Another year’s in the books, one spent on the permanent and exhausting search through the horror movie scrap heap looking for the elusive hidden treasures. Unfortunately, this past year was a weak one. There wasn’t a whole lot to get excited about. Despite all the bad flicks, a few managed to rise above the fray, giving me hope for 2011.

As is usually the case, there were several remakes to take with a grain of salt. Some of them furthered the atrophying of the horror genre as it relates to studio backed filmmaking, others were much more horrible than horrifying, and all of them were unnecessary.

It may be freezing outside, but it’s hot here at FlamesRising.com. We’ve donned our firefighting gear and have braved the fiery internet to rescue some hot horror news. From winning free stuff to horror flicks, check out this week’s hot links and a smattering of new releases. This week, we’ve got news about John Kovalic, Clive Barker, Charlaine Harris, Harry Potter, Bruce Campbell, John Cusack, DeadSpace 2 and a whole lot more.

We have a new essay for Zombie Week here at Flames Rising. Reviewer Jason Thorson tells us a little bit about indie films and the zombie/survival horror genre.

Horror and low budget filmmaking have always had a symbiotic relationship. But when it comes to really low budget filmmaking, the type that employs guerrilla tactics, stars your friends and acquaintances, and is shot in your mom’s backyard, well that’s zombie territory. Micro budgeted indie horror and the walking dead go together like guitar lessons and Smoke on the Water – the ends require modest means.

The reasons for this cozy relationship of convenience are pretty obvious, mostly involving the “bang for your buck” ratio. With no resources, including money, equipment, and experience, what would the scope of your story be if you decided to shoot a western, for example? What would your costumes look like? Locations? Guns? Horses?

So, just when you thought there wasn’t any room left in hell for yet another “definitive” book on the greatest zombie movie of all time, Citadel Press puts out their 200 plus page achievement called Night of the Living Dead: Behind the Scenes of the Most Terrifying Zombie Movie Ever.

Yes, that’s the whole title.

Anyway – written by Joe Kane billed on the cover as “the Phantom of the Movies,” which I believe hearkens back to his (Kane’s) movie reviewing days with the New York Daily News, the book stands now as possibly the definitive book on the original movie. I found it at a big box book retailer about two days ago and after quickly leafing through it was compelled to purchase it.

Can’t wait for Halloween? Love scary movies as much as I do? Here’s a way to watch horror movies for free!

Get a head start on celebrating all things spooky by checking out the broad selection of free horror movies for Halloween at Crackle.com. Every year this legal, free movie site hand-picks a special Halloween collection of horror flicks for you to enjoy.

In addition to their broad selection of free horror films, this year Crackle.com’s Halloween movie collection includes over twenty-five movies.

Last week, I talked about why 13 GHOSTS is a classic horror film. For this week’s article, I decided to talk about a different kind of monster — THE BLOB.

“Released in 1988, The Blob remake is the kind of horror movie that makes you groan, laugh and scream. Creepy violins and cheerful images of a small town set the mood. The first people you meet? Teenagers!”

While every day is Halloween for me, this time of year brings out the best in a lot of free television and movie websites like Crackle.com.

During the month of October, I’m writing about horror movies for Crackle.com from a fan’s perspective. This week, I take a look at the classic horror film 13 Ghosts, which was produced by William Castle.

Eyes Beyond is an independent short film starring, written and directed by Canadian filmmaker, Daniel Reininghaus. Many movies that share its level of independence have glaring problems; however, Eyes Beyond emerges as a surprisingly superior romp through depravity.

The film’s premise, without giving too much away, is as follows: Brothers, Adam (Evan Eisnstadt) and Gabriel Morales (Daniel Reininghaus) invite their neighbors over for dinner. As members of the Rogers family, Henry (Robert Nolan), Abigaile (Danielle Barker), and Vivian (Kelly-Marie Murtha), make themselves comfortable and conversation ensues, things quickly spin out of control – way out of control. But things are rarely as they seem.

Eyes Beyond does a lot of things very well. First and foremost, it looks and sounds fantastic. The film’s technical attributes are very polished. Cinematographer, Michael Jari Davidson capably captures dynamic shots – warm and primary colors against white backgrounds, lush green-lined yards with depth, dim natural light, bright artificial light, etc – with the same consistency and quality one expects in projects boasting much higher budgets.

Next up for Cthulhu Week we asked reviewer Jason Thorson to tell us about his favorite Lovecraft-inspired movies. Not an easy task to say the least, but we were certainly willing to risk his sanity for this investigation.

Read on to learn of the challenges he faced…

In the interest of full disclosure, I have to give you some background on what you’re currently reading – what’s now become a ranting blog on H.P. Lovecraft film adaptations. My initial intention was to write a feature about the nature of Lovecraftian flicks and then list the five best examples. However, I immediately anticipated some difficulty. My original thesis was that most of these films don’t work, but surely there have been so many attempts to adapt Lovecraft’s work that I’d certainly be able to find five movies worthy of recommendation. Right?

Wrong.

A mad scientist is experimenting with viral Rage in the middle of the woods. One of the victims of this crazy doctor’s experiment goes mad, escapes and kills the Doctor himself before escaping into the woods, where he meets his death from the Virus. After eating the corpse of the infected victim, the Rage Virus spread to the wild vultures. This causes a lot of horrific problems for visitors and campers to the woods. The birds attack several hikers in the area, spreading and mutating the virus into the plant-life as well. The Vultures infect victims by spraying this yellow slime into their faces. After a group of concert goers get tangled up in this mess when their RV is pretty much decimated by a Raging Zombie and air bombed by Raging Vultures.

There have been several hundred vampire movies made over the last 90 years. The vast majority of these are uninspired clones of the archetypal blood sucker portrayed by Bela Lugosi in 1931. However, there’s a small minority of vampire flicks that are ambitious in their recipes of blood-fiend lore. Some of these movies are great, others are merely good, but all of them are unique, entertaining, and deserving recognition based on their own merits.

Here are some recommendations:

To attain Scream Queen status, one must be beautiful. Of course, talent helps too. Now, combine those two attributes with brains and incredible tenacity and you have Brooke Lewis – one of horror film’s fastest rising starlets. I was fortunate enough to interview Brooke recently to discuss her recent successes including her dual Golden Cob nominations, her latest projects such as the sick new flick, Slime City Massacre, and some of the exciting new projects (some of which are actually old favorites – here’s lookin’ at you, Ms. Vampy!) that Brooke will tackle next. Please read on, fellow horror fans:

Twenty-six years ago horror fans were introduced to arguably the most complex and unique addition to the pantheon of slasher-era icons – Freddy Krueger. He was no stiff mute in a mask, maliciously misusing garden tools as a violent catharsis to purge his mommy-issues. No, Freddy had panache.

First and foremost, Freddy could talk – a simple differentiation that opened up vast new areas to cover that were not navigable to his peers. And Freddy inhabited dreams, another seemingly small difference that yielded an incredibly creative set of rules with which to play for Freddy and his victims alike. Most importantly, there’s the bladed glove – his handcrafted implement of death designed to both terrify and eviscerate sleepy Springwood teenagers. Anybody can pick up a machete or a large kitchen knife and perhaps clear some brush or prepare dinner, but Freddy’s glove had a singular horrible purpose and it, along with his dusty fedora and dirty red and green sweater, is now iconic on a global level.

Let me ask you a question or three; you ever watch a movie and think “Hey, isn’t this movie ripping off such and such movie?” You ever watch a film and ask yourself “Is this movie going anywhere?” And after watching a flick, do you walk away thinking “What was the freaking point of this movie?” Well my fellow legion of Da’ flames… I have the displeasure of telling you that I asked all three questions during the course of this picture, in some cases multiple times.

The poor excuse of a story goes something a little like this; god almighty above has washed his hands of the human race and he’s hiring a cleaning service to mop up the globe, namely his angels. His entire “legion” is gonna come down and lay a god sized smack down on all us mud monkeys. However, we’ve still got one angel on humanity’s shoulder that’s ready, willing and able to stand up for all of us schmucks.

Well, the Holidays are encroaching on us again. Every now and then that obese old prowler who breaks into your home in the middle of the night every December 24th actually manages to leave you with something worth your while.

However, there’s nothing wrong with forcing his jolly hand, so here you go: 5 horror movies that are both relatively new and good, two qualities that when combined are like gold! Here’s hoping you have a pitch black Friday….

Thankskilling can’t be dubbed “critic proof” because its success is yet to be determined. A more accurate term to describe Kevin Stewart and Jordan Downey’s movie about a murderous turkey would be “anti-critic.” This opinion is not lost on these two upstart filmmakers. In fact, the following is an excerpt from the home page of Thankskillingmovie.com:

“ThanksKilling promises nothing but a cheesy good time. It’s the perfect cult film to watch with drinks around Halloween or especially during Thanksgiving! Laugh at it because it’s funny. Laugh at it because it’s bad. It’s meant to be taken with a grain of salt.”

Folks, I’m pleased to announce that I have a guest post over at Crackle.com. Every month, Crackle.com offers free movies and webisodes for you to enjoy on the web. As part of their Halloween celebration, they’re offering a ton of free horror movies for fans to watch.

This year’s Madison Horror Film Fest at Market Square Cinema in Madison, WI didn’t go off without a hitch, but it was so much fun it didn’t matter. In only its second year, the festival featured high profile genre greats, up and comers, a variety of horror flicks, and enough vendors to lighten your wallet. The future looks bright for this upstart horror gathering produced by festival director Rich Peterson and Icon Entertainment. Things kicked off on Friday night, October 2^nd with the world premiere of the feature film Incest Death Squad followed by two full days of films and guests that covered Saturday and Sunday.

I took part in Saturday’s depravity and my day went as follows:

Entering the fest was hassle free. I walked in and immediately spotted a sign directing me to a booth where I could check my name off the media list and get my tickets. Honestly, the sign was unnecessary as several vendors’ booths were set up in a cluster and surrounded by people who were unmistakably there to revel in terror.

Calling all zombie lovers! Crackle.com is getting into the spirit of Halloween by offering free films, previews of ZOMBIELAND and an original comedy series entitled WOKE UP DEAD starring Jon Heder (NAPOLEON DYNAMITE).

The folks over at Crackle.com are really excited to show their love for the shambling, brain-eating undead. In the first half of October, they’ll be offering zombie films for fans to legally watch on the web for free.

This is an APB to horror movie buffs within range of Madison, WI. The Madison Horror Film Fest invades Market Square Cinema at 6604 Odana Rd in Madison WI this weekend and yours truly will be there.

The fest kicks off at noon on Saturday, Oct. 3^rd and goes through Sunday night. You can expect an onslaught of indie horror shorts, features, vendors and guests including Debbie Rochon, and Bill Rebane. Highlights will include a screening of Re-Animator followed by a Q&A with director Stuart Gordon and a “Women in Horror” presentation hosted by Elske McCain and Scarlet Salem. Check back next week for my full recap of Saturday’s events and if you see me at the fest feel free to say hi.

In the meantime, check out this short Q&A with Fest director Rich Peterson: