The Graves
DVD
DIRECTOR: Brian Pulido
STARRING: Clare Grant, Jillian Murray, Bill Moseley, Tony Todd, Amanda Wyss
Lionsgate Home Entertainment
RELEASE DATE: March 23, 2010

For four straight years now, After Dark Horrorfest: 8 Films to Die For has been unleashed. Eight original horror films to quench your thirst for blood and gore and screams galore. Last year I was able to check out and review their third collection of horrors (Read: DVD Review: After Dark Horrorfest III: 8 Films To Die For), and was rather excited to check out their new slate this year! Instead of cramming every review into one mammoth review, this year we’ll take it one flick at a time, with this little opener stuck at the top of each one.

The Graves tells the story of two 20-something rocker comic book geek sisters named Megan Graves (Clare Grant) and Abby Graves (Jillian Murray) who, while on a road trip together before Megan moves to New York, find themselves visiting a shady old mine town that has transformed into a tourist attraction with promises of being incredibly haunted.

It’s clear that something doesn’t feel right and Abby — the more reluctant of the two — tries desperately to convince her sister to keep moving and ignore the mine town. Of course, this wouldn’t be a horror flick if they left, and Megan convinces her sister to check it out. Before long, they witness the brutal murder of a man and the horrific and mysterious aftermath to follow, leaving the sisters on a frantic mission to get back to their car and escape. Despite their efforts, the hell that they’ve visited involves a lot more people than it first appeared, and the evil taking place runs a lot deeper than just those people involved.

Batman: The Long Halloween
Trade Paperback
Written by Jeph Loeb
Art by Tim Sale
Cover by Tim Sale
Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $19.99

Recently I have been reading a lot of older comics and graphic novels and one that has stood out the most lately is Batman: The Long Halloween. If you haven’t read this trade, written by Jeph Loeb with art by by Tim Sale, it is absolutely amazing!

The story deals with a serial killer named Holiday who is picking off major members of the Falcone crime family in Gotham City. The reason why the killer is named Holiday is the fact that he only strikes on major holidays. He starts his spree on Halloween and goes on for about a year murdering over a dozen people. It’s up to Batman to find out who Holiday really is and why he’s killing all these people.

There are so many twists and turns with the plot of this story that it will keep you on your toes until the very last panel.

Ray Bradbury + Leonard Nimoy x Halloween = WIN!

The Halloween Tree is a 1993 feature-length made-for-TV cartoon movie based on the 1972 fantasy novel of the same name by Ray Bradbury.

The story centers on a group of children all dressed up and excited for a night of trick-or-treating. When one of their friends, Pip, goes missing, the gang sets out to look for him, thinking the boy is just playing a joke on them. On their quest to find Pip, they end up going through a forest and into a mansion where they met Mr. Moundshroud (Star Trek‘s Leonard Nimoy). Moundshroud is concerned after learning that the children don’t know the history behind the costumes they’ve picked to wear for Halloween, but eventually the kids go back in time to various eras and countries to learn the origins of Halloween and also save Pip.

The entire cartoon is up on YouTube in seven parts, which I’ve embedded here below. While The Halloween Tree was released on VHS in the 1990s, there’s no DVD version, nor does there seem to be any plans for one at this time.

Oh, it’s that time of year when demons, ghouls, clowns, and serial killers invade local cornfields, wooded areas, and abandoned warehouses to charge you money so that they can literally try to scare the crap out of you. Of course, I’m talking about Haunted Houses!

I don’t know if you guys pay much attention to your local advertisements, but if you do, you’ve probably noticed that commercial haunted house ads are some of the most insane ways to sell a product. One of our local haunted attractions boasts a location where “5 dead teenagers were found decapitated” and something to the effect of “The Devil himself won’t step into these haunted woods.” This is hilarious, because there’s no other time that would ever be an acceptable way to market something.

So, for your benefit, I have tirelessly dug through the deep annals of the Internet (aka YouTube) and pulled up some of the craziest, most detailed, and a couple of hilarious advertisements for haunted houses from across this nation. Enjoy!

Oh how I love me some Edgar Allan Poe. He’s always been one of my favorite authors since I was a kid, and last Halloween, I spent the day in Poe’s cellar (no, seriously, I did, in his home in Philadelphia). Therefore, anything Poe gets my immediate attention, which is why I thought I’d point out a new video that has actor John de Lancie performing Poe’s famous poem “The Raven.”

Check out the 9-minute video here below.

What makes this video even cooler is that de Lancie happens to be an alum of Star Trek — he played the omnipotent Q on TV’s Star Trek: The Next Generation, as well as a few other Trek series. Did I mention I’m obsessed with Star Trek? Well, cuz, I am.

The video, which was produced by de Lancie, is the first in the QMx Masters Series video series created by collectibles company Quantum Mechanix.

Of the video series, QM said, “Masters Series distills performance down to its purest form: a single camera, a microphone, the actor and you. It’s an intense, mesmerizing experience you won’t want to miss.”