Saturday, October 20, 2012

Review - The Mammoth Book Slasher Movies


The Mammoth Book Slasher Movies 
An A-Z Guide to More than 60 Years of Blood and Guts
By Peter Normanton
Publisher: Running Press
ISBN: 978-0762445967
Pub. Date: October 23, 2012
Pages: 512
Buy Link: The Mammoth Book of Slasher Movies

For twenty-three years, I have been a diehard horror fan ever since my grandma let me watch the horror classic John Carpenter's Halloween. It was the censored version that aired on network television, but it was my first introduction to the horror genre. Of course I was excited when I learned that Running Press was releasing a new book about slasher films. Running Press nicely sent me an advanced review copy earlier this month in exchange for this review.

Author and Editor Peter Normanton compiled the best slasher movie from 1916 to 2011 into one nifty guide for horror fans, starting with 28 Days Later and ending with Zombie Flesh Eaters. You might be thinking “Why is there zombie movies listed in a slasher book?” as that was the exact question that popped into my mind when I began reading it. The tagline on the front cover does say "An A-Z Guide to More Than 60 Years of Blood and Guts," and the back cover does mention that book contains more than 250 slasher and splatter movies. So that explains the zombie flicks, such as Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Return of the Living Dead and a few others.

"Blood on the Walls" opens up the mammoth book and gives a history lesson on horror cinema throughout the years, followed by an A-Z listing of each movie containing a synopsis and several facts about the movie.

The movies listed are:

13 Days of Halloween: DVD Review - Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
Director: Dwight H. Little
Starring: Donald Pleasence, Ellie Cornell, Danielle Harris, Michael Pataki
Studio: Anchor Bay Entertainment
ASIN: B000FA57UI
Release Date: July 25, 2006
Running Time: 88 minutes
Rated R

I originally saw Halloween 4 when I rented it and the fifth movie a few weeks before The Curse of Michael Myers came out to VHS. I only had basic cable as a kid, and Halloween 4 & 5 never aired on any of the channels. The first thing I noticed was the horrible cheap looking mask. You would think Moustapha Akkad would want a decent looking mask, but I guess they ran out of money for it. All the VHS covers and DVD covers have Michael wearing the 1978 mask, so it can be a little misleading.

After the box-office bomb called Halloween III: Season of the Witch, the franchise took a six year break, coming back in 1988 with Michael Myers surviving the explosion at the end of Halloween II. For the past ten years, he has been in a coma at a sanitarium. Without Dr. Loomis's approval, Michael is being transferred to another hospital by an ambulance. He awakes from the coma and kills the paramedics.

Dr. Loomis arrives at the crime scene on Halloween morning. After a quick glance he knew that Michael is alive. On his way to Haddonfield, Illinois, he stops by a gas station/diner where he finds two corpses and Michael, now dressed  in a mechanic's clothes. Dr. Loomis pulls out his gun, but it is too late as Michael has escaped in a tow-truck, causing a fire that explodes Loomis's car and the gas station/diner.

Eight-year-old Jamie Lloyd is still grieving over the death of her parents, whom died in a car accident. She continues to live in Haddonfield with her foster family, the Carruthers. On Halloween night, Jamie's foster parents are spending the night out and Jamie's foster-sister Rachel is going to take her (dressed in a clown costume) trick-or-treating for the night, even though Rachel is going to miss her date with her boyfriend. The girls are unaware that they are being watched by the bogeyman!

Friday, October 19, 2012

13 Days of Halloween: Scholastic Q&A with author R.L. Stine



Q: 2012 marks the 20th anniversary of Goosebumps! Why do you think Goosebumps has endured for twenty years?
A: I am totally amazed by this. I feel so privileged to be able to scare so many generations of kids. I think the series continues because everyone likes a good scare.

Q: What inspired you to call the series Goosebumps?
A: I was stumped. I couldn’t think of a name for the series. Then I saw an ad for a TV station that was showing horror movies. The ad said, “It’s Goosebumps week on Channel 11.” There it was! I knew that had to be the title.

Q: You returned to Goosebumps in 2008 after an eight-year break. What inspired you to go back to Goosebumps?
A: My readers! Everywhere I went kids asked me: When are you going to write new Goosebumps books? I always listen to my readers. So now I'm having fun writing more books for Scholastic.

Q: What is the most surprising thing that has happened to you in the last twenty years as a result of the popularity of Goosebumps?
A: Everything that has happened to me has been amazing and surprising. I got the chance to do things that Idreamed of when I was a kid: I got to travel around the world; I had my own Goosebumps attraction at DisneyWorld; I’ve been on TV and had three TV series. I got to throw out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium (actually I let my son do that). I met some of my all-time heroes, including Ray Bradbury. But the biggest thrill was and continues to be meeting and hearing from so many kids who enjoy my books.

13 Days of Halloween: Review - Goosebumps Wanted: The Haunted Mask




Goosebumps Wanted: The Haunted Mask
By R. L. Stine
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
ISBN: 9780545417938
Pub. Date: July 1, 2012
Pages: 240

A few months ago R. L. Stine released a new book, Goosebumps Wanted: The Haunted Mask, in a rare hardback edition. The new sequel doesn't include the characters of Carly Beth and Sabrina, but focuses on two new kids, Lu-Ann Franklin and Devin O'Bannon.

The books begins at William's Mask Emporium, in which the owner and his dog, Hansel, get a late night visitor - his brother, Randolph, who happens to brought along a few creepy masks that were made from human flesh. William recognizes that the masks are nothing but pure evil. He plans on destroying the masks, but the masks may get him first.

The plot jumps forty years into the future, where twelve-year-old Lu-Ann and her friend Devin are dreading the upcoming annual Halloween party that is being hosted by their classmate Polly Martin. Every year the party gets more boring and if Lu-Ann has to attend, she is going to make it a frightening evening by pulling some pranks with her best-friend Devin. Her plan changes when she learns that Devin can't come to the party. She attends the party anyway and talks two other friends, Marcus and Brad, into following her to Polly's Attic while the other kids played a silly balloon game. They hear an unknown voice coming from a closet - a half skeleton, half human corpse holding the green haunted mask falls out of the closet when Lu-Ann yanked it open. It was the ugliest mask that Lu-Ann had ever seen and it would make the perfect prank, but once she slips the mask on, the mask becomes part of her flesh.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

The Friday 56 - The Memory Jar



Rules:
Grab a book, any book. 
Turn to page 56. 
Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it) that grabs you. 
Post it. 
Add your (url) post below in the Linky at http://fredasvoice.blogspot.com/.

My Usual Genre Reads & Why Did I Start Blogging


Question of the week: When you step out of your USUAL genre what do you like to read? Best books in that genre?

My Answer: I don't have an usual genre that I read. I read kid books, YA books, Science-fiction, Mystery, Romance, Christian, Historical, Crime, and Non-Fiction. 

Raspberry Ketone 1234 Giveaway


Read my review here!

Giveaway Details

*Prize - Raspberry Ketone 1234 

*Sponsored by Creative Bioscience

*Must be at least 18 to enter.

*Only residents of the U.S. are eligible to win. 

*No P.O. Boxes, please

 *Ends Nov. 6th