ALL THE WEEK'S HORROR HEADLINES (28th Sept-5th Oct)

Not got time to trawl the web for all the top horror news of the last week? Well allow me to give you a bite-size breakdown of the all biggest nightmarish news!

1. MANIAC COP REMAKE FINDS A DIRECTOR

A remake of Maniac Cop (that criminally underrated slasher franchise) is on the way and John Hyams, the director of Universal Soldier films Regeneration and Day of Reckoning is attached to direct.

I've always loved the MC films, not least for Bruce Campbell and Robert Zdar, so I approach this news with some trepidation...

Read Twitch Film's story here.

2. X FILES TRAILERS RELEASED

The X Files, that most momentous of cult pop culture TV series, will return to our screens in January, 13 years since the last episode aired. ANd Fox has given us a couple of cool trailers to whet our appetites!

3. FILM4 FRIGHTFEST ANNOUNCES LINE UP FOR HALLOWEEN EVENT

The Film4 FrightFest Halloween event is back at the Prince Charles Cinema on Saturday 24 Oct with six brand new movies, including two World premieres, a European and two UK premieres.

This year’s Shockathon kicks off at 11am with the surprise movie which guarantees a sci-fi cocktail of weird creatures, crude humour and hilarious action. Next up is the UK Premiere of THE VATICAN TAPES, a dynamic, unusual and thrilling exorcism shocker by Crank director Mark Neveldine. This is followed by the World Premiere of THE UNSPOKEN, a chill-orientated sinister ghost story with an insidious sting in its tale. Kicking of the evening with a massive jolt of brutal energy is the UK premiere of MOMENTUM, a break-neck, nerve-shredding violent thriller starring a stand-out Olga Kurylenko & James Purefoy. Our second World Premiere is BELLY OF THE BULLDOG, directed by Nick Gillespie, whose past short films have been shown at FrightFest to great acclaim. We are delighted to welcome him back for his feature genre debut. To complete the line-up prepare yourselves for twists galore, horrific jolts and seat-edged suspense with the European Premiere of I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE III: VENGEANCE IS MINE, which whole-heartedly retains the stunning shock impact of the entire controversial series.

Guests attending include MOMENTUM stars James Purefoy (The Following) and Olga Kurylenko (Quantum of Solace) and from BELLY OF THE BULLDOG, director Nick Giilespie plus key cast, to be announced later.

Plus, they’ll be showing two fantastic shorts, THE CHICKENING, a poultry-infused remix of The Shining, directed by Nick DenBoar & Davy Force and THE PACKAGE, starring Dan Palmer (Stalled) & Tom Gordon. And of course there will be intros, Q & A’s, give-aways and a few special surprises…

Alan Jones, co-director, said today: “Enough with the after dark jitters, caffeine fixes and trying to stay awake through the last movie. FrightFest is always ahead of the curve when it comes to redefining event experiences so here’s our latest innovation. All before midnight you’ll delight in fright with six of the must-see movies of the moment. Carefully selected by the FrightFest team of experts to show exactly where the genre is right now, these six nightmares before Christmas are tales of Halloween you just have to witness”.

Passes for the London event cost £45 and are on sale NOW. 

To book go onlinehttp://www.princecharlescinema.com/events/events.php…
or call the Prince Charles Cinema on 0207 494 3654
Passes can also be bought at the cinema

FULL LINE UP:

11:00 SURPRISE MOVIE

12:55 THE VATICAN TAPES (UK Premiere)
A concerned priest, two Vatican exorcists and the distraught father of a young girl battle to save her soul after she expresses increasingly erratic and strange behaviour. It soon becomes clear that Angela has been taken over by an ancient satanic force and that she must be quickly purged of evil. But what nobody knows is that the spiritual crusade is not just for Angela - it’s for the entire world as humanity knows it.
Director: Mark Neveldine. Cast: Olivia Taylor Dudley, Michael Peña, Dougray Scott, Djimon Hounsou, Peter Andersson. USA 2015. 91 mins.

15:00 THE UNSPOKEN (World Premiere)
In 1997 the close-knit Anderson family vanished from their home without a trace. No bodies were ever found and no explanation satisfied curiosity. For 17 years the house has remained undisturbed...until now. This eerily expert frightener is further enlivened by terrific performances from ‘Suits’/’Arrow’ star Neal McDonough and SILENT HILL/THE TALL MAN/TIDELAND’s Jodelle Ferland.
Director: Sheldon Wilson. Cast: Jodelle Ferland, Sunny Suljic, Neal McDonough, Jessie Fraser, Jonathan Whitesell. Canada 2015. 90 mins.

17:30 MOMENTUM (UK Premiere)
Clint Eastwood’s go-to cameraman Stephen S. Campanelli turns skilled first-time director with this BOURNE style thriller done with panache and witty super-slick suspense. From its attention-grabbing futuristic bank heist opening to exciting airport chase finale, the breathless cat-and-mouse action never stops as CIA assassin James Purefoy relentlessly tracks glamorous jewel thief Olga Kurylenko for a stolen computer hard drive implicating corrupt senator Morgan Freeman in a terrorist plot. Kurylenko is terrific as the criminal mastermind enduring torture with a smile and inventively avoiding Purefoy’s gleefully evil sadist.
Director: Stephen S. Campanelli. Cast: Olga Kurylenko, James Purefoy, Morgan Freeman, Karl Thaning, Dylan Edy. USA/South Africa 2015. 96 mins.

19:45 BELLY OF THE BULLDOG (World Premiere)
With nowhere else to hide, a group of mercenaries and their prisoners take cover inside a long abandoned Bulldog tank. But, while they try to keep the forces outside at bay, the real enemy is already among them, locked inside the belly of the Bulldog. After collaborating closely with Ben Wheatley on FREE FIRE, HIGH-RISE, A FIELD IN ENGLAND and KILL LIST, Director Nick Gillespie makes his feature genre debut.
Director: Nick Gillespie. Cast: Rupert Evans, Deirdre Mullins, Michael Smiley, April Pearson, Gordon Kennedy. UK 2015. 84 mins.

22:15 I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE III: VENGEANCE IS MINE (European Premiere)
After her harrowing experiences in 2010, Jennifer Hills has taken the name Angela and is now working in an anonymous office job. Attending a rape support group to find closure, she meets feisty Maria Finch and they become firm friends. Then Maria suggests Angela join her in taking revenge by proxy on the abusers they hear about in their secret sessions…This superior sequel is genuinely surprising, consistently gripping, smartly written and brilliantly acted.
Director: R.D. Braunstein. Cast: Sarah Butler, Jennifer Landon, Gabriel Hogan, Doug McKeon, Karen Strassman. USA 2015. 87 mins.

4. TV SPOTS FOR PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE GHOST DIMENSION

Three TV spots for the final film in the Paranormal Activity franchise — The Ghost Dimension have hit the web. I don't hate the series as much as most (I even enjoyed The Marked Ones and, whisper this now, PA4) so I can't wait to see how the series concludes.
Watch the spots here!

5. CABIN IN THE WOODS 2?

Den of Geek recently conducted an interview with Cabin in the Woods director and co-writer, Drew Goddard, in which he revealed that Lionsgate have been in contact about a possible sequel.
Avoiding spoilers here, but not entirely sure how that would work, which seems to be echoed in Goddard's unenthusiastic response: 'The funny part is, I don’t think we planned that movie to do a sequel, you know? But that being said, the fun thing about Cabin is, the rules are pretty crazy. We get away with a lot of crazy stuff. So, I’m sure we could figure it out if we got inspired to. I know Joss and I both feel like we don’t want to tarnish what we did with the first one. With a sequel, we’d only do it if it made us laugh hard enough, I suppose.'
Read the interview here.

6. NEW RELEASES

First up this week, The Houses October Built gets a UK release under a new name — The Houses of Halloween. It's had some pretty positive word of mouth so expect a review here soon!

Buy it at Amazon here.

Also this week we receive a LANCE FUCKING HENRIKSEN flick!!!!! Another renamed US release, Harbinger Down (cool name!) becomes Inanimate (crap name!)
I love horror at sea and this boasts some cool effects works. Again, expect a review soon...
Buy it at Amazon here.

Another good one here, with Werewolf Western, Blood Moon hitting shelves this week. And guess what? Review soon etc.
Buy it at Amazon here.

We also get 'the perfect so-bad it's awesome flick' Raiders of the Lost Shark. Now that's some cover art right there. Oh and...
BEST. NAME. EVER!
Buy it at Amazon here.

If you haven’t already, do please check out and like the Hickey’s House of Horrors Facebook page, which you can find here. It gives you a nice quick link to any new posts on this blog, plus regular news updates from around the web. I check the Internet so you don’t have to! Alternatively, follow me on twitter: The House@HickeysHorrors

Until next time, I hope you enjoyed your stay.

ALL THE WEEK'S HORROR HEADLINES (27th April–4th May)

Not got time to trawl the web for all the top horror news of the last week? Well allow me to give you a bite-size breakdown of the all biggest nightmarish news!

1. IT REMAKE CLOSE TO FINDING A PENNYWISE

New Line's upcoming two-part movie adaption of Stephen King's It has found its Pennywise!
Variety is reporting that that 22-year-old Will Poutler of We're The Millers is close to signing on for the role. I feel sorry for Poulter, following in Tim Curry's enormous footsteps in his iconic work as the killer clown is an unenviable task.

Read Variety's story here.

2. MORE NAMES ATTACHED TO LEATHERFACE

With Angela Bettis and Stephen Dorff already attached to the Texas Chain Saw Massacre prequel, the last few days have revealed even more casting details.

Bloody Disgusting has claimed that Sam Coleman has joined the cast as Bud, another potential young Leatherface. Read their story here.

Elsewhere, The Wrap has reported that Mr Selfridge actress Jessica Madsen is also onboard. Read the story here.

Finally, and this is a big one, Bloody Disgusting is claiming that star of The Haunting and The Conjuring, the excellent Lili Taylor is also joining the movie. This is fantastic news, Taylor is awesome. Full story here.

3. GLEN MORGAN AND JAMES WONG TO RETURN TO THE X-FILES

Arguably the greatest creative team during The X-Files' initial run, Glen Morgan and James Wong will return for the show's resurrection. Morgan and Wong are the men who brought us the most disturbing episode of the show ever, Home, and also worked on Chris Carter's Millennium. Wong also brought us the first Final Destination movie. As a fan of their work, this really has made my day.

Read TV Line's story here.

4. NEW POLTERGEIST TRAILER

The remake is drawing closer...

5. A FOURTH NIGHT AT FREDDY'S

Scott Cawthon's web site, Scottgames has revealed the above teaser image, which suggest that Five Nights At Freddy's 4: The Final Chapter will arrive this Halloween! Will we finally discover the epic truth about the events at Fazbear's pizzeria? Who/what the hell was the purple guy? Will we all find ourselves jumping out of our seats and swearing at our monitors?

I'm guessing yes to all three...

6. NEW RELEASES

First up this week, we have The Asylum, a cool looking exorcism flick directed by Marcus Nispel (director of the surprisingly enjoyable Friday the 13th and Texas Chainsaw Massacre remakes). I'm intrigued! Buy it at Amazon here.

Also out this week we have World War Dead – Rise Of The Fallen. You can't go wrong with a good zombie soldier flick and this looks like a decent one. Buy it Amazon here.

I'll be honest, this next one sounds so batshit that I NEED to see it. It's a slasher film set in Seventies New York featuring a serial killer who goes on murderous rampages every time he hears Disco music. Incredible. It's called Discopath and I demand that you buy it at Amazon here.

If you haven’t already, do please check out and like the Hickey’s House of Horrors Facebook page, which you can find here. It gives you a nice quick link to any new posts on this blog, plus regular news updates from around the web. I check the Internet so you don’t have to! Alternatively, follow me on twitter: The House@HickeysHorrors

Until next time, I hope you enjoyed your stay.

THE WEEK’S HORROR HEADLINES (12th-19th January 2015)

Not got time to trawl the web for all the top horror news of the last week? Well allow me to give you a bite-size breakdown of the all biggest nightmarish news!

1. DETAILS EMERGE ON ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK AND POLTERGEIST REMAKES

We have news on two potentially massive remakes! First Fox have won a competitive bidding process to acquire the remake rights for John Carpenter's cult classic Escape From New York! Carpenter will retain an executive producer credit as the studio looks to launch a franchise. Could we see Escape From USA or Escape From Planet Earth in the future? Stay tuned!

Read Deadline’s story here.

Also Sam Rockwell has spilled some alarming details on the Poltergeist remake - noteably that the studio are shooting a kid's adventure movie. Thanks for ruining my day, Hollywood.

Read Collider's story here.

2. THE HOBBIT'S RICHARD ARMITAGE JOINS HANNIBAL – AS FRANCIS DOLARHYDE!

I love NBC's Hannibal. It's one of the best things on TV right now and it just continues to impress as it continues to draw from Thomas Harris' source material. So it's pretty safe to say that I was overjoyed to read confirmation that the Red Dragon portion of the story is drawing nearer. How do we know? Because Richard Armitage has been announced as joining the cast in the role of Francis Dolarhyde AKA deranged serial killer The Tooth Fairy. 

My initial thoughts are that he may be s little too good-looking for the role but he's a fine actor so consider me pleased!

Read TV Line's story here.

3. MORE X-FILES ON THE WAY?

From one tv favourite to another! Following on from the success of the micro-series reboot of 24 last year, Fox has turned its eye to other screen favourites of yesteryear... and is in talks to bring back 90s cult phenomenon The X-Files! Holy shit!

It is very much at the logistics stage right now as talks are being made to ensure that stars Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny, as well as show-runner Chrus Carter, can clear their schedules. With a huge storyline hanging over the show following its finale in xxxx, this is pretty much the news that the fans have been waiting for! X-cellent!
Read Deadline’s story here.

4. FOX’S SCREAM QUEEN CAST GROWS

Glee star Lea Michele, Joe Manganiello (True Blood, Magic Mike XXL), Oscar nominee Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine) and Keke Palmer (Akeela and the Bee, Masters of Sex) will join Jamie Lee Curtis and Emma Roberts in Ryan Murphy’s horror-comedy anthology Scream Queens. These are some top quality names and the addition of Michele means that any musical numbers (such as those that have popped up throughout Murphy’s AWESOME American Horror Story: Freak Show) will be nothing short of brilliant. This is a series that I can’t wait to see!
Read Variety’s story here.

5. CALL GIRL AVAILABLE ONLINE — TODAY!
Jill Sixx Gevargizian’s award winning short, Call Girl, starring the wonderful Laurence R Harvey and Tristan Risk is now available to watch for free over at Dreadcentral.com.

Call Girl has picked up plenty of short of the year awards and is one of the finest short films I've seen in some time, so stop mucking about, get over there and get watching!

You’ll be VERY glad you did.

6. NEW THIS WEEK

 

We’re into the late January dumping ground now so don’t expect too much for the next couple of weeks  First up we have House On The Hill, which is apparently based on the true story of serial killer Leonard Lake. I’ve no idea if it’s any good, but it is available at Amazon here.

We also have a creepy looking exorcism flick, Grace: The Possession (available here) and Rebecca Romijn’s Possessed by Evil (available here)

Finally, The Killjoy Collection is also out this week. I’ve only seen one Killjoy movie and it didn’t impress, but it clearly has a following as it has racked up three sequels. If you’re a fan, grab it right here.

If you haven’t already, do please check out and like the Hickey’s House of Horrors Facebook page, which you can find here. It gives you a nice quick link to any new posts on this blog, plus regular news updates from around the web. I check the Internet so you don’t have to! Alternatively, follow me on twitter: The House@HickeysHorrors

Until next time, I hope you enjoyed your stay.

SMALL SCREEN SCARES 1: 'Home'

So, I thought, why limit myself to horror films?

Everybody I know remembers seeing something on the TV that has rivalled the scares of Hollywood's heavy hitters. Then it dawned on me, why not add a regular feature where I look at these small-screen scares?
And what better place to start than one of the greatest, most horrific hours of television I have ever seen?

THE X FILES: ‘Home’  (1996)

Dir: Kim Manners (Written by Glen Morgan and James Wong)

Starring: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Tucker Smallwood

SUMMARY: Thunder crashes over a dingy old farm. Well, if you can’t avoid the clichés, why not run with them?
Inside, in a scene which is poorly lit even by the X Files’ standards (now THAT’s saying something!) a woman grunts, moans and screams as she gives birth, tended to by three hideously malformed men. One of them picks up a fork for the procedure.

A FORK.

This was not something that was covered in my antenatal lessons.

Finally the baby is born. It is swaddled in rags, then taken out into the storm by the three men. As one moans, clearly distraught, the occasional flashes of lightning reveal the farmhouse in the background. That’s actually kind of cool. The men dig a hole in the earth and proceed to bury the screaming baby alive.

AND here come your opening credits. I imagine at the point this aired in the 90s, loads of guys in shellsuits turned off their Ace of Base records, picked up their enormous Nokia mobile phones and called their mates to say ‘Man, did you see that???? That was NOT rad.’

Anyway, the show resumes and we see a baseball plate being placed on the ground. the word ‘Home’ flashes up on screen. Ha, Home base, clever, well done.
A second or so later Pennsylvania is added. That's right, the town is called Home.
Annoying American kids say annoying things to each and prepare for their game of baseball... until one of the kids notices blood splashing out of the churned earth.

And then a baby’s hand. The children all look on, pretty damn horrified.

When I first watched this episode I remember it was pretty dark and disturbing. As I write this synopsis I now understand why Fox have NEVER repeated this episode since it’s premier.

Here’s Mulder and Scully! YAY! I love these guys. I don’t care how shit it got towards the end, when it was good the X Files was UNTOUCHABLE. I'm already thinking of at least three other episodes that will make their way onto this blog as Small-Screen Scares. Round about here they had REALLY hit their stride. The stories were tight, the conspiracy was baffling but fascinating and the character relationships were spot on. The writers clearly realised that EVERYBODY wanted Mulder and Scully to just shag their brains out so the sexual tension was ratcheted up to the max. It’s a shame the show went so spectacularly downhill before it died.
Anyway, back in this episode and Scully goes all businesslike (YEAH! GRRRRR!) while Mulder proceeds to start arsing around with a discarded baseball.
Seems he’s feeling all nostalgic for small town Americana. I like that the typical gender roles were reversed so often in The X Files. Scully the detached analytical mind, Mulder the emotional, caring one.
Then the Sheriff turns up. Sheriff Taylor is a likeable guy and his laid-back, small-town demeanor works nicely with our two favourite sexually repressed, buttoned up FBI agents. As Taylor talks to them, Mulder notices the three deformed men staring at them from the nearby farm. When he asks about them, Sheriff Taylor introduces them as the Peacock family.
Turns out the Peacock family have lived on this farm since the Civil War and haven't updated the place since then. He then suggests that the family has been inbreeding this whole time.

FUCKING. SICK.

Turns out the three brothers live there alone as their mum and dad (and probably uncle... and cousin... and granddad...) were involved in a serious road accident years ago. Taylor seems pretty upset that the big cruel world from outside his peaceful little town is finally at his door.
I don't know why he's moaning, he clearly hasn’t read ahead in the script and seen how much shittier things get...
Everybody heads to the station so Mulder and Scully can gawp at the freak examine the infant. Scully is shocked and suddenly goes all maternal. This is also GRRRRRR.
Mulder thinks so too because they start talking about having kids and becoming parents.
This is about as close as they ever get to talking about how much they want to hump each other stupid. 
BAck to the case and the level of mutation suggests generations of inbreeding.

STILL FUCKING SICK.

They then decide that the Peacocks have kidnapped a woman and are holding her captive to rape over and over.

I do not think they will air this on CBeebies.

With this in mind they go to the Peacock house to investigate. For a few seconds I think they got lost and walked into The Texas Chain Saw Massacre because the house is THE archetypal scary redneck house. Plus, it's so fucking dark it could be anywhere. YES, torches ARE ATMOSPHERIC but YES, I would also like to be able to see what the fuck is going on.
 As they explore, we realise they are being watched by somebody. Ooooooh.

Mulder here does something BRILLIANT. I will not say it.
I WILL show it though.

Ha ha awesome!

After failing to find the Peacocks, they say they have enough evidence to lead to their arrest re: infanticide. I'm not sure they do, but hey-ho.
They head out to their motel, but as they go, glowering eyes watch them from beneath the bed.

That night Mulder finally loses his love of the small town when he realises he can't get a TV signal in the motel.
A quick phone call shows that the Sheriff has issued a warrant for the arrest of the Peacock boys. He seems properly disillusioned with his home now and even Mulder feels a need to prop his hotel door shut after noticing that the lock is bust...
...But as this is going on the Peacock boys return home to talk to the spy. They walk outside, load the boot of a frankly BEAUTIFUL old school Cadillac with baseball bats and clubs, then set off for an as yet undetermined location...

Now I feel a need to say Glen Morgan and James Wong are LEDGES when it comes to the art of using seemingly inappropriate music in chilling or disturbing scenes. Seriously, I love the way they do it and it has never been used with better effect than in the scene that follows. As we intercut between the agents not shagging (but we all know they are thinking about it) and Edmund, Sherman and George driving to an unseen destination with their clubs and bats at the ready, the song Wonderful, Wonderful by Johnny Mathis plays (well, actually it's a cover, Johnny wasn't too happy at his song being associated with this episode, for some strange reason...).
This scene really is w...eally good.
Then as Sheriff Taylor is woken by the strains of not-Mathis coming in through his window we realise shit is about to hit the fan. Before he can get to his gun downstairs, the boys walk in through his unlocked door.
BOLLOCKS.
Taylor grabs a baseball bat and orders his wife to hide under the bed before lying in wait for the Peacocks. We can still hear Wonderful, Wonderful, faintly playing away in the background. A swing and a hit does not do the damage you'd expect, Edmund just grunts and disarms Taylor. Then the rest of the boys arrive. And they savagely beat the shit out of him with their clubs, while his helpless wife looks on in horror, leaving him a lifeless, bloody pulp. As the huge puddle of blood seeping out of his body spreads ever closer, Mrs Taylor has to move her hands away to avoid it reaching her. The movement gives away her position and the enraged Peacocks flip the bed with a howl and then lay into her too. An external shot shows the boys hammering away with their clubs, grunting savagely as the camera pans down to their car and the still twinkling not-Mathis hit.
Slowly the now nonchalant Peacock boys hop into the motor, then drive away.

That scene is better than at least half the horror films I've seen in my life. If it was possible to write applause, I would.

CLAP-CLAP-CLAP-CLAP-CLAP-CLAP-CLAP-CLAP-CLAP-CLAP-CLAP!

Oh, it is.

After Taylor's Deputy discovers the bodies he has a BADASS MOMENT.
Which Mulder takes the piss out of. Ha ha ha, sweet.
From here the three head out to the heavily booby-trapped Peacock house... and blood is spilled.

I won’t spoil this further, but I have to say that, despite it's clear influences from the likes of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes, Home was one of the slickest, most terrifying, boundary-pushing programmes to ever air on TV.
Yes it's horrible. No, it does not make you feel happy about the world.
But as a spectacle of true horror, not-Johnny Mathis hit the nail on the head.

HEY, I KNOW YOU: Um, well David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson OBVIOUSLY.
The SUPERBLY named Tucker Smallwood (SERIOUSLY!) stars as Sheriff Taylor. He's kind of a favourite with Glen Morgan and James Wong, having a starring role in their AWESOME sci fi series Space: Above and Beyond and guesting in one of their season two episodes of Millennium.
Glen Morgan and James Wong are pair of serious talents. As well as sterling runs on The X Files, Millennium and the aforementioned Space: Above and Beyond, they also came up with Final Destination (and Final Destination 3), plus the remakes of Willard and Black Christmas. They’re good guys with a very distinctive style and trademark touches.

EVIL ON TWO LEGS (Well, six legs): The Peacock family are the monsters of this episode. Not just Edmund, George and Sherman, but Mrs Peacock, whose matriarchal role takes in a whole lot more than tucking in at bedtime.
STILL. FUCKING. SICK.
It's implied that Edmund (the eldest) is also the father of George and Sherman.

Due to generations of inbreeding in the Peacock family the boys are hideous to look at and have a rare condition whereby they don't feel pain. Mrs Peacock has them strip down and checks them for injury each night, just to make sure they haven't harmed themselves without realising. They have a tremendous propensity for violence, build some pretty lethal booby-traps in their home and have a killer car!

BODY COUNT: 6

CREATIVE CARNAGE: That superb scene when the boys invade Sheriff Taylor’s home to the strains of Johnny Mathis. The stuff of nightmares.

CLICHÉ CHECKLIST: DARK = SCARY, INCEST MAKES MUTANTS!, REDNECKS REALLY LOVE FAMILY, X-FILES TORCH SYNDROME

DIALOL: 
SCULLY (as Mulder starts playing with a baseball): ‘Compression marks indicate the shovel blade to be approximately six and three-quarters inches. Uh, the angle of movement and deeper indentation on the right side of the mark suggests a left-handed individual. I’ve collected soil specimens and, uh, although numerous shoe impressions were made from the sandlot game, I think a, uh, a couple of dental stone casts will prove invaluable to the investigation. Meanwhile, I’ve quit the F.B.I. and become a spokesperson for the Ab-roller.’

SCULLY: ‘Mulder, if you had to do without a cell phone for two minutes, you'd lapse into catatonic schizophrenia.’
ANDY TAYLOR: ‘The Peacocks built that farm during the Civil War. It still has no electricity, no running water, no heat... they grow their own food, they raise their own pigs, the breed their own cows... raise and breed their own stock... if you get my meaning.’
MULDER: ‘Well, just find yourself a man with a spotless genetic make-up and a really high tolerance for being second-guessed and start pumping out the little Uber-Scullies.’
MULDER: ‘Oh, that was just a little bit too Chuck Bronson for me, Scully.’
MRS PEACOCK: ‘They’ll be coming now. We knew this day was going to happen. That they’d try to change the way things are. All we can do about changing things... is be ready for it... be ready for them. Let them know, this is our home and this is the way it's going to stay.’
MULDER: ‘When Edmund was a kid he could ground the others for playing with his things.’
MULDER: ‘What we’re witnessing, Scully, is undiluted animal behavior. Mankind, absent its own creation of civilization, technology and information, regressed to an almost prehistoric state, obeying... only the often savage laws of nature. We’re outsiders invading the den.’
MULDER: ‘Scully, would you think less of me as a man if I told you I was kind of excited right now?’

10 WORD WRAP UP: Mulder and Scully listen to Mathis in Hills Have Eyes

If you haven’t already, do please check out and like the Hickey’s House of Horrors Facebook page, which you can find here. It gives you a nice quick link to any new posts on this blog, plus regular news updates from around the web. I check the Internet so you don’t have to! Alternatively, follow me on twitter: The House@HickeysHorrors

Until next time, I hope you enjoyed your stay.

WE'RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER: THE LINKS

‘We’re all in this together.’

That’s the line so often used in a horror film when the shit hits the fan, the bodies start piling up and each of the characters starts to eye everybody else as if they might be the axe wielding maniac/shape-shifting mutant/undead fiend in their midst.

But I wonder if they have any idea just how many other horror characters are in this together?

You see, their are a number of very cool links between horror films that suggest these films take place in the same shared ‘universe’.

That's right, the teenagers in this universe REALLY have a lot to worry about.

So where to start? A good jumping on point would be Friday the 13th IX: Jason Goes To Hell.

While the film is pretty ropy, it’s got a couple of lovely references. One of the best is that when Steven goes poking around in the old Voorhees house, we catch sight of a certain book that should be all too familiar to horror fans: the Evil Dead’s Naturan Demonata AKA Necronomicon Ex-Mortis AKA The Book of the Dead! (This is already a direct reference to the literary works of H.P. Lovecraft, one of the greatest horror authors in history)

Quite what it's doing there isn’t exactly explained.

Fans of completely unfounded conjecture (and who ISN’T?) have suggested that maybe the cabin in the woods that housed Professor Knowby’s research into Kandarian demons isn’t too far from Camp Crystal Lake. Another rather cute theory suggests that Pamela Voorhees herself may have used the resurrection incantations within the book to bring back her son after he was drowned as a child.

These are both beautiful theories, but unfortunately neither has a shred of evidence to support them!

In fact, the Voorhees house seems to be kind of a dumping ground for horror artifacts. The rather decrepit basement is shown to house a large packing crate. On the side you can read the words ‘ARCTIC EXPEDITION JULIA CARPENTER HORLICKS UNIVERSITY’.

‘So what?’ you may ask. Well, it just so happens that this is the same box from the story ‘The Crate’ in Creepshow. A nice touch here is that in Creepshow, Professor Northrup disposed of the crate by throwing it in a nearby lake. Could that lake have been Crystal Lake?

The stories in Creepshow all take place in the same cinematic world (that within the pages of the Creepshow comic book). In this case, it’s worth noting that in the segment ‘The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill’ a road sign can be seen to Castle Rock, one of Stephen King’s trademark fictional towns (alongside Derry). Any fan of King knows that all of his work seems to be interlinked via a complex threadwork of connections, shared appearances and characters (not least of which his frankly SUPERB Dark Tower series). So how’s that for a cool link, people? This horror universe is also home to the master of modern horror's nightmarish creations!

Of course, King’s work has already provided links to other creations. In smash TV show Lost a parachute is seen emblazoned with the logo of Nozz-A-La, a fictional brand of soda from The Dark Tower series. JJ Abrams, Lost’s creator, is known for tying in links between his works. The fictional brand Slusho appears in a number of Abram’s works: Alias, Cloverfield, Fringe, Super 8, his Star Trek reboot and even in the TV show Heroes! The Lost character Charlie’s band, Driveshaft, can be heard playing their hit song ‘You All Everybody’ at a birthday party in Alias; the logo for Lost’s mysterious Dharma Initiative is viewed on the screen in Cloverfield. Furthermore, Oceanic Airlines, the airline of Lost’s crashed plane makes an appearance in a number of programmes, including Abram’s own Fringe (the specific flight 815 is name-checked in Chuck while the airline is also referenced in the film Executive Decision, Joss Whedon’s comic book season 8 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and even the computer game Dead Island. However, I am not going to open this list up to games, as it will become never ending! I’ll just give honorable mentions to the two Saw games which actually help to fill in some plot gaps and perfectly complement the films and the fact that a certain Freddy Krueger has appeared as a downloadable player in the Mortal Kombat series). A superb horror/sci fi hybrid, Fringe boasts links to two of its greatest predecessors.

One of the very coolest occurs in the episode ‘Firefly’ Walter is seen wearing a pair of very distinctive sunglasses. When asked about them, he replies: ‘They were sent to me by a Dr. Jacoby from Washington State.'

The classic series Twin Peaks took place in the town of Twin Peaks, Washington. The town’s resident psychiatrist Dr Lawrence Jacoby wore these very same glasses. It appears the two were once in correspondence!

And in the season 2 episode ‘New Day In An Old Town’ Senator Schell tells head of Fringe Division Chief Broyles that ‘The old X designation, and your Fringe investigations, have been indulgences in the Federal budget for over half a century’. A Federal investigation team dealing with paranormal and unusual cases? With the X designation? Who ever could they mean?

Of course, this is a none-to subtle reference to The X Files. The X Files itself was linked to multiple other shows, most notably spinoff The Lone Gunmen and LANCE FUCKING HENRIKSEN’s Millennium. The character of Jose Chung appears in both series while LFH’s Frank Black took a decent guest appearance in the X Files episode Millennium.

Coincidentally, online rumours persist that photos of Laura Palmer, the murder victim who sparked the events of Twin Peaks, have appeared in The X Files (most notably on Mulder’s noteboard in the Pilot). I’ve never been able to spot them, but if any of you do, let me know!

Anyway, enough of this distraction let’s head back to Jason Goes To Hell, where a key plot point sees Duke present Jessica with a mystical dagger to finally kill Jason. This dagger was the same Kandarian dagger that put in an appearance in The Evil Dead II.

AWESOME.

As a neat aside, I’d like to point out that outside the Voorhees house we see a rickety old climbing frame. This is the same frame from the Alfred Hitchcock classic, The Birds.

At this point I need to take a little break to tell you guys I LOVE THIS SHIT.

Ahem, anyway, moving on, while this world of brilliance may already seem crazily busy, we have a couple more cool connections. One you probably already know, the other, well, it’s a little subtler.

You see, after Jessica kicks Steve out of the car Sheriff Landis asks where about on Lake Road she did it. Her reply? ‘I don’t know, out past the Myers’ place.’

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell, I’m sure you all know that the psychotic Michael Myers was the villain in the Halloween films. While Camp Crystal Lake clearly isn't in Haddonfield, Illinois (the setting of Myers’ Halloween rampages) perhaps Mikey has family in Mr Voorhees old stamping ground?

The final (and most obvious) connection to another horror film takes place in the final moments of the film. While Jason’s mask lies discarded on the ground, a hand bursts through the dirt and snatches it before dragging it down to hell. This hand is wearing an all too familiar glove with knife blade claws.

In much the same way that an Alien xenomorph’s skull hanging on display onboard a Predator spacecraft in Predator II leads to Alien vs Predator, from this scene the surprisingly great Freddy vs Jason was born.

Now the Alien and Predator series are huge kings of the crossover. First off the numerous comic book match ups — including 2000A.D’s Judge Dredd and DC heroes such as Batman and Superman — open up a huge world of cross overs including Image Comics’ Spawn, rivals Marvel and tonnes more! 

Perhaps the most exciting of these though, is the link to the works of Joss Whedon. The Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off, Angel featured a demonic law firm by the name of Wolfram and Hart. During a corporate video shown on the episode Harm’s Way it is revealed that Wolfram and Hart have a number of large corporate clients. Listed among these are Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems, first mentioned in the Thomas Pynchon’s novel V, then referenced again in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai. Another company listed with ties to Wolfram and Hart is Weyland-Yutani. That’s right, the self same company that sent the Nostromo into space in Alien and went looking for the crashed ship on LV-426 in Aliens. The company founded by Peter Weyland as seen in the upcoming Prometheus.

HOLY CRAP, right?

But it doesn’t stop there. Whedon’s work continues to embrace this connection. In the pilot of the criminally short-lived sci fi show Firefly, Captain Malcolm ‘Mal’ Reynolds uses a UA 57-D Ground Sentry (an anti-aircraft cannon emplacement) at the Battle of Serenity Valley. When the gun’s HUD is displayed onscreen we are clearly shown the corporate logo of Weyland-Yutani. The Company created the cannon. BOOM!

Yet Joss Whedon toys with us and horror continuity even more. This is some thing we shall return to later.

Anyway, back to F vs J, and if ever there was evidence that these films are taking place in the same world, a film in which two of the most popular antagonists in horror go head to head is the greatest example.

Seeing Voorhees and Krueger face off was a dream come true for many horror fans... and things nearly got so much better.

After the film proved to be a tremendous financial success, writers went to work on ideas for a sequel. This sequel? Freddy vs Jason vs Ash.

Ash.

BRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCE CAMPBELL's character from the Evil Dead series.

OMFG.

Things even got so far that a treatment was drawn up, describing exactly what would happen in this horror mega mash up. A quick look online will probably turn it up in just a few seconds. I'll wait here while you do.

Back? Good.

Unfortunately the film was never made, but this treatment was adapted into a comic series and even spawned a sequel. It was pretty good fun too!

Of course, this isn’t the first horror property to head to the pages of funny books. Voorhees, Krueger, Ash and Myers have all had their own individual efforts, but some familiar faces join them. One more big name bad guy to feature in comics would be the Goodguy doll formerly known as Charles Lee Ray. That’s right, Child's Play's Chucky.

As well as featuring in his own limited series, Chucky also guested in probably THE greatest horror comic out there, Tim Seeley’s Hack/Slash.

For those of you who haven’t heard of it, it features Cassie Hack, a girl who was forced to kill her own psycho mother, the ghoulish Lunch Lady, and her hulking partner Vlad. These two tough as hell heroes travel from town to town taking on and vanquishing Slashers, the undead and seemingly invincible villains that all too often stalk the screens in horror films. The series is excellent and features it’s own links to other horror icons. As well as Chucky, Cassie and Vlad have thrown down with another horror comic star, Edgar Dill from the short-lived Fangoria Comic's BUMP. In terms of silver screen villains, the dynamic duo have also crossed swords with the Hatchet films’ Victor Crowley and, perhaps even more exciting, Dr Herbert West from the Re-Animator series (as an aside, West also battled the Evil Dead’s Ash in Army of Darkness vs Re-Animator while Ash has found himself battling undead superheroes in the Marvel Zombies series).

Of course, if comics aren’t your thing, Chucky also has onscreen links to more of his contemporaries. These all occur during his fourth outing, Bride of Chucky.

This mainly comes down to one key scene at the beginning of the film. In the police evidence storeroom that holds Chucky’s remains, we are also treated to a number of key distinctive props: Jason Voorhees’ hockey mask can be seen alongside Freddy Krueger’s trademark glove. Elsewhere you can spot a huge chainsaw, the killing weapon of choice of Leatherface from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and a customised white William Shatner mask... as worn by Halloween’s Michael Myers.

As if this treasure trove of links wasn’t enough, after brutally slaying one victim with a nailgun, Chucky looks at the corpse and asks out loud: ‘Why does that look so familiar?’ With his head pierced by multiple nails, John Ritter’s victim bears a striking resemblance to the lead Cenobite from the Hellraiser films, Pinhead.

The implication here is clearly that Chucky has seen Pinhead before. Perhaps Charles Lee Ray's soul received some personal attention from the Cenobites in the underworld? (Coincidentally, an earlier draft of the script for Freddy vs Jason saw the two horror villains dragged down to Hell where they still attempted to continue their battle... right up until a number of hooks and chains drag them apart and Pinhead steps between them to ask: ‘Gentlemen, what seems to be the problem?’)

But Bride of Chucky isn’t the only film to write itself into the big boys’ league. Perhaps the most awesome and comprehensive young pretender to do this would be Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon. If you haven’t seen it, WATCH THIS FILM!

A kickass deconstruction of the slasher genre, the film follows a documentary crew as they film the title character Leslie Vernon as he plans his rampage to join the ranks of his idols: Myers, Voorhees et al.

The film takes place in a world where these horror film monsters are real and gives us plenty of links to prove it. These include (but aren’t limited to): Leslie standing outside the Rabbit in Red Lounge — in the original Halloween when Dr Loomis travels to Smith’s Grove Sanitarium with Marion Chambers, she lights her cigarettes with matches from the Rabbit in Red Lounge (In Rob Zombie’s remake the bar is revealed to be a strip joint where Michael’s mother Deborah worked. Quite what this says about Nurse Chambers is entirely up to you to decide…); in her documentary, Taylor name checks Haddonfield, Illinois; 1428 Elm Street (Nancy’s address), Springwood and Crystal Lake; the Lament Configuration (Lemarchand’s puzzle box from Hellraiser) can be seen in Leslie’s mentor, Eugene’s house; in fact Eugene’s car is a 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 — the same car used in the Evil Dead and all the rest of Sam Raimi’s films; when Leslie is stalking his prey outside the school the three Elm Street skipping girls can be seen in the background; a bottle of ‘Stay Awake’, the medicine from A Nightmare on Elm Street can be seen in Leslie’s home; Leslie’s pet turtles Church and Zowie are an allusion to two of the pets in the Pet Sematary films; and in a deleted scene from the film Leslie mentions that he has ‘spent some time in Texas, helping a friend kind of reinvent his thing’ — this is a reference to the remake of Texas Chain Saw Massacre (the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, see what they did there?) and suggests that Leslie and Leatherface are friends.

Phew, let’s take a breath while you take all of that in.

Back? Good, because it doesn’t end there! In Hatchet 2, one of Reverend Zombie’s hunting party reveals that his hometown had it’s own psycho killer, much like their intended target, Victor Crowley. This killer’s name?

Leslie Vernon.

NICE.

But that’s not the only connection in Hatchet 2. For those of you who haven’t seen Green’s Frozen, the film about a group of friends who become stranded on a ski lift, look away now…

SPOILERS: Parker, the sole survivor of Frozen is shown recounting her ordeal on a news programme on the TV in the background.

Of course Green isn’t the only director to deliberately link his films. With interconnectivity and crossovers in everything from Charles Band’s numerous Full Moon titles, including Puppet Master, Doll Man and Demonic Toys, to ‘Bloody’ Bill Pon’s Dollboy and Circus of the Dead sharing characters, this is a very common practice. A quick link can be spotted between the Saw series and writer and director Leigh Whannell and James Wan’s Dead Silence. In the theatre that the terrifying, tongue-stealing witch Mary Shaw made her home, Billy, Jigsaw’s creepy ventriloquist’s dummy is quite clearly shown nestled among Shaw’s collection of puppets.

Furthermore Billy the puppet’s face can be seen in graffiti on a wall in Wan’s Death Sentence, while in the creepy Insidious Billy can be seen drawn on a blackboard in Josh’s classroom. Insidious also depicts a certain mask used to travel into the dream world… this mask is the very same worn by the title character in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comic series. Now, if we’re allowing the comic connections, Sandman has links to Hellblazer’s John Constantine and Swamp Thing. Of course Swamp Thing has his ties to the Justice League, who, featuring Batman and Superman can now link us back to the Alien/Predator world and their link to Joss Whedon’s work.

A-ha, THAT man again. And don’t worry, I hadn’t forgot. Soooo… this is where I’m going to discuss some spoilers to his recent Cabin In The Woods.

If you haven’t seen this film look away! You do NOT want it spoiled.

SERIOUSLY.

Still here?

Sure you’ve seen it and are ready for the discussion to come?

On your head be it…

SPOILERS: the main plot of The Cabin In The Woods follows a worldwide conspiracy in which all major and common horror stories are part of an elaborate conspiracy to pacify Lovecraftian (him again!) Ancient Gods and prevent them from destroying our world.

The climax of the film features all manner of hideous horror filmesque bad guys running amok. Among these you can see a Reaver, the insane space wildmen from Whedon’s own Firefly… bringing this film into that world too.

Now this is all well and good and under this framework you could argue that ALL the other horror films tie into it.

But that’s not enough for you? ‘None of the actual horror villains are mentioned!’ I hear you cry!

WRONG. The employees of the mysterious conspiracy take bets on what form the sacrifice will take each year. As part of this pool all the creatures’ names are jotted down on a whiteboard.

Among the Vampires, Merman and Dolls there are a couple of other interesting names… Angry Molesting Tree and (even more specific) Deadites.

The very same name given to the possessed villains of the Evil Dead.

The same Evil Dead that boast BRUUUUUUCE CAMPBELL’s Ash character, plus the Necronomicon I mentioned that made a guest appearance all the way back at the beginning of this piece in Jason Goes To Hell.

So that’s just about EVERYTHING drawn together. Thank you, thank you very much.

Before I wrap up, I’d just like to point out one more connection. Not a link, so much as a crazy paradox. In the first Scream, Randy’s character is clearly seen to be watching Halloween on TV. In the world of Scream, Halloween is fiction… yet in the Halloween sequel H2O, the characters are shown watching Scream 2. So Scream is fiction in the world of Halloween? But events in Halloween are commented on in the previous film? Or maybe both worlds are viewing each other through the TV screen!

MINDFUCK!!!!!!!

Anyway, of course with the links I’ve listed it’s entirely possible to dismiss some or even find a few that I have undoubtedly missed. The ongoing continuity of such epic, ongoing stories is BOUND to cause problems trying to balance each timeline.

But that’s the fun of these films. Of course they don’t exist in an actual, physical universe. Their home is the imagination of the people that create them and the people that love the genre: us, the fans.

So what do you think? Have I missed anything obvious? Reached a little too far with some? Drop a comment or two and I’ll update this regularly.

If you haven’t already, do please check out and like the Hickey’s House of Horrors Facebook page, which you can find here. It gives you a nice quick link to any new posts on this blog, plus regular news updates from around the web. I check the Internet so you don’t have to! Alternatively, follow me on twitter: The House@HickeysHorrors

Until next time, I hope you enjoyed your stay.