Cool Collectible Alert: Hot Wheels 2013 Universal Monster Series

I want to thank my hearse driving homie Kevin for alerting me to the existence of what might be the coolest mainstream toy release of the year.  When you were a kid, you were all about Hot Wheels, weren't you?  Yeah, so was I.  Well, it's time to rekindle your love of die-cast cars because it just ran head on into your love of monsters.  Fearnet reported back in April that Hot Wheels was releasing a line of Universal Monster themed vehicles.  Now they've hit ebay and are starting to trickle into toy stores.  Most of the reported sightings are on the west coast at the moment, but word is that they will start appearing across the country in the next few weeks.  These are sure to get snapped up quick because, um... just look at them!  These are sweet.  Plus, the artwork on the packaging is cool as hell.  My favorite is definitely the Bride of Frankenstein 1959 Caddy Funny Car because, whether they wanna call it one or not, that's a freakin' hearse.  My favorite car and my favorite Universal horror flick together?  Count me in.  That Wolfman Van kicks ass too.  Yeah, it says it's a bus, but doesn't the phrase "Wolfman Van" have a great ring to it?  Whichever one is your favorite, you might want to start patrolling those toy aisles.  I mean, yeah you can get them easily on ebay.  Isn't the chase half of the fun though?  If you spot any of these, please either comment here or on the facebook page and let your fellow Cellmates know where they can be found.  Happy hunting!

Review: The Collective Vol. 6

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, then you know all about The Collective by now.  For you late comers, allow me to introduce you to horror cinema’s best kept secret and the most innovative concept in independent fright fare today.  The Collective is the brainchild of Jason Hoover of Jabb Pictures.  Take 10 indie horror filmmakers and give them a theme.  They each make a 10 minute short based on that theme.  Put them all together and voila; you get the indie horror sampler platter.  We’re five installments in, and all five have delivered.  In addition to being entertained by the collections themselves, they’ve served as an introduction to filmmakers whose other work I’ve enjoyed.  You can’t go wrong with these.  If you call yourself an independent horror fan and you haven’t been keeping up with The Collective, you’re doing it wrong.

Which brings us to the recently released Volume 6.  This time, it’s personal.  Yeah, I couldn’t help throwing that line in.  Whereas previous themes have involved things like each short being based on an emotion or having to use a cardboard box as the centerpiece, this time the horror comes from within.  Each filmmaker based their segment on what scares them the most.  What scares the people that scare us?  It’s a hell of a question, and it has the potential to produce some intense cinematic experiences.  It actually turned out to be one of the strongest, and definitely the darkest, of the Collective series.  Let’s break these down one by one…

1.Consequence Pictures – Speeches

We kick this collection off with the story of a man wrestling with guilt over the death of his girlfriend while being forced into his own personal hell of making speeches about drunk driving.  This one has some really cool eerie imagery and interesting editing.  One character’s creatively foul-mouthed verbiage adds a little levity to the proceedings; my favorite line being “You better put your big boy ballsack on this time.”  Great line.  I’m gonna start using that one.  I’ve said very often that it’s the little details that can ruin a good film or push it over the edge from good to great.  In this case, I was mightily impressed by one small detail; their blood.  I mean, that was great blood!  Good color, it flowed beautifully, the whole nine yards.  Good quality blood is, sadly, not something you see often in these DIY flicks.  I don’t know if they made it or bought it, but it was a thing of beauty.  The only thing I question is  watching the whole thing again in fast-forward again at the end.  I get what they were going for, but I don’t think it worked as well as they'd hoped.  Overall, a strong way to start.

2.Jarrett Furst – Edible Love

A woman’s horrific past leads her to drastic places in the quest to feel loved.  This one is pretty intense.  ***SPOILER ALERT*** It’s psychosexual take on cannibalism is actually believable, and it treats the theme seriously and thoughtfully.  I’m a sucker for a good thinking man’s cannibal flick.  ***END SPOILER ALERT*** The rape scene is perfect.  Yeah, I know, that sounds sick, but hear me out.  It’s one of the grittiest rape scenes I’ve ever seen, and it has the appropriate impact on the audience.  It feels dirty and degrading.  If you want your audience to actually be affected, that’s the way you do it.  The only problem is the audio.  The main actress spends a lot of time talking to the camera.  She’s giving a good performance and saying some pretty interesting stuff… I think.  She’s impossible to understand most of the time.  Her voice is way too low and garbled.  It’s a damn shame too, because what I could hear seemed well written.  It does get a little better as the film progresses, but this short is WAY too good to sound this damn bad.  Unfortunately, the audio problems kick Edible Love down from “That was amazing,” to “That was good, but…”

3.Mostly Harmless Pictures – Play Me

A woman receives a mysterious DVD shortly before being attacked.  This one straight up rocked.  Most of it is an extended kill scene, and you need a great victim to make that work.  Ellie Church is a great victim.  She pulls off “terrified eyes” well.  “Ironic pretty song over scenes of violence” is getting a little played out, but it works here.  There’s some inventive camera work. One little touch at the end (which I’m not gonna give away) literally had me applauding right there on the couch.  I’m not sure how to review this any further without spoiling everything, so I think I’m just gonna do my best Joe Bob Briggs impression and give you those drive-in totals…"One dead body. Two almost visible breasts. One tattoo I wanted a better look at.  Gun gagging.  Subliminal creepy dude.  Genital mutilation.  Pistol whipping.  Bondage fu.  Cheese grater fu.  Eyeballs roll.  Director Brian Williams gets the “Rob Zombie Award” for achievement in long, loving close-ups of his lead actress’ ass.  A 90 on the vomit meter. Four stars. Check it out."

4.Jerami Cruise – Insomniac

An insomniac roams the city at night, giving in to the urges that plague her sleep-deprived mind.  I could tell right away that this had to be made by someone who was intimately familiar with the subject matter, because this is as authentic as it gets.  As an insomniac who used to roam the streets of Atlanta in the wee hours, this short felt like a flashback.  Everything from the way the camera moves to the filters he used mimics the way you view the world on the 4^th or 5^th day without sleep.  Leah and I had different ideas about what the filmmaker’s driving fear was, and I like how that ambiguity allows for different levels of interpretation based on the viewer’s experience with the subject.  This one went deep in a lot of ways.  Toetag’s resident goremeister has crafted something special here.

5.Jabb Pictures – I Am No One

A filmmaker documents the life of a serial killer, but is he getting too close?  If you mixed the mechanics of Man Bites Dog with the atmosphere of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, the result would be I Am No One. I don’t know who the actor that plays Charles is (we’re never told since it’s documentary style), but damn he’s good in this. His monologues are well written, and his delivery is natural and sometimes rather chilling.  There’s a well-played tension to the final moments.  One of, if not the, high point of this volume.  Jason Hoover, the director, informed me that a feature length version of I Am No One is coming soon.  I, for one, can’t wait to see it.

6.Quattro Venti Scott – Security Violation

A man is killed by a masked duo.  This one is another extended death sequence.  The masks that the killers wear are phenomenal.  I want to know where I can get those.  Cameron Scott, the director, plays the victim and does a damn fine job.  Playing dead is one of those arts that most people don’t notice when it’s done well.  That’s how you know it’s being done well, and Cameron kills it.  His dead eyed look is dead on.  Ok, I’ll stop.  Anyway, the plastic over his face doesn’t even flutter.  Directing from onscreen is difficult, but when you have to do it as a corpse, it can be murder.  Kudos.  There are some satisfying gory touches.  I like a lot of the angles used, but a few of them showed a little too much air between the blows and the victim.  That wouldn’t have been a problem, however, had the male killer been more aggressive.  Those half swings just weren’t convincing me. Beat him like you mean it, dude!

7.Spiral Filmworks – Devotion

A sermon… and a sacrifice.  Two actors, a static camera, and the most screwed-up rendition of Amazing Grace I’ve ever heard.  I like how the scene is allowed to play out organically while the audience plays the role of both congregation and voyeur.  The way one character menaces the other, as well as the real time single set/no cuts/no camera movement format, made this one remind me a lot of some haunted house scenes I’ve performed over the years. I hear you Jason, religious zealotry kinda freaks me out too.

8.Well Hung Pictures – Trepidation

I like that it was made to look like a SOV flick.  I have a soft spot for those. There are a couple of good lines too. Unfortunately, however, this short is Vol. 6’s weak link.  Look, I dig a slow burn, but a slow burn only works on the premise that there will be a payoff.  Aside from a one second shot in the middle that gives this a somewhat implied ending, nothing scary happened.  Nothing creepy happened.  Nothing unsettling happened.  Nothing happened at all.  I’m sure there is a statement here about the banality of little fears or “nothing to fear but fear itself,” or maybe something is supposed to be read into that one shot that I’m not getting, but this one just didn’t do it for me.

9.Liberty or Death Productions – Mercy

A filmmaker is abducted and held underground for ransom.  I really dug the creative use of split-screen in the opening moments.  I don’t think I’ve seen it done exactly that way before.  Justin Forbes does a great job as the thug.  I’m not claustrophobic at all, but that hole freaked me out a little.  It’s completely plausible as something a small time criminal might plan and build.  That’s just plain old good production design. This is LOD’s best short since Fertility 2.0 in Volume 2. I refer to this one by an alternate title; “Buried Alive By Fred Durst.”  You’ll get it when you see it.

10.Graphik 13 – Skeleton

An avenging skeleton is a girl’s best friend.  I kinda took Graphik 13 to task for what I thought was a weak entry in the last Collective, and they came back with a vengeance.  This is by far the best stuff we’ve seen from them, and that’s coming from someone who loved Snapcase.  The moody black and white photography emphasizes the creepiness.  I like the way the victim/villain dichotomy plays out.  Two minutes in you know where the story is going.  That could either be a good or bad thing.  Familiar can be fun, but predictable sucks.  There’s a very subtle difference between the two, and G13 deftly manages to keep the viewer invested.  The design of the skeleton itself, a classic Grim Reaper style hooded skull look, works perfectly with the dark fairy tale elements of the story.  Interestingly, it’s also the only one that took a supernatural approach to the theme.  I would have liked to see less digital filters and transitions, but that’s just a personal taste thing.  Good stuff.

I find it very interesting that almost every single one of these revolves around interpersonal violence, neglect, or abuse in some way.  It seems that when you ask people who spend their lives scaring you what scares them, the answer is almost always the same; mankind.  Whether the fear is of yourself or other people, the darkness inherent in humanity is what freaks them out.  There’s some kind of profound statement to be made there, but I’ll save the philosophical discussions for another time. 

What I will say is that Volume Six is Jabb and the Collective crew at their finest.  Volume 4 is still my favorite, but this is a very close second.  If I had to pick a favorite from this crop, it would be a tough call between I Am No One, Insomniac, and Play Me.  Besides Trepidation, which I’m sure some of you would dig (especially the VHSphiles), everything here is firing on all cylinders.  It goes without saying that pretty much every horror fan with a brain is sick of the gutless, soulless, brainless, heartless, nutless drivel  Hollywood is trying to pass off to us these days.  There is a remedy, folks.  There is good stuff out there. If you wanna see it, and peek into what I sincerely hope is the  future of the genre, you’re gonna have to dig a little deeper.  Look to the indies.  Look to the underground.  Look to The Collective.  9 hammer smashed heads out of 10.  Nathan says check it out.

All volumes of The Collective are available HERE.

Acid Bath Productions Announces "Catch Of The Day" And I Finally Announce The Giveaway Winner

If you could see my face at this moment, you would see a rarity among rarities.  A look of shame has actually crossed the normally shameless Son of Celluloid's visage.   Yep, I screwed up.  Way back before my hiatus, I had a giveaway for a copy of James Balsamo's flicks Hack Job and I Spill Your Guts courtesy of Acid Bath Productions Wild Eye Films.  Well, today I went to look in the "stuff to give away" box  and noticed those DVDs still sitting there. I never announced the winner.  Sorry about that Cellmates.  Without any further delay, congratulations to the randomly selected winner... Nicole Gould!  Thank you to everyone entered, and keep your eyes peeled, 'cause I've got some killer stuff to give away soon.

While we're talking about Mr. Balsamo and Acid Bath, he recently sent me the details of his newest project called Catch of the Day.  He's gonna be bringing his trademark "chock full of cameos" horror comedy style to us again in November.  Follow the flick on facebook HERE to stay up to the minute on the production.  Wanna know what it's about?  Read on...

BALSAMO IS OFF THE HOOK IN A BRAND NEW FLICK, “CATCH OF THE DAY”

NEW YORK, NY – Acid Bath Productions, the makers of “Hack Job”, “I Spill Your Guts” and “Cool As Hell,” announce the official anticipated release date of November 19, 2013 for a brand new Horror Comedy, “Catch of the Day.” Directed by James Balsamo, this buddy- cop masterpiece with splashes of mutant fish monsters and tons of splaststick fun is bound to get you excited.
Officer Rod Davis becomes embedded undercover when a cartel starts brining drugs into the city through shipments of fish. He soon finds himself and his city under siege when a scientist accidently creates mutant fish people with a poisonous bite. It's up to the rookie cop and a sexy lab assistant to find the drug stash and destroy the crime lord controlling the mutant monsters, but it turns personal when Rod's sister is kidnapped. Are they fighting giant mutant fish monsters just for the halibut? See the badge, bass, and ass in a horror-comedy that you won't want to throw back... because it's the "Catch of the Day."
The film features Tuesday Knight, Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts, Debbie Rochon, Johnny Legend, Jennifer Banko, Irwin Keyes, Carmine Capobianco and lead singer of Suffocation Frank Mullen. The laugh-out-loud comedy adventure also features music by MxPx, Less Than Jake, Something To Do and many, many more.
The flick is already available for pre-order online through the Acid Bath Productions site at www.acidbathproductions.com/store. The trailer is available online HERE.

Artist Brian Steward Releases Bad-ass Limited Edition Psychomania Print

Horror fans love to wax poetic about those VHS covers that beckoned us from video store shelves, teasing us with images of the lurid, forbidden wonders the movie held.  I probably entered my first video store when I was 10 or 11, but my first exposure to horror movie box art came much sooner.   

When I was a wee lad of 5 or 6, I was fascinated with the small selection of tapes for rent at the local Winn-Dixie.  While my mother grocery shopped, I would stare at those covers.  Being a “family store,” they didn’t carry anything with extreme box art.  There are two covers, however, that intrigued me.  Both were Goodtimes Home Video releases.  One was Killers From Space.  To be honest, those red eyes really creeped me out for some reason.  The other was Psychomania.  Whereas those eyes gave me the willies, I thought that skull with the black helmet was awesome.  He was like Skeletor’s cooler brother.  Anyway, those were the first two horror covers I saw, and they burned their way into my psyche.

Psychomania also figured into outstanding horror artist and podcaster extraordinaire Brian Steward’s early horror experiences. Brian is launching a series of authorized prints featuring his take on some classic poster art, and he’s kicking off the line with the devil worshipping biker gang classic.  "I know it may seem strange to start a poster series like this with such an unlikely and somewhat unknown film choice,” he said, “but, for me, Psychomania was the only way to start. It was, with Alice Sweet Alice and Night Of The Living Dead, my first exposure to the horror genre. The Christmas I got a VCR, my Mom and Dad got those movies for me. That's where it all started for me. So, in paying homage to some of my favorite horror films with this series, it was only fitting to start at, what was for me, the beginning." 

That bad ass biker skeleton has never looked better either.  Check out the print…

See?  I told you.  BAD ASS!  These are limited to 250, so Follow THIS LINK to Brian’s Website and grab one while you can. 

Music Review: The Casket Creatures' new album Sex, Blood, & Rock 'n Roll

The lunatics from the sticks are back!  That's right, The Casket Creatures are proudly carrying the torch for southern monster rock with their new album Sex, Blood, & Rock ‘n Roll.  Their first album, Tales From The Unknown,  announced that this was a band to take notice of.  With Sex, Blood, & Rock ‘n Roll, the boys from Gainesville, Ga have established themselves as a true force to be reckoned with.

Ever since The Misfits laid the groundwork for the genre, certain things have been expected of a horror punk band.  Lyrics based on horror movies and murder.  Sing along choruses.  Fast, powerful riffs.  A heavy backbeat.  Those looking for these tried and true crowd-pleasing elements will find them here.  But, as with bands like The Other, The Crimson Ghosts, Order of the Fly, or The Bloodsucking Zombies From Outer Space, the bands that rise to the top of the genre are those who take those tropes and use them to forge a unique sound of their own.  On this album, The Creatures’ sound has solidified, and the band seems to have found their identity.

The current lineup: Cliff, Ryan, Derek, Jamie, & Dakota

The first thing you’ll notice about the album is how much the guys have grown since their first release.  Tales was a damn good album.  SB&RNR, on the other hand, is a great one.  The level of maturation evident in the songwriting is amazing.  The band has really honed their craft.  Ryan Howard has zeroed in on his signature vocal style, which I would describe as a “crooning growl.”  It’s both melodic and intense, and the backing vocals mesh well on the obligatory “whoa-oh-oh’s.”  The dual guitar attack of Derek Obscura and Jamie Robertson is dead on.  The riffs are outstanding, and the sub-par soloing you find in a lot of horrorpunk bands is replaced by some high energy and inventive leads.  The Brothers Chandler (Drew and Bradley), who have since amicably parted ways with the band, more than hold up the rhythm section’s end of the bargain and provide a sturdy backbone for the beast. 

The second thing you’ll notice is that the production is top notch.  The music sounds fantastic.  Kudos to Ty Watkins (recording) and James Nation (mixing).  It’s very rare to find an independently made album that sounds this good.

The third thing, and what I think really sets The Casket Creatures apart from lesser bands, is the overall atmosphere that comes across in their music.  Far too many bands of this ilk take themselves WAY too seriously.  Aside from the quality of the music, the thing that makes their live shows so exciting is that you can tell the guys are having a blast doing their thing.  That energy and attitude comes across well on the record.  They sound like they’re having a good time without sacrificing any of the aggression of the music, and that makes the album a lot of fun to listen to.

So, what are the standout tracks?  That’s really hard to say.  If the radio was actually relevant enough to play music like this, I think there would be two songs competing for the spot as the big hit single.  “Lizzie’s Song” is the very definition of a brain worm.  It will firmly plant itself in your head and refuse to leave.  You’ll forget about it for a while after listening to it, and then in a calm, quiet moment you’ll catch yourself singing the “Lizzie’s been a bad girl” refrain and bopping your head.  While “Lizzie” is probably the catchiest song on the album, “A Step Ahead of Death” is technically the best.  It’s pretty damn close to being the perfect horror punk song.  Classic movie sample, memorable riff, chorus you can’t help singing along with, awesome solo… it’s just the total package.  Either of these songs easily have the potential to be The Casket Creature’s “Last Caress” or “Somewhere in a Casket.”  If you know what songs I’m talking about, go buy this album immediately just on principle.

It’s tough to single those songs out because there are so many great ones here.  There really isn’t a weak link among them.  "B-Movie Massacre" is a bad-ass tune.  One of the bonus tracks, “Graves” is a Lugosi’s Morphine cover.  Please, for the love of all things unholy don’t tell Lugosi’s Morphine I said this because I love that band, but this version is better than the original.  They infused it with their own style and turned an already great song into a bona-fide anthem.  Every year a big part of my Halloween tradition is making a new disc of holiday related music to listen to coming and going to various haunted houses.  I can’t wait to put their Oct. 31 ode “Devil’s Day” on this year’s edition.  I love “Vulture Eye.”  “Bats, Blood, and Bitches” is the perfect opener.  “Black Widow Bride” is a completely unexpected surprise and a rarity in the genre, a great duet.  Hell, the whole damn album is excellent.

If you put a gun to my head and made me pick a least favorite track, it would actually be a rerecording of “Agnes,” a Casket Creatures favorite.  It’s not that there’s anything wrong with the song itself.  It’s actually the same problem I had when Blitzkid rerecorded “My Dying Bride,” my favorite song by them, on Anatomy of Reanimation. I dig the rawer version of Agnes on Tales From The Unknown so much that I feel the slicker production actually works against the song.  It’s still a great tune, I’m just so used to the original that it sounds weird to me.  If the only issue I had with the album is that one of the songs sounds TOO good, then that’s definitely a rich problem to have.

 To sum it all up, this is the best American horror punk disc I’ve heard in years.  Their sophomore album sets The Casket Creatures on par with the elite of the horror rock scene.  There may be bigger bands, but you won’t find one doing it any better.  I’m not just saying that because they’re members of the extended SOC family either.  Trust me, if it sucked I’d say so.  Sex, Blood, and Rock & Roll is a satisfying slab of sonic sickness that deserves, no... DEMANDS  a spot in any serious horror punk fan’s collection. 

So now that you know you have to own this album, that just leaves one issue to address; how do you get it?  Well, there are several options.  It’s available on itunes.  You could go over to http://horror-punks.com and enter to win a copy during The Casket Creatures’ month long takeover.  You could hit the band up on facebook HERE and inquire about how to get one.  Or, my personal recommendation, you could go see them live and pick one up from them at the show.  Your next chance will be this Saturday at Sweetwater in Duluth, Ga.  If you live in the vicinity, come rock out with the ‘ol Son of Celluloid and your new favorite band.  However you decide to get it, get it quick because when the rest of the world catches on to these guys and they become ghoul rock heroes, you’ll want to be able to say “I was into them way back when.”  
It’s become almost fashionable amongst horror hipsters in recent years to proclaim, “True horror punk is dead.”  I’m calling bullshit.  As long as The Casket Creatures roam the earth, killer rock and roll shot through with macabre madness will continue to ravage your eardrums and provide the soundtrack for all of our killing sprees.

Where Else Can I Find SOC's Mad Musings? Fangoria, Italian Horror Week, and Extreme Week!

Just because the blog is newly reanimated doesn't mean that this horror geek has been laying dormant.  Oh no.  It also doesn't mean that this site is the only place to find me ranting like a madman.  In fact, like blood and entrails after a particularly good night with a hooker, I'm all over the damn place.  For example, I recently managed to add a major credit to my resume and realize a lifelong dream at the same time.  Like most horror fans, a good portion of my early genre education came from Fangoria.  I wrote about my love for and history with the iconic publication HERE, so I'll reserve my fanboy gushings.  Anyway, when Jess Franco died, a memorial party was planned at Jimbo Bickert's Drive-In.  Wind of this historic event reached Fango editor Chris Alexander, and the next thing I knew I found myself writing about the Eurosleaze throwdown under the stars in the pages of Fango.  As fellow gorehounds, I'm sure I don't have to explain to you how cool that is.  You can find my first appearance in Fango's hallowed bloody pages in issue 325, which is on sale right now.

I also contributed to Italian Horror Week over at Dr. Terror's Blog Of Horrors.  All week, Doc has been celebrating Italian Horror with guest writers, amazing art, 8-bit game trailers that will blow your mind, and killer giveaways.  I wrote an article crowning a king of eyeball violence that can be found HERE.  I highly recommend you click on that banner to the left and be magically transported to the land of vino and violence.  read the best writing the online horror scene has to offer and maybe even win some cool stuff.  Dr. Jimmy put together one hell of an event, but you'd better hurry up.  You only have 'til Friday to get in on the fun.

Coming up on the horizon I'll be participating in Extreme Week coming up July 29-August 2 on Guts & Grog.  My boy Eric is gonna bring the mind melting, soul shredding, gut grinding flicks to you as only he and the sickest freaks from the farthest reaches of the blogosphere can.  Reviews, interviews, contests, and all kindsa subversive fun await.  I can't tell you what I have up my sleeve yet, and even I don't know what surprises Groggy has in store for you.  I just know that you don't want to miss it.  Click on that picture of good ol' Milos there to go like Guts & Grog on facebook to keep up with Extreme week... if you think you can handle it.

The Resurrection of Son of Celluloid

Don’t call it a comeback.  I’ve been here for years.  Well, a little over two, but that still counts.  Don’t call it a reboot either.  After the last few years, that word needs to be kept as far away from the horror genre as possible.  What I will call it is a relaunch.  A resurrection if you will. It’s been quiet here at Son of Celluloid since April Fool’s Day.  That’s a freakin’ eternity in blog-world.  I didn’t forget about you guys.  In fact, I’ve missed you all and it feels good to be back in the saddle. You see that spiffed up version of my logo up top?  The Graphic Wizard himself, Frank Browning, made that for me, and it represents a fresh start for the blog.  Before I talk about what’s involved in this new beginning and your role in the macabre fun to come, let me explain the factors that led to my almost four month hiatus. 

First of all, I was suffering from some good old-fashioned burnout.  I realized that I had hit a wall one night when I looked at the milk crate of screeners that always sits beside the TV and I didn’t want to watch a horror movie.  Sure, that happens now and then.  We all need a palate cleanser once in a while.  Then I realized that it was the third or fourth consecutive day that it happened.  For the first time since my mid-teens, I just didn’t want to watch horror movies at all.  Now that I’ve had time to think about it, I recognize it as the same reason I stopped reading for a long time after college.  I had always been a bit of a bookworm, but at that point I had read so much stuff for the express purpose of writing about it or being tested over it that I couldn’t image reading for pleasure.  Same deal.  I had forgotten how to watch movies, and write about movies, simply for pleasure.  I needed some time to relearn that.   Watching movies came back before writing did, so I decided to focus on a different project that had been eating away at the back of my mind for a while.

I’m referring to reason number two for my hiatus, the long awaited and oft-delayed The Son of Celluloid Show.  Yes, the one I’ve worked and worked on that just seems to get derailed at every turn.  Well folks, here’s the skinny.  It takes a long time to do anything when you have a budget of exactly nothing and have to beg, borrow, and steal everything.  There’s a lot of trial and error going on too.  I’m no filmmaker.  None of the people directly helping me are either.  Once I figured out the absolute basics (to a degree) and got some good footage shot, my camera died and took my footage with it.  At the moment I’m working on getting a new camera, which is fairly close on the horizon.  I also have to figure out a couple of post-production issues.  Once I do those things, that hell-train will lurch back to life.  The Son of Celluloid Show will live, dammit!  A lot of people (and myself) have put in too much work and I’ve gotten too much great support from all off you to let it fade away.  I will not, however, give you a premiere date at this time.  I have a bad habit of giving myself deadlines right before catastrophe hits.  Just know that it’s coming, and that I will unleash my beast when you least expect it.

Then there’s reason three.  This is where we get into some real talk, and some stuff I feel like I oughta say even though I don’t really want to.  In the interest of a fresh start, though, I guess I have to clear the air.  I had a little identity crisis about who and what Son of Celluloid is.  I lost sight of why I started doing this.  At the same time I was feeling that burnout I discussed earlier, I was looking at other sites.  I was seeing one paragraph reviews without a single grammatically correct sentence or a post consisting solely of pictures of an old horror toy getting two or three times as many comments as a post I worked forever on.  That old green-eyed monster of jealousy reared his ugly head.  I started to wonder if anyone was really reading what I was writing, if good writing even mattered to readers any more, and if the effort I was putting into it was worth it.  Yep, I started to doubt myself and you, and it sucks to have to admit that.  Once I took a break, I found myself forming reviews in my head as I was watching horror flicks that I had no intention of publishing.  That’s when it clicked.  I realized that numbers aren’t what it’s about.  I write because it’s what I do.  It’s how I express myself and celebrate this genre that I care so much about.  It’s how I have a dialogue with all of you awesome people.  Championing the cause of independent horror and getting to see and talk about amazing movies is cause and reward enough.  More than enough.  When you start worrying about your numbers and the popularity of your site above simply expressing your horror love, bad stuff happens.  I’d be willing to bet that’s how this recent plagiarism scandal came about.  You know the one I’m talking about.  Anyway, I had to step away for a moment to realize that I was starting to look at things the wrong way.   I just needed to get back to being me and doing what I do.  That doesn’t mean that I haven’t re-evaluated a few things.  I’m aware that my writing, particularly my reviews, tend to be a lot more in depth than many people are looking for.  I like to really get elbow deep in the guts of a flick and give it a thorough autopsy, and I’m gonna keep doing that.  I do, however, think I should start diversifying a little bit.  That’s where you come in.  

Art by Jeff Maynard

 Yes, you, the Cellmates, have a big role in the rebirth of this blog.  I want this to become a much more interactive site.  Please tell me what you’d like to see.  I wanna know what you wanna read.  Don’t worry, the same old SOC is back to stay, but think of it as a new 2 disc special edition of your favorite exploitation classic.  It’s the flick you remember, just shined up and with some new features.  Maybe I should write more editorial, “my thoughts on the genre” type articles.  Perhaps more focus should be given to horror related music.  I intend for the Atlanta Horror Scene to be a big theme of the show, and blog could reflect that too.  I could start doing more nostalgic posts about the days of horror past.  I’m playing with some ideas, but I need your help.  Please leave comments below or feel free to drop me a line at fromhell13@aol.com.  I’ll throw entrails on the wall, but you gotta let me know what sticks.  Together, we’re gonna use the reanimation of this site as a chance to make Son of Celluloid a bigger, badder, bloodier, and badasser (shut up, it is too a word) place.