Bleeding Rainbow: Pumpkin Cinema (2014)

For many, one of the highlights of the Halloween season is indulging in an endless variety of horror films. Whether you’re someone like myself, who uses the season as an excuse to go all out and watch as many horror movies as possible, or the average person simply looking for a few good scares, horror films are as important to Halloween as pumpkins and trick or treating. If there’s one thing that both the hardcore horror fans and casual viewers have in common, outside of the desire to watch a horror movie, it’s the fact that a major decision must be made: what movie should I/we watch?

This is where Pumpkin Cinema: The Best Movies for Halloween comes in.

With over 100 movie recommendations, Pumpkin Cinema promises “to make your Halloween fun and frightening,” by ensuring that you won’t waste any of your precious Halloween time on crappy movies. Author Nathaniel Tolle does so by setting down some basic guidelines: the films included are fast paced, they either take place on Halloween or during the fall season, they’re under two hours long, and they aren’t mean-spirited and cruel. So something like Martyrs is out of the question. I’ve always considered that one a Christmas film anyway.

Outside of an introduction, Pumpkin Cinema is broken down into 4 sections: Fun-Sized Films and Creepy, Crawly Compilations, which looks at a number of shorter Halloween offerings, including specials such as It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and Witch's Night Out as well as film compilations like Boogeymen: The Killer Compilation and Terror in the Aisles. Halloween on the Small Screen: The Best Television Episodes and Specials is focused on a variety of special Halloween episodes for television shows such as The Facts of Life, Martin and the master of Halloween herself, Roseanne. The Attack of the Top 5 Lists features a number of top 5 lists for anyone looking for something specific like Vincent Price movies, films featuring ghosts and other things of that nature.

The fourth and most important section of Pumpkin Cinema belongs to Feature-Length Flicks-a-Fright that Go Bump in the Night. Taking up a majority of the book’s 176 pages, this section features reviews for a variety of feature-length movies, covering everything from Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein and Ernest Scared Stupid to Black Sunday and Troll 2.

Throughout the book, it’s clear that Tolle has a true love and passion for his subject matter, and this comes through in his writing and painstaking dedication to putting it all together. The magic of Halloween courses through the book, as Tolle’s words convey the innocence and nostalgia that comes with the season for many of us who gleefully take in every ounce of Halloween horror possible. Pumpkin Cinema is, quite simply, the perfect guide for all of your Halloween horror needs, no matter how different they may be from one person to the next. Whether you’re a seasoned horror fan, a group of tween girls or even a family looking for a safe scare, Pumpkin Cinema truly has something for everyone to choose from.

100 Ghosts: A Gallery of Harmless Haunts

When it comes to horror, nothing is more iconic than a ghost. From Slimer and Samara to Beetlejuice and Sam Wheat, a ghost can come in all shapes and sizes, but if there is one depiction of a ghost that is most recognizable, it is that of the white bed sheet with two eye holes cut into it. This ghostly image has been around for so long that it’s difficult to pinpoint when it began being used to frighten people, and to this day it is still one of the most prevalent pop culture icons associated with horror and Halloween alike.

This classic ghostly figure is the basis for 100 Ghosts: A Gallery of Harmless Haunts, a humorous and often delightful look at the versatility of the bed sheet ghost. Written and illustrated by Doogie Horner, 100 Ghosts takes the traditional bed sheet ghost and places it in various comedic situations. These range from a ‘Jellyfish’ ghost, which comes complete with little ghost like tendrils, to a one-eyed ‘Cyclops’ ghost.

100 Ghosts: A Gallery of Harmless Haunts is the perfect coffee table book for the coming Halloween season and could just as well find a nice home at the bedside of a young child. It’s charm is in its creative simplicity, and the wit that Horner injects into each and every one of these 100 ghosts makes the book enjoyable to spend as little or as much time with as the reader would like.

Here are a few examples of what you’ll find in 100 Ghosts:

100 Ghosts: A Gallery of Harmless Haunts VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

If these images are your cup of bed sheet covered tea, then 100 Ghosts: A Gallery of Harmless Haunts goes on sale September 10 from Quirk Books publishing. Furthermore, you can pre-order it right now for a very reasonable price of $8.96 over at Amazon.

Paracinema ‘Kills’ it with Issue 19!

The latest issue of Paracinema Magazine is out and ready for you to jump head first into what promises to be the greatest issue of all time! And why, pray tell, might this issue be so off the chain?! Well, as the fantastic Garry Brown cover illustration shows, issue 19 features some serious love for one of my favorite film/films, Kill Bill. In fact, the issue features not one but TWO articles about Quentin Tarantino’s martial arts revenge epic, one of which comes from a very good friend of CNAMB, Zach from The Lightning Bug’s Lair, with the other Kill Bill piece coming from the one and only me.

Here’s a peekaboo of our epic Kill Bill coverage:

It’s Complicated: An In Depth Look at the Evolution of Bill and The Bride’s Turbulent Relationship in Kill Bill
by Matthew House

The Devil’s in The DeVAS: The Many Foes of Beatrix Kiddo
by Zachary Kelley

Soooooo what are you waiting for? Head over to Paracinema’s website and pick up a few copies for yourself… you deserve it!

Click Here!!

Of course, there are plenty of other goodies to be had, so if reading a couple of pieces about Kill Bill isn’t enough to sell you on picking up issue 19 (then how dare you), then check out all the other tasty little treats that are in store:

Phoebe Moves in Stereo: How Fast Times at Ridgemont High Gave Birth to a Classic Scene
by Mike McGranaghan

John Carpenter and the Apocalypse: A Study of Three Films
by Justin LaLiberty

Lost Video Archive: Skatetown USA
by Seth Goodkind

Aural Enigmas: Sound Design in Ti West’s The Innkeepers
by Todd Garbarini

Japan’s Direct to Video Explosion
by Josh Johnson

Firing Broadsides: Creating a Horror Canon
by C. Rachel Katz

Corpse Fucking Art: A Guide to Necrophilia in Horror Cinema
by Samm Deighan

“I’m sorry if the end of the world makes me a little nervous.” An Interview with Kelli Maroney
by Chris Hallock

What’s In A Name? The Rise and Decline of Hollywood Fall Guy Alan Smithee
by James Gracey

Last Words: Burn the Innocents with the Aggressors
by S. Patrick Gallagher

The Skill of Gymnastics. the Kill of Paracinema!

With October being just around the corner, I've been keeping myself quite busy gearing up for the Fourth Annual Chucktober Festival of Lights, but I've also been keeping my pretty little behind busy doing up a handful of guest posts for other blogs, one of which I'm going to talk about right now! As you can see from the banner above, Back Online. Back On Duty is celebrating one of my favorite genres of cinema with Yeah! Guns 'n Shit! 80s Action Week, and the always chiseled and flexing Eric was sweet enough to ask me to participate. Naturally, I was ecstatic, so I grabbed my button fly jeans, a handful of baby oil and a pair of black snake skin boots and got to writing up a Gymnasty review of the greatest Karate meets Gymnastics movie ever made, EVER!, 1985's Gymkata! So, now I ask you to please, after you're done with this post, head on over to Back Online. Back On Duty to read my review of Gymkata. And while you're there, check out all the other sweat drippin' action goodies that Eric has in store!

While I have your adorable yet slightly melon shaped eyes adorned with the beauty of my words, I'd like to take a moment and step away from the pummel horse to pimp out the latest issue of the greatest genre cinema magazine ever put to magazine, Paracinema! Issue 17 of Paracinema Magazine is STACKED with some seriously awesome articles from people who are equally as awesome as the articles they have written. And, like Gallery Furniture, that's no bull.   

Check out some of what's in store!

“Endemic Madness”: Subversive 1930s Horror Cinema
by Jon Towlson

Of Bonsai and Balance: The Hero’s Journey in The Karate Kid
by Patrick Cooper

You Can Clean Up the Mess, But Don’t Touch My Coffin: The Legacy of Sergio Corbucci’s Django
by Ed Kurtz

Be Kind, No Need to Rewind: The Preservation, Demand and Ubiquity of Shot on VHS Cinema in an Increasingly Digital Landscape
by Justin LaLiberty

I Don’t Want to See What I Hear: Paranoia and Personality Eradication in The Conversation
by Todd Garbarini

Black Cats and Black Gloves: The Influence of the Gothic on Sergio Martino’s Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key
by James Gracey

What did I tell you? STACKED! The Conversation? The Karate Kid? Django? 30's Horror? VHS? Your Vice is a Locked Room?!

If you haven't been reading Paracinema Magazine, then issue 17 is about as good any to start with, and it's only $7!! Head over to Paracinema and pre-order issue 17 right now, unless you want to know how it feels to be sad, because without Paracinema, you are indeed a sad, sad person.

PRE-ORDER HERE!

Paracinema's Sweet 16!

Issue 16 of Paracinema Magazine has been unleashed onto the world, and from the looks of it, it appears as if they are taking no prisoners with an issue chockfull of awesome cinematic goodies for you to feast on!

Check out some of what's in store! 

"Images of Horror and Lust" in Ken Russell’s The Devils
by Samm Deighan

Flinging Lingerie at Police Cars with Lulu, Peaches and Darlene: The Fashionably
True Story of How Female Rebellion Launched the Assault of the Killer Bimbos
by Jonathan Plombon

Recovered Realities: Found Footage and Mockumentary Horror
by C. Rachel Katz

Rehabilitating Daddy, or How Disaster Movies say it’s OK to Trust Authority.
by Jon Towlson

The Films of René Laloux: Notes on the Golden Age of French Science Fiction
by Derek Godin

This Ain’t Hollywood XXX: The Cultural Significance of the Porn Parody
by Justin LaLiberty

Issue 16 also features articles from a few very good friends of CNAMB, including everyone's favorite "Bug," Zach, from The Lightning Bug's Lair as well as the one they call "Magic Man" aka James from Behind the Couch. Also, I think there might be a little something in there about a film called Tourist Trap from yours truly, but don't hold that against Paracinema!    

Issue 16 is days from being released into action, so be sure to head over and order yourself a copy right now! Yes, now!! http://paracinema.net/issue-16-june-2012/

Sympathy for Paracinema!

Good lord it's been forever since I last posted anything up in this piece, and for that, I apologize. Though, I suppose you'll get over it over time, because as we all know, time heals all wounds as well as all gaps between blog posts, too.

Anyway, I don't want to get into too much detail for my lapse in posting at this exact moment in time, because I am only really dropping in to do a little plugging. And no, I don't mean that in a sexual way. Yet. Instead, I am here to share with you the gift that is the latest issue of Paracinema Magazine!

Paracinema issue #15 has been dubbed The Revenge Issue, with fantastic articles such as:  

When Life Gives You Razor Blades: Bloody Vengeance in Hobo with a Shotgun
by Christine Makepeace (I know her!) 

Revenge is a Dish Best Served Raw and Wriggling: Park Chan-Wook’s Vengeance Trilogy
by Samm Deighan

Going Back Home: Post-Vietnam Masculinity in Rolling Thunder
by Adam Blomquist

Point Blank: Nobody Knows
by Melvin Cartagena

You Want It, You Got It: The Grim and Gritty Extremes of Punisher: War Zone
by Patrick Smith

Chainsawing Well is the Best Revenge: Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2‘s Texas Sized Vengeance
by Zachary Kelley (I know him, too!)

And there's plenty more where that came from, home boyeee!

And there you have it… it appears as if issue #15 of Paracinema promises to dish out the revenge as cold as can be, and with a line-up of articles covering the Vengeance Trilogy, Rolling Thunder and Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, well, consider me sold, brah.

You can grab a copy of Paracinema #15 on the Paracinema.net website (click here!) for a measly $7! That's a crazy good price for a magazine that has, like, hardly any ads and is filled with great content! Alternatively, you can pick up Paracinema Magazine at many a fine retailer. Not sure if there's one near you, well, here's a retailer list (click here!)! I got you covered, homie!

Shock Value: The (R)evolution of Horror

A major transitional period occurred within the horror genre during the 1970s. At the time horror was a genre considered no more than a joke, drive-in fodder for teens to make out to, critics to dismiss, and studios to scoff at. This was a time when thoughts of peace and love were slowly dwindling and being replaced by anger, unease and uncertainty due to the effects of the Vietnam War and a growingly unstable America. These feelings began to show up on screens thanks to a handful of directors that wanted to take the genre in a direction that horror directors before them hadn't, while scaring audiences in a way that they may not have been prepared for. Regardless, these unsuspecting audiences were instinctively hungry for such a change, and they embraced these films as clearly proven by the box-office receipts and cultural impact they had. 

New York Times critic Jason Zinoman's book, Shock Value (The Penguin Press), is based off the idea that - while the likes of directors such as Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and Francis Ford Coppola were making a huge splash at the box-office and on critics - there were a handful of upcoming directors that took the horror genre and pushed it to the next level. Auteurs from John Carpenter, Wes Craven, Roman Polanski, Brian De Palma, and many others started a wave of what Zinoman describes as New Horror. 

 

Zinoman intricately looks at how this New Horror replaced Old Horror and he does so by focusing on the directors and films directly responsible for such an impactful change in the genre. Shock Value is based on the shift that horror took from creature features and monster mash-ups - that people didn't take seriously anymore in a growingly jaded society – to tales of serial killers without a motive and unexplained occurrences that brought about an ambiguity as to the root of evil, which threw audiences into a frenzy and forever changed the landscape of the genre and how it was perceived. 

Zinoman ducks and dives into a flurry of narrative that nicely shifts from director to director, bouncing back and forth between each one, connecting them through their influences, their rebellious natures and how their upbringing and lives affected the movies they made, as well as the people around them. Where Shock Value is strongest is in the intriguing information covering the background of these directors and how their films came to be. I often found myself mesmerized by a slew of captivating facts and riveting stories involving directors and films that I love. The overprotective and religious upbringing of Wes Craven; William Castle being bounced from the directors chair in favor of a modern, respectable director in Roman Polanski (the passing of the torch from Old-to-New Horror, as Zinoman describes it); the rift between director John Carpenter and screenwriter Dan O'Bannon after they made Dark Star, and a slew of other vastly interesting stories and accounts that truly make Shock Value a worthy read.

The detail in which Zinoman goes and the way he weaves much of it together is quite impressive and one of the best aspects of Shock Value. With that said, there are portions of the book that are slightly tedious and overly analytical to the point where there are moments where my mind began to wander a tad. In addition, while Zinoman is clearly a respectable, true fan of the genre, I think that sometimes the horror of the past (pre-70s) is somewhat dismissed as mostly being made up of cheap, hokey B-Movies. But it is clear that he is showing a true affection for the films of the era covered in this book, the films that make up the golden age of modern horror. So it's possible that he is more or less just fully championing this era that he clearly loves, thus pumping it up slightly by taking the piss out of the cinema that came before it.

Where Shock Value focuses on the golden age of New Horror from the '70s, to me, it almost begs to ask the question of where the next wave of such influential horror is to come from. While I think Jason Zinoman is looking at things specifically from a theatrical standpoint - which is where all of the films he discuses made their incredible impact on culture, society, genre fans, and filmmakers for many years to follow - I think that holding ones breath waiting for such a cinematic trend to ever reoccur on such a level is not conducive to a long life. If you were to take this notion of New Horror and applied those attributes to our modern cinema, many of these films simply wouldn't make it to the big screen. Instead, they would be relegated to no more than a short theatrical release, festival runs and eventually land straight onto DVD where the New-New Horror now resides.

The next level is upon us; the new golden age comes from films that will make their impact on those that seek them out, just not on the ones that would go to the cinema to see any old thing. They have mostly been factored out of the equation, thus making it difficult to ever have the impact of a Texas Chainsaw Massacre again. Films like Let the Right One In, Martyrs, Audition, and any number of challenging films that come along now would simply get lost in the shuffle, if they were to even have the chance to ever see the light of theatrical day, that is (though there are a few that do break through, thankfully). Hollywood takes very little in terms of risks, this we all know, so I cannot imagine that we will ever be so lucky to have an era cinematically as great as the '70s, but at least we can enjoy them in the next best way: in our living rooms with a bowl of reasonably priced popcorn and 40oz of Old English.  

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You can nab yourself a copy of this here fine book over at Amazon for a very reasonable price, and if you want to read more about Shock Value as well as the author, Jason Zinoman, you can stop by the TLC Book Tour page.    

Paracinema's Dream Home

What I have here is a double dose of Paracinema love to spread all over you funk soul brothers and sisters on this here sultry supersonic evening. First up is a review I wrote for Dream Home, a Hong Kong Slasher film about a woman who decides the best way to lower the market value of her dream home is to takeout a few of the surrounding residents. And when I say takeout I don't mean take them out for a nice surf 'n turf dinner followed by an ice-cream cone with rainbow sprinkles at the dairy queen, I mean takeout as in kill their asses.

Head over to Paracinema to scope out my review, and not to totally spoil my thoughts about the film or anything, but I totally fucking loved it, and if you wanna know why I loved it, you then will be forced to read my review. Capiche?     

CLICK DA LINK!

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Meanwhile…

In other Paracinema news, Paracinema Magazine Issue #12 has just recently been made available for pre-order, and as always, this newest issue of America's premiere genre magazine is ready to sock you in the cock (or vagina) with a slew of awesome articles covering all the genres that you, and I, care about most!

Take a look fer yerself…

The Man From Australia: Falling Without a Parachute Through the Films of Ozploitation Filmmaker, Brian Trenchard-Smith
by Justin Bozung

Howling All the Way Straight to Video
by Brett Taylor

The Good, The Bad and The Fulci:
Tales of Redemption and Revenge from Four of the Apocalypse
by Christian Sellers

No Future for You: Punk Aesthetics and British Identity in Derek Jarman’s Jubilee
by Andreas Stoehr

Explorers: Exploring Childhood Escapism
by Matthew House aka me

Kiyoshi Kurosawa: Reflections on Revenge
by Joshua Samford

Now, how's that for a line-up?! And don't get it twisted, there's so much more, including a free bowl of soup, a coupon for a FULL-body massage by team Paracinema (and boy do they have strong hands!) as well as a bunch of kickass articles written by peeps that kickass!

Click Here to Pre-order…it's only $7 for crying out loud!!

Dumpster Diving For Gold: Only to Find Yourself

About midway through the summer, my road warrior partner and I made our way to what must be the grandest of antique/flea markets either of us had ever been in. I'm talking at least two and a half hours were spent just quickly gazing over everything, taking in the massive amount of dusty history and thinking just how cool - and way overpriced - some of this stuff was. While the innards of this Mecca were impressive, there was a sadness that filled the air as there was almost nothing worth talking about as far as movie paraphernalia goes. This is the type of place I expected to find some serious random memorabilia, yet, nearly a thing was worth more than an inquisitive and respectful glance.

As I made my way through the monstrous maze, I stumbled upon a massive collection of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction magazines - like three full boxes of them - and within one of these barely stable boxes, I hoped to find one special issue in particular. There was a good 40 minutes of time that I spent flipping through every allergy inducing book before I realized my luck was running on empty and sadness began to settle in. I didn't find that one issue I was searching for, and I then began to walk around in a catatonic state of disappointment with a lurking sinus infection due to the lack of Swiffer use. And then, from afar, I saw a wall filled with numerous books, and hope suddenly came rushing back to my being. As you can see, this is quite the collection of literature, plus, this was only one of two sides that had called for me to scrounge through.

While this collection of books was massive, it didn't take long to find a few random pockets of Isaac Asimov Magazines and the search would be back on with a fury. With a new sense of hope and a sparkle in my eye that glistened as I flipped through each issue, I finally found this…

See that dude on the left? Look familiar? Well, he shouldn't, because I look pretty different since I posed for this cover when I was 13-years-old, but that is in fact me, the kid with the tight pant roll unlike any you have ever seen before. I know, it's pretty sexy how I'm just chillin' in the cut like it's no one's business - in a pose that begs to be imitated - but please, compose yourself for a moment - lets not get off track here. This fine piece of ass, I mean art, was done up by an artist named A.C. Farley, and I already went over that connection in the second paragraph of this post from the past, so no need to go over details again as it's less about the history, and more about actually finding this thing. 

Seriously, it is one of the coolest things ever to be in some random antique store in Indiana, only to find a magazine that has me on the cover!  Like, that magazine has been there for who knows how long, in a state far from where I am from, and I found it! So, while I did not find some awesome old movie poster, or cool toy, or what have you, I did find something that would have more sentimental value than I would have ever expected to have randomly run into. 

Ten Times the Awesome!

The newest issue of Paracinema Magazine has been unleashed on the ever waiting earth, and it just so happens to be somewhat of a milestone as it is the tenth issue! Quite the accomplishment for a DIY film magazine that focuses on thoughtful articles about genre cinema, as opposed to the usual poopie-caca-doodoo that can be found in most every other magazine on the market. As always, I urge you, the dear readers of CNAMB, to pre-order the September issue so you can see what you are missing out on. PLUS! There may or may not be a little something that yours truly may or may not have had a small hand in included in the issue. What could it be? It's a secret, and the only way you will ever find out is to pick up the issue for yourself!

Now, besides the little influence I may or may not have had, there are plenty of other fantastic articles the promise to make straight love to your brain, while massaging your heart. Those would include: 

Melodrama in Fast Motion: Beyond the Valley of the Dolls As Not Just Strange but Scathing

by Adam Blomquist

Pink Socks and Monsters: Excess in Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession

by Todd Garbarini

Film Fanatical: A Conversation with Author Danny Peary

by Brian Saur

Robert Downey, The Fool Prince

by Brett Taylor

The Voice from Below

By Mike White

Send In the Clowns, If Your Conscience Can Handle It: The Complications of Watching Clownhouse

by Emily Intravia

To pre-order Paracinema Issue 10, click the link for crying out load! While you're there, make sure to check out all of the awesome back issues that are available, many of which are as low as FIVE DOLLARS!!! That's cheaper than a handjob from a crackhead. Not that I would know. 

New Paracinema and Argento Book Update!

Another shitty weekend for movies on TV, so I am forced to skip yet another Horror Hangover...I really hope this doesn't have to happen again for a while. However, now would be a great time to share with you some updates and if you don't wanna hear about them, I will have to force them upon you and in that case, would it be considered update rape?

Our good friend James Gracey's book, Dario Argento has been given what would seem to be a definitive release date of March 25th 2010. James is a great friend of CNAMB and an even greater writer who's knowledge of the Italian maestro's work is more than vast. Here is a link to the previous post I did that will give you links to all the places you can pre-order the book. Also, there is now a facebook fan page for Dario Argento that you can become a fan of, so head over there and show some love and support for one of our own!

In related reading news, the December issue of Paracinema Magazine is available for magical Internet order and purchase at select retailers. Issue 8 has some great articles as always, with a few done by some familiar friends of CNAMB! Here is a list of some of the features to be found in the newest issue:

* War May Be Hell, But a Sequel Is Purgatory: Thematic Combat With Battle Royale II: Requiem by one of my favorite people, Emily Intravia!

* Love, Loss, and Astounding Growth in The Incredible Shrinking Man and Attack of the Fifty-Foot Woman by Jessie Robie

* "Oh Hi, Movie!" The Unironic Aesthetics of "So Bad It’s Good" In Tommy Wiseau's The Room by John Semley

* The Story Behind Jim Wynorski's Munchie Strikes Back OR Paracinema's Parents' Manual for Little Billy's Question: "Why is the TV puppet telling me to vote Democrat?" by Jonathan Plombon

* The Serial Killer's Mind: Comparing and Contrasting the Male Psyches in Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer by Brantley Palmer

* Loss and Hope – The Past and the Future in The Road Warrior by Todd Garbarini

* A Room of One's Own: An Account of A Failed Interview (With Tommy Wiseau) by Miles Lemaire

And there's plenty more great movie analysis waiting for you in this amazing new issue!

So there you go, some great shit for your cinema loving mind to ingest and I hope as many of you as possible can show some support for these great projects and companies. In the end, you are showing support for people like you and I, passionate fans of Cult and Horror cinema that have something to say about it. Support them as you would support any independent film project that is driven by love and passion for the things we all have shown passion and love for...movies and two ply toilet paper of course.

Tales of Rocky Point Park

I just so happened to watch 1981's The Funhouse within the same two days I decide to read the first two issues of Tales of Rocky Point Park. As I was in the midst of this, I realized that both the carnival location of the film and the amusement park setting of the comic were very similar to one another, so I thought why not review both the comic and the movie! So, in a joint effort with that awesome blog, Paracinema...The Blog, I will do my review of Tales of Rocky Point Park here, while The Funhouse will be posted over at Paracinema.

Illustrated and written by Jason Mayoh, Tales of Rocky Point Park is a three part independent comic book that mixes rumors and urban legends with facts about the now long gone Rocky Point Amusement Park in Rhode Island. I only have the first two issues, so I cannot speak for the entire Rocky Point saga, but each of these issues are independent from each other for the most part and each issue focuses on a different aspect of the legendary amusement park.

Rocky Point opened its gates way back in 1847 and officially closed in 1996. It sat there after closing, rusting and rotting away till 2007 when the park was finally demolished, leaving behind quite the legacy for the many people that enjoyed the park throughout its long history. It was the most popular attraction in Road Island and one of the biggest and most beloved in all of New England. Being open as long as it was, Rocky Point built up many memories - and sitting for as long as it sat, abandoned and rusting away, those stories were to be passed on from generation to generation...stories that over time, evolved into legends.

That is the focus of Tales of Rocky Point Park, Mayoh takes the facts about the parks history, most of which are fascinating, and mixes them with the urban legends that have developed over the years. In the first issue, the main focus is The House of Horrors and the many sordid tales that the parks very popular haunted attraction brought. It also introduces The Viking - a figure that was an abused fixture of the haunted house that is turned into a sort of protector of the grounds in this morbid tale. In the second issue, Mayoh concentrates on the Skyliner, a sort of ski lift that carried passengers from one end of the park, to the other. With a great view of the entire park, people loved the Skyliner, but for some, the Skyliner was a trip to their doom as there were a few accidents, some of them even fatal.

Heavily inspired by E.C. comics, these Tales of Rocky Point Park are a lot of fun, while being more than just a bunch of made up stories. There are a ton of great anecdotes to be told about the park and to have those stories mixed with the urban legends that generated from the location is a recipe for informative success. Each issue includes about two pages of memories and recollections from a slew of people, from ex-employees to city council officials. The black and white artwork is solid and Mayoh uses a very classic comic book style that works well in this genre of storytelling.

I had picked these issues up a long time ago now and I'm happy that I finally got to reading them...I am very interested in learning more about the park itself and incidentally there is a 2007 documentary about Rocky Point titled You Must Be This Tall. I have known about it for some time and I have always wanted to check it out, but even more now I would like to see it after reading Tales of Rocky Point Park. I am not sure if the doc gets into any of the "stranger occurrences" of Rocky Point, but there is a lot of history to be learned about this one time place of joy and happiness that filled so many with an unlimited amount of nostalgia.

You can pick up Tales of Rocky Point Park from the official website here - you can buy each of the three issues separately, or in a collected graphic novel style book that contains all three stories. If anyone out there in Baby Eating land has ever seen the documentary, I would love to hear a little about it. Now in the spirit of haunted amusement parks, I would like to invite you to head over to Paracinema and check out my review of The Funhouse! The Funhouse and the Rocky Point comics went so well together and the accidental pairing gave me an excuse to do a comic review, which most of you may know, I have never done before, so I hope it was aight!



Enjoy the review!

Dario Argento By James Gracey!

James Gracey is a good friend to Chuck Norris Ate My Baby, and someone I am originally aware of from his contributions to Paracinema Magazine. He also has a great blog titled, Behind the Couch that I have been enjoying for quite some time now where he covers a slew of horror films, all set to a wine of the month that he has so graciously selected to pair up with the films he is covering. He is an amazing writer that has a book on his bread and butter subject, Dario Argento, coming out from Kamera Books on October 22nd, which is only a few days away!

Dario Argento - will cover the whole spectrum of the Italian auters work with a comprehensive and up to date look at his films, along with an accessible introduction to a general readership of Argento's work - that will also appeal to the hardcore fans. Included will be the recent conclusion to his revered Three Mothers Trilogy and talk of the proposed remake of Suspiria that has sparked an interest in Argento's work again, with many critics revaluating his films and his influence on horror cinema. James knows his Argento, and this is a must have if you are a fan of his films in any capacity.

You can find more info on Dario Argento at the Kamera Books website and it is available for pre-order from Amazon for $24.95! If you aren't in the U.S., you can also pick it up through Amazon U.K. and The London Bookshop. Both are selling it for $12 something…they have some weird squiggly line that I have no clue what it means. I'll take a guess and say it's $24.95! Friend of the Norris or not, I wouldn't pimp this one out if I didn't know how great of a writer James is, so this will certainly be money well worth spent!

Reading Rainbow of Blood!

Take a look; it's in a book, Reading Rainbow! Wait a second here...what the hell is a book?! Okay, I'm just messing around when I say that, but I do say it because the physical written word has become almost extinct and taken over by things like movies, video games, pod casts, Internet porn, shit like that...and no, reading on your computer doesn't count! Same deal goes for magazines, newspapers, etc...stuff like that has been murdered by the ease of access to specific content - thanks to the machine that sits right in front of you - glowing with the warmth of knowledge and information all right there with the movement of a mouse and a left click.

I am not one to throw stones at all...that is not my purpose here. I still buy magazines, but I often find that I barely read them cover to cover, like I did even a few years ago (save for Paracinema!). I have a read a few books over the past two or three years - I would say probably about five maybe? That is not very many at all, and I hate the fact that I do not read at least one book every month or two...shit is fundamental, right? I just get wrapped up in reading a disgusting amount of movie news that is to be found on the Internet, listening to pod casts, watching movies, making baby batter, reading and writing blogs. I just do not have the time. But that is a bullshit excuse, I should make the time, because nothing is more rewarding than reading a good book, a good horror book to be exact.

I am a very nostalgic person, and I think of my youth very fondly, and a big part of my childhood that I loved most was reading a great horror novel, or short story, and letting my imagination carry me to spooky land! The Muppet Babies had their finger on their pulse of what is fun, imagination, and nothing inspires imagination quite like books. They truly do make your dreams come true.

Why the crap am I all about books right now you ask? Well, even if you didn't, I'm gonna tell ya anyways! B-Sol over at The Vault of Horror invited a group of black belt worthy bloggers to put together their top 10 list of favorite horror literature (Just in time for Chucktober!). When this was posed to me, I thought about how I have not read enough books in so many years and that my list would be a little difficult to put together. It wasn't too bad when I sat down, thought about it, and looked through my book collection, but outside of Zombie Survival Guide, I haven't read any of these books in over ten years - at least! Moreover, these are books that made my list too! I have seen all of the movies that make my top ten favorite horror films list probably once a year! That is sad to me, slightly embarrassing to be honest, and hopefully this little experiment in ultimate horror literature results in me doing a little more reading now.

The stipulations were really just that the choices had to be horror. Books, short stories, and poetry were allowed equally, and I'm fine with that. I am not a big poetry guy though, so none of that on my list...this is Chuck Norris Ate My Baby, not Jessica Tandy Ate My Rose Petals! Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

Below is my list, I really don't have full rhyme or reason to the order outside of the first five or so, but as I always do, I tried to keep it somewhat varied, while putting books that I love, or loved growing up. I also added a few honorable mentions that I didn't even send to Mr. Sol, but put them on here because they are all *this* close to making the list, but ultimately, had to be axed.

1. Bram Stoker: Dracula
2. H.P. Lovecraft: At the Mountains of Madness
3. Clive Barker: Books of Blood: Volumes One through Three
4. Mary Shelley: Frankenstein
5. Richard Matheson: I Am Legend
6. Stephen King: Pet Sematary
7. H.P. Lovecraft: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
8. Whitely Strieber: Communion
9. Clive Barker: Cabal
10. Max Brooks: Zombie Survival Guide

Honorable mentions...　
Robert Bloch: Psycho
Stephen King: Salem's Lot & Cycle of the Werewolf!
Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451 (Easily would have made it, but more Sci-Fi than horror)

Six of my picks made the list, not that it's a surprise, and I am happy to see my number one pick, Dracula made its deserving position in this ultimate list too. Maybe I should read that again in honor of this revelation that I hope I am able to maintain. Now to see the results of my list and another 20 or so horror bloggers, check out "The Greatest Fright Fiction of All Time! The Cyber-Horror Elite Takes on Literature!" over at The Vault of Horror. Please comment, as comments are always welcome, I'm sure there will be some interesting dialogue about the ultimate list that was put together, but I can back it as being a proper one in my non-reading ass opinion. Any comments on my personal list, I would love to hear them, and I would love to read a book with you sometime...maybe swinging in a hammock 69 style while listening to California Dreamin'...maybe?