Office of the Dead!

Last weekend I visited Beyond the Grave Productions and was able to check out almost their entire line of products in person. If you've seen these amazing life size monsters on their website I can honestly say that the photos don't do the product justice. I was really amazed by the amount of detail and time that goes into these pieces and the body forms that they're built on are the best I've ever seen. The coolest part is they completely break down into smaller chunks to make it easy to transport them or put them away for the season.

I picked up my very own "Unearthed" zombie for display in my office which you see to the left. I also took a full length photo of it under studio conditions so you can better see the detail. I really love this prop and it looks great in my office. The joints in the arms move allowing me to pose the character in a wide variety of ways. I can move the arms up at the should and at the elbow as well. I hooked up a few mini spotlights to give it the full effect and it looks very creepy standing silently in the corner of my office! I'll be scaring the neighbors with this thing come next Halloween:)

I'll be redesigning almost all of Beyond the Grave's Marketing and website in the next 2-3 weeks. Its going to be a great step up for this company that will be making a big splash at Transworld this year. Just stay tuned for more very soon!

Check out Beyond the Grave Productions to see their current product line-up

Review of Dark Floors Movie

Rock bands and movies don't have a very good track record, Just think back to the KISS movie from the late 70's. But The Finnish Rock band Lordi are a little different. The band members all dress as monsters and have pretty elaborate stage shows.

Director Pete Riski and Mr. Lordi himself came up with a story involving an autistic girl whose father, concerned for her health after a cat scan incident, wants to remove her from the hospital. However the 2 along with the security guard, a vagrant, doctor, and the obligatory whiny business man, all get stuck in the elevator. When the doors open they find themselves in an abandoned hospital. What follows is your typical by the numbers horror flick with each member of the group being picked off one by one as they traverse the floors in an attempt to exit the hospital.

Each floor of the hospital features a member of Lordi as the tormentor. Luckily none of them actually speak, they just scream and attack the group. The story does some cool things with time in the film and the director does a decent job of making things creepy. However the acting is pretty horrendous. The film is shot in English for some reason and whether the actors are unaccustomed to English or are just terrible is hard to know. It doesn't help that these are character you've seen in countless other horror films. The security guard that tries to rationalize the situation and be the hero. The caring father who only wants to get his kid out of the hospital. The concerned and hot female doctor, and of course the arrogant businessman who is only concerned with his own safety. You don't really care about any of them since they're all 2 dimensional empty characters.

Despite that the film does have atmosphere and decent visuals. The Lordi characters are pretty scary in their own right and do a pretty good job here of playing the stalkers. However the movie completly cops out with a really lame ending that explains nothing and pretty much feels like it was another of those "how do we end this thing" moments where the easist way out was chosen.

I suppose if your a fan of Lordi or cheesy by the numbers horror films then this is up your alley but you'll find nothing deeper than an average haunted house movie here.

3.5 out of 10

Dance of the Dead

If you like those somewhat cheesy 80's horror movies like the Return of the Living Dead series then you might want to check out "Dance of the Dead". What a fun little throwback to those 80's horror flicks with modern day blood and gore. The basic premise is that the local nuclear power plant is contaminating the cemetary and causing the dead to return to life on the night of the senior prom. A group of Sci-fi nerds end up being the only ones who can take care of the problem with the help of an gun crazy football coach. Its funny, well written and bloody as hell! Go check out Dance of the Dead!

The Simpsons Teehouse of Horror

I've been spending some time the last couple weeks trying to get caught up on TV I missed while I was in Arizona and yesterday I got to watch this years Simpsons Halloween episode which starts out well with an election parody but then falls apart and becomes the worst Halloween episode ever. There's only one segment in the show that really deals with Halloween while the other 2 parody a basic cable TV series and a Christmas segment parody of Transformers. I mean really, who's brilliant idea was it to have a Christmas story in the Halloween episode?

The Simpsons has long ago passed its prime and its simply sunk into the rut of making parodies of much better earlier episodes from 15 years ago. Remember when the Halloween episodes parodied horror and sci fi movies? The show has really lost its heart and ability to tell coherent well written stories. Here's to hoping that someday it might find its way back and stop trying to be "Family Guy".

Review of Jeff Martin and The Armada

I feel I have to preface this article by saying that Americans most likely will have no clue as to who the Tea Party was or who Jeff Martin is so this is written more for my Canadian friends. Also I am by no means a professional album reviewer, I'm just offering up my 2 cents so take it for what its worth.

I was a fan of the Tea Party the moment I heard one of their songs some 13 years ago. The band had their angst filled moments with Transmission and then blossomed into a journey of self discovery with TripTych and the Interzone Mantras. Their core however was always their eastern fueled sound. The final Tea Party Album, the Seven Circles, was a step away from that sound in favor of more radio friendly fare. The band broke up shortly after that album (not surprisingly to me at least) and front man Jeff Martin headed to Ireland to do his inevitable soul cleansing record called, Exile and the Kingdom. I enjoyed that album but found it to be a record with very little direction or purpose. Some of the songs sounded like rejected Tea Party tracks from the Edges of Twilight era while others felt perhaps under produced or even unfinished. It was a record of love and farewells to a different era and while it was a decent outing it was a small and quiet record.

Now Jeff Martin has formed a new band with drummer Wayne Sheehy called The Armada and I’m happy to say "that’s more like it". The record definitely revisits the eastern influences that infused the Tea Party and yet it progresses the sound and content to new territory. While the songs on Exile and the Kingdom were personal and mostly acoustic, here the songs touch on a variety of controversial subjects with solid production.

The album kicks off with "Going Down Blues" a blues-rock song that makes references to the story of Robert Johnson and his deal with the devil to be the best bluesman. "Chinese Whispers" infuses the Far East sounds of China which is something Martin has not visited in the past and the result works well even though it flirts with sounding like a parody.

"A line in the Sand" is the environmental track of the album alerting us to the dangers of ignoring the pain of Mother Nature in modern times. I heard this track in an acoustic form a while back and wasn’t that crazy about it but here in its final version it's a pretty strong song. "Morocco" is my favorite track on this album. The song is a scathing critique of the treatment of women in the Middle East and the barbaric concept of honor killings. It beautifully infuses the sounds of rock with Middle Eastern sounds and instruments like only Jeff Martin can do.

The reprise of "Black Snake Blues", a track that also appeared on Exile and the Kingdom, really seems unnecessary here. While it was one of the best songs on Exile it really doesn't fit all that well in this record. However it is an improved and better produced version of the song. The Final songs on the track really go back to the days of the scary Tea Party songs from the Transmission era and give the album a strong end.

While I doubt the Jeff Martin will ever shake away the memories of the Tea Party, not that he should, I think this album shows that he is far from becoming insignificant. The Armada is a strong record and one that will easily pull in fans of what made the Tea Party so great to begin with. Martin is playing things safer this time out by revisiting the elements that made his past so successful and there's nothing wrong with that at all. He’s managed to bring new life to his sound and produced a solid rock album.

Thanks to Victoria at CreepedOut.ca!

Today I received a really nice surprise in the mail! Victoria at Creepedout.ca was so happy with the work we did for her online store that she sent a gift package of holiday cookies and treats to my office. The image to the left is a snapshot of the package. The contents are very yummy I must say and my wife and I are enjoying them very much! Big thanks to Victoria and CreepedOut.ca for the lovely gift!

Back home

After 2 very long months experiencing the haunted house business hands on I am glad to be back home here in Ohio and enjoying the fall weather. I learned a lot the last 2 months about the haunt business and I hope to be able to apply that to my own work and clients in the next year. I don't expect I'll be jumping into managing a haunt again next year but it was definitely a learning experience.

While I really disliked Arizona I did meet some great people and had a pretty good team working for me while I was out there. Now its time to get back to my regular life and get Rogues Hollow Ready for 2009!