Thursday, December 22, 2011

Update For The Last 3.5 Months...

Hello!

I haven't updated this is forever, but I have a couple good reasons...

There is a new issue, #9, of Crimson Screens available.  This one is four pages and is the same format as always.  It's a mixed issue, with a good mix of horror and obscure action titles.  I have been mailing them out on my free time and am about halfway through my mailing list.  If you aren't on my mailing list, then email me your address and you will be added.  Issues of Crimson Screens are free.  If you do a fanzine/newsletter/whatever, then let me know.  I love to help spread the word about other zines.
Also, work on the Crimson Screens Book is getting closer and closer to being complete.  I have added a couple other writers, so the perspective will be a little more varied.  There will also be chapters on long gone video stores and theaters from my area of the world (Cleveland/Northeast Ohio).  I will post updates on this as they happen.  Printing this thing will not be cheap, so hopefully there are no financial pitfalls that force me to dip into the savings for this.

There have been a ton of solid DVD releases in the last few months.  A few of them would be:

555- from Massacre Video- SOV horror from the late 80's about a mad slasher.  Known more for its box art than the actual movie itself, its a mixed bag of bad acting and extreme gore.  It's not the best movie, but it is watchable and certainly more entertaining than current DTV fare.

Don't Open Till Christmas- special edition DVD- remastered print of the great Christmas time slasher movie.  Unlike other similar movies, santa gets killed here instead of him doing the killing.  I have always enjoyed this one since the fun days of VHS and the presentation is superb.  With a lot of well done special features.

Bereavement- a prequel to Malevolence.  I hated this on the first viewing.  I guess I went into it thinking it would be something else.  The movie is very good, with some gore and a lot of suspense and demented characters.

Chromeskull: Laid To Rest 2- the original Laid To Rest was a surprise slasher hit.  This one kind of drops the ball by explaining too much and having some pretty dopey characters.  As in the other one, there is an abundance of gore.  It's all very well done too, with no CGI, that I can tell.  While not as great movie, you could certainly do worse.

Machete Maidens Unleashed- fantastic documentary about Filipino horror and exploitation movies.  You can't go wrong with this title.  Made by the same people who did the excellent Not Quite Hollywood movie.

The Exterminator- Blu Ray- my favorite exploitation movie, uncut, looks amazing and the commentary is a must hear.  The best release of 2012, imo.

I have thought about contacting people who made a lot of the original horror fanzines, to try and do a "collection book", which would be a collection of all of the issues.  I know this is a big task and I have already failed once at this, but I'm in a better position in life now to attempt this project, so if you are reading this and once published your own horror fanzine, please get in touch!

More soon!