film I’m doing today…Child’s Play.

Computer Games Are On My Mind

A large contingent of the Snowball Summit crew spent the weekend eating pizza, drinking Mountain Dew, and playing Starcraft 2 and by large contingent, I basically mean all of them. If it’s hard to picture exactly what the weekend looked like for those guys, then please toss on your South Park nerd hats and remember the little character known as Jenkins. Oh you don’t remember Jenkins? How’s this for a reminder?

The Horror Hut: The Green Mile

Welcome back, dear readers! This week, The Horror Hut takes a vacation from the 80’s slashers to visit a different kind of horror. As much as I love bringing killers in masks back into the caverns of our minds, I’ve been very outspoken thus far on the importance of a good story, and how it makes a film come to fruition. So today I leave conventional horror on the outskirts, as I walk you through to 1999, as a movie is made based on a Stephen King (the master of written horror) series of novels. As some of you may know, my mother passed away over this past Thanksgiving weekend, and this was one of her all time favorite movies. So mom, this one’s for you.

Real Life GoldenEye 007 Recreation

GoldenEye 007 is one of the best games for the Nintendo 64. There is no debate. I would easily put it up there with Super Mario 64 and Legend of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time. The game not only had a multiplayer mode that could be played for hours…eh..if you had skilled players (and not fellow staff member Max Majernik), but also had a pretty fun story mode with replay value. If there is one chink in the games armor, it’s how damn awful the escort missions were.

Lovable Baddie: Alien (Xenomorph)

One of my favorite creations is a mainstay high water mark for the Horror genre.

Lovable Baddies: Beetlejuice

There were very few characters, as a kid, that could get me to stray from my Jedi/Sith Lords or Ghostbusters but my newest Loveable Baddy was definitely one of them.

The Horror Hut: ‘Happy Birthday To Me’

Welcome back, my dear readers. It’s time for another edition of The Horror Hut. When we look specifically at the horror genre, the 1980’s come to mind as the time when horror films really found their home, their identity, and their niche audience. Last week I bandied about with all the different ways that ‘Halloween’ was an initial catalyst for other slasher films to break through to the big time. This week, the Hut takes on a film that isn’t anywhere near as widely respected or known, but has become a cult classic for the inside fans. Most slashers in this time frame specified a particular holiday, calendar date, or place, but this was the first of it’s kind to center around….a Birthday party.

Lovable Baddies: Mr.Stay Puft

In most movies you watch there is a villain. Whether it be an evil doctor, a crazy psycho, a mutant from another planet or just a average joe (who happens to be a serial killer that tucks their junk back and dances to Goodbye Horses in front of the mirror) I mean hey, most movies have these type of characters. We watch a movie and think “That was a alright movie, I liked so and so, etc, etc.” but every once in a while we walk away from a movie, TV series, book or even video game and go “God, that bad guy was so darn good!” Well today we are here to talk about villains that are so good at being evil that they become lovable. The villain we’re going to talk about today is what I consider the epitome of a lovable bad guy. He has every trait and quality one would possess of a lovable bad guy, plus can go great with a hot cup of cocoa. That guy is Mr.Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

 

Happy Groundhog Day!

It was at dawn this morning that Phil came out on Gobbler’s Knob and made the prediction of six more weeks of winter. Considering weather has b-e-a-utiful, it doesn’t seem all that bad. At this rate I will be sun tanning and playing volleyball Top Gun style in two weeks. Anyways, the only reason I’m reporting this, is because it gives me a great time to talk about the one, the only, Bill Murray.