The Blogboard Jungle

Today is the day ladies and gentlemen.  Go trick or treating, take advantage of places that give discounts for costumes ,watch some horror movies , play some horror themed video games, scare your friends coworkers and kids and enjoy Halloween.  Happy Halloween

     When you read those "Better Late Than Never" reviews here and here , usually ones about games the reason they're being done late is because I happen to still be working on my degree.  Along with that I have a full time job, a relationship, friends, family, other hobbies that get in the way that time just doesn't allow for me to throw down with my friends on line or a single player game like I used to.  While it has made my purchasing games easier and cheaper , I still get left behind on some games. These are only some of the one's I have to finish/start. For me, the biggest reason I have fallen so far behind is school but it made me wonder if it happens to other casual gamers.  I know it shouldn't apply to hardcore gamers, after all that's what makes them hardcore but for the older gamers like myself, we get busy and we fall behind.  I am so far behind, my decision to not jump on a next generation console was brought on by looking at ...

   This film is on this web site's list of top movies for Halloween and lucky enough for those that haven't seen it, it's free on Fearnet this week.  This movie snuck up as a recommendation when I first watched it and had not seen any anthology horror films in a while.  The thing that is cool about this type of story telling is how all the small stories are a part of a bigger story, and this one focuses on Halloween.  It stars some pretty decent and well know actors like Anna Paquin and Brian Cox to name a few. Watching this film again you notice things in conversation and costume that predict the twists on one of the stories, I won't ruin it for anyone since the film seems to not be very well known even though its been out for a while. I'll just tell you, it has most elements you want in anything that surrounds a story about Halloween.  Were-wolves, ghouls, a serial killer, and whatever Sam is supposed to be.  Sam is the little guy on the cover of...

     The subject of re-makes for horror have been touched on here before and it really is pretty much up to the viewer whether or not to give it a thumbs up or thumbs down.  In writing about them in the Evil Dead re-make review two films were mentioned.  The reboots, re-telling, or re-makes of A Nightmare on Elm St. and Friday the 13th , I watched them both in pieces and never cared for either but I decided to give them an entire sitting this past weekend since they were part of AMC's Fearfest and I found the common denominator that can make a re-make suck...Michael Bay. I know in general, horror film characters that are to be the victims are pretty dumb.  Somehow, in these re-makes they are made out to be really dumb, annoying, spoiled bratty kids that get excited over drops of alcohol and anything weed related. They were both produced by Bay which made me wonder, does Michael Bay think we're dumb?  So I Googled it "Michael Bay thinks ...

     This is one of those films that when it's on TV, I always stop and watch it.  It stars Corey Haim as Marty a handicapped boy and his sister that encounter a were-wolf in their small town.  It is told from the perspective of the sister remembering the events that happened and how their uncle played by Gary Busey before his head injury .  It's another gem from the 80's written by Stephen King that doesn't involve some form of giant insect. Megan Follows plays Corey Haim's sister and her older version of herself narrates us viewers through the story. It's one of those stories where the focus is on the problem of the were wolf but also on fixing a family's broken relationship. It kept me interested as a kid and it still interests me now. The reason being the man that is the werewolf. He seems like he has some good in him during certain scenes but when gets found out he starts acting like a true antagonist. If it's a film you haven't seen it...

     I don't know about you guys, but I have been enjoying re-watching all of these.  Everything from these kids corny 80's outfits to the goofy way many if them die.  It's like a trip down memory lane for me, as I remember being in the movie theater for most of them.  In this month that favors horror and the films in the genre, a special place is always reserved for Mr. Jason Voorhees...and his mom, of course. Not long ago the subject of horror genres was brought up, and the ones we favor and avoid.  I called Jason a Zombie in it because he kind of is, he's risen from the dead so many times how could he not be?  Although he has more motivation than the average zombie, like he does not hunger for flesh, other than to break it apart.  He can be slow at times, but he did do some running in Friday the 13th : The Final Chapter and that may also be the last time he reacted to being attacked.  After that, he was reanimated through so...

I'm actually in the middle of 2 but so far very good.      Since going back to finish off my degree I have been behind on a lot of things, most of them gaming related.  It's helped me save some money by not pre-ordering things and picking them up later with all their content but the best thing that happened was I got a PS3, when they released the Uncharted 3 250GB bundle.  It was a Christmas gift to me last year so naturally I went and looked at all the best PS3 titles I could not get for lack of the console. I was a fan boy of the Xbox 360, for economic reasons and no other.  When the price drops came I was already ingrained in the Xbox Live eco system I didn't care to branch our since I was busy with school, Jiu Jitsu, relationship, work, etc. When my girlfriend got me the PS3 it came with Uncharted 3 , and me being a fan of great story telling knew I could not jump into a third installment without starting from the beginning.  So I got ...

     Finally got around to seeing the sequel to V/H/S after reading so much about it on line and in the +Google+   horror community, and I have to say I liked this one better.  The story set up was more believable in my opinion than the original one but still uses people watching the videos to set up this series of short films, and as stated before it's hard for me to not like anthology horror films. The format...is still not dead. Not that the set up of the first one was any less believable, people record themselves all the time doing stupid things and putting them on YouTube.  Tosh.0 makes his career off of stuff like that, but the investigative scenario and requiring it to be recorded just made it easier to swallow.  This story follows two private investigators, Larry and Ayesha, as they investigate the disappearance of a young male college student. Upon entering the student's home, they discover a large stack of TV sets and VHS tapes...

     In watching as much horror as I can this month I ran across Freddy VS. Jason on the SyFy network this past weekend, and I remember when I saw it in the theater since it was a big deal when it came out.  When Jason Goes to Hell came out the only good thing about that movie was the end, when Freddy;s hand snatched Jason's mask into hell, that movie had to be made, and it was. As much as I liked parts of it, something felt unfinished about it to me. All these movie maniacs never die. The story was decent enough to make sense so I won't drag out it here, what bothered me the most is when Freddy gets pulled into the "real world" from the "dream world", which always meant he was done for in his own franchise did not seem to hold true in this film.  Freddy puts a decent whoopin' on Jason in the dream world, but why then does he suddenly know martial arts moves when he and Jason throw down in the real world.  I firmly believe it should have been ...

     This October I have been trying to watch one horror film every night since the 1st of the month.  Myself and plenty of other horror fans consider October a special time of year and make an extra effort to seek out new horror to add to our list of favorite horror films .  In searching through my collection I noticed a trend in genre, I like dead things. Jason is kind of a zombie, a bad ass one.   Zombies and anything that brings about zombie-like behavior are my go to films.  It can be a curse from an old cursed book like the Evil Dead films or your standard unexplained out break like Romero's  Living Dead films.  The other thing I noticed was, there are genres I just don't care for.  I own slasher films, lots of zombie stuff, a few werewolf films along with other monster movies, but no vampires.  I realized, I don't like the genre of vampires with the only exception being The Lost Boys and Blade  I know people...

     This film brought up here before when it was in theaters dished up a whole post about remakes in general.  Some can be good, some can be bad, and some can stand on their own as independent of its original without taking anything away from it.  This film fits that bill while planting just enough subtle Easter eggs to the original to keep fans of it happy...or are they Easter eggs at all? This girl spends the whole film...filthy!!!  I have no idea what she really looks like. There's no Ash in the actual movie, so don't go expecting to see him pop up during the story, remember this is a remake ( maybe ) of the original before Ash was a groovy household name in horror. You will see the infamous Oldsmobile Delta 88 near the cabin if you've been a fan of all the Evil Dead films. There is however a pretty decent story that wasn't really present in the original to set up the evil dead to possess those that visit the cabin.  Mia, the youn...

     In trying to find new films to add to the Halloween Horror Movie list, I've been watching stuff I have heard of but haven't seen. +Netflix  just added Silent Hill:  Revelation   which is the 2nd film based on the video game Silent Hill that was released on the Playstation in 1999 and has had enough sequels to start to get films made based on it.  The first film I actually liked for its visuals that kept true to the games atmospheric horror and a decent story, it's sequel...not so much.  This one does a good job in connecting the first film with its predecessor but it feels rushed and the horror in it was laughable and not it  cool way like Night of the Creeps . Sean Bean is in this film as Alessa's (or whatever her name is) adoptive father again and I like him as an actor, he was probably the only decent actor in the film.  The story felt so rushed the relationship that develops between the main character, Teen Alessa and V...

Jason flicks should always be included.      In keeping with the horror movie theme of Halloween I am trying to watch at least one horror movie a day for the month of October and the days I miss I double up if time allows.  This weekend, via +Netflix  I watched two, Hellraiser: Bloodlines and Grave Encounters . Hellraiser:Bloodlines - This was the last Hellraiser movie I saw, the films are weird because they do try to connect them over time but I never get how there is a new one if Pinhead gets killed in a few of the sequels only to come back and not recall his previous arse whoopins.  Bloodlines , was like a Hellraiser anthology, and since I like anthologies I don't mind re watching this one.  It follows the bloodline of the toy maker who designed the puzzle box that causes all the Hellraiser messes we see through all the movies and is the key to sending Pinhead back to heck!  We get to see a battle over time between Pinhead and ...

     October, Halloween is a special time of year to The Blogboard Jungle as we consider it synonymous with horror films.  One of the films on our list is Night of the Creeps by Fred Dekker, mostly known for this film and The Monster Squad .  This movie starred Tom Atkins as Detective Ray Cameron that seems to always be looking for a thrill and he gets it in this film. Another oldie and cheesy but goodie. Released in 86' and takes place in 86' after a flashback scene that sets the story up from the 50's that is shot in black and white.  Some aliens, doing some kind of experiment create these little slug like parasitic creatures that enter the brains of a host to lay eggs and make more slug like creatures.  During the incubation period the host walks around like a zombie and tries to insert more slugs in people by releasing them from their mouths into a new hosts mouth.  The best way to kill them because of their size and num...

     October is officially Halloween month, and with Halloween comes fright fests, The Walking Dead on AMC, and Horror films.  I mention AMC and The Walking Dead for a reason, before the success of the zombie apocalypse themed show they used to run a count down of the 100 scariest movies this time of year.  That has been replaced by The Walking Dead and their Fearfest marathon of horror films, that include Halloween , Friday the 13th , and A Nightmare on Elm Street . Although they keep with the theme and give horror fans the love they deserve, sometimes certain films don't make the cut. The go to Horror Movies for Halloween. Jason Voorhee's Mom must own stock at AMC because you wil not be short on all films based on him there, but what about the classics we don't get to see that much? AMC does a good job regardless but I suppose they need to give people's nerves a break.  They have some oldies but goodies like, The Howling , Cujo , and ...

DVD's?      Anybody noticing some really sad people around the water cooler or wherever you talk about TV today?  If you have and you;re one of them then you are part of the 10 million or so people that tuned into last nights Breaking Bad finale  according to Entertainment Weekly.  It's odd that a show would have that effect on so many people, because I think as much as people knew Walter White was going to meet his end, we were still rooting for him. So what now?  Surely we're not shallow enough that this awesome TV show was our reason to get through a weekend.  There's other stuff out there to keep us occupied, it'll be Halloween soon after all and I'm sure there will be plenty of costume ideas you can apply this year to show your love for Breaking Bad among other things . If you need help with some other suggestions, just browse the web and know you are not alone, like this list from Time has some good suggestions.  You can...

   This past weekend, while awaiting the end of Breaking Bad we still manged to get out and catch a movie.  This weekend we saw, Prisoners with Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal,Terrence Howard, and Paul Dano.  This film is about a kidnapping that takes place in Pennsylvania around Thanksgiving and how far a parent will go to find their kid when the bureaucracy that surrounds law enforcement fails to bring about any results. The maze in the "O" is a major plot point. Hugh Jackman is a good actor, Wolverine and X-Men films may be what got him in the limelight but their is no denying his acting skills. He doesn't disappoint in this film either in his portrayal of concerned Dad, Keller Dover who's gut tells him that the suspected man caught in an RV where his and his neighbor's daughter where last seen knows something about his missing daughters whereabouts. The man, Alex Jones is played by Paul Dano, who seems to have made a career out of playing annoying ...