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Archive for October, 2012

AWESOME-tober-fest 2012: Movie Maniac Halloween costumes

Posted in A Nightmare on Elm Street, costumes, Freddy Krueger, Friday the 13th, Halloween, holiday, Jason Vorhees, Leatherface, movies, Texas Chainsaw Massacre with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2012, costumes, Freddy Krueger, Friday the 13th, Halloween, holiday, Jason Voorhees, Leatherface, movies, Nightmare on Elm Street, Texas Chainsaw Massacre on October 24, 2012 by Paxton

One of the best things about being a fan of the movie maniacs is being able to dress up as them for Halloween. Let’s take a look at some of the costumes that exist for some of our favorite movie maniacs.

Back in 1987, Collegeville released a Freddy Krueger “smock” costume similar to the old Ben Cooper designs.

(Via nightmareonelmstreetfilms.com)

It’s probably 100% nostalgic, but I love these costumes.

Next up is a Party City flyer from 2008.

Throughout this very large flyer with tons of costumes, there are a plethora of zombies and super heroes, but only two movie maniacs. And I’m only talking about one of those maniacs this year. Check out in the upper right, costumes for Jason Voorhees and Chucky.

You don’t even see those costumes on the inside of the flyer, only on the cover. I’m surprised these two are featured. Remember, this flyer was in 2008. The Friday the 13th reboot wouldn’t happen until the following year and Chucky’s previous movie was in 2004. By contrast, Leatherface had his reboot prequel only two years prior, so of anyone, he should be on the cover. Just strange.

Next up is a current Party City flyer from 2012. Not surprisingly, the Avengers are all over this thing.

This flyer is a little better in that it has four movie maniacs. Three of which I’m covering this year. Here’s the full page of scary costumes.

The movie maniacs are mostly on the second row (Freddy, Jason and Michael Myers). You can also see Ghostface from Scream in the first row. Again, I’m surprised there isn’t a Leatherface costume.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2012: A timeline of video games featuring the movie maniacs

Posted in A Nightmare on Elm Street, Freddy Krueger, Friday the 13th, Jason Vorhees, Leatherface, movies, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, TV shows with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2012, Friday the 13th, Halloween, holiday, Jason Voorhees, Leatherface, Michael Myers, movies, music, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, TV shows on October 23, 2012 by Paxton

Today I’m going to do another “mixed” article featuring all of the movie maniacs. So, let’s take a look at some vintage video games that feature the movie maniacs.

(Via AtariAge.com)
In 1983 Wizard Video Games released a Halloween game for the Atari 2600. It was based on the first Halloween movie by John Carpenter. In the game you play a babysitter trying to protect the children from Michael Myers.

(Via AtariAge.com)
Also in 1983, and also for the Atari 2600, Wizard Video Games released a video game based on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. In this game you take the role of Leatherface and try to murder as many people as you can while avoiding obstacles like fences and cow skulls. Yes, I agree, that sounds pretty awesome. Due to the violent nature, however, the game incited many protests and forced many store owners to put it behind the counter away from children. Despite this, I think it’s interesting that this is the only game I can think of where you take the role of the killer. I’m surprised that’s not done more today.

The first Friday the 13th video game was released in 1985 for the Commodore 64 and other computer systems. You play as a group of camp counselors protecting your campers from zombies and the occasional appearance of Jason. Screenshot courtesy of Giant Bomb.

F13 NES screenshot
There was a Friday the 13th video game released by LJN in 1989 for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It is famously considered one of the worst NES titles ever released. You have to love that box art, though. It’s gameplay is very similar to the 1985 computer game in that you control counselors who are protecting campers from zombies, crows, wolves and, of course, Jason.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2012: Freddy vs Jason vs Ash comic books (2003)

Posted in Friday the 13th, Jason Vorhees, Leatherface, movies, pop culture, Texas Chainsaw Massacre with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2012, Evil Dead, Freddy Krueger, Friday the 13th, Halloween, holiday, Jason Voorhees, Leatherface, movies, Nightmare on Elm Street, pop culture on October 22, 2012 by Paxton

In 2007, Dynamite Comics and Wildstorm Entertainment combined forces to publish the horror comic crossover Freddy vs Jason vs Ash.

The epic crossover was a 6 issue limited series written by James Kuhoric and Jeff Katz and drawn by Jason Craig. The awesome puzzle cover above for issue #1 was actually drawn by J Scott Campbell and Eric Powell. You can click it to see it bigger on Flickr.

This series was based on a script treatment written by Jeff Katz. The story served as a sequel to Freddy vs Jason as well as the Evil Dead series. However, I think the licensing for Ash fell through and the studios decided to go another way. So the story never went any further. However, Katz kept his treatment alive and actively campaigned to get it made into a comic book.

Will and Lori, from Freddy vs Jason, return to Crystal Lake to get closure and finish off Jason once and for all. However, Jason kills them. We learn that Freddy is trapped inside Jason’s mind and is using the image of Jason’s mother to convince him to find the Necronomicon and deliver it to Freddy. Freddy plans to use it to escape into the real world. Meanwhile, Ash is transferred to the Forest Green (formerly Crystal Lake) S-Mart and identifies the recent spate of disappearances and murders as the work of Deadites. Ash gathers the teenage crew of the S-Mart to confront Jason and a newly formed and fully powered Freddy. A bloodletting ensues. There’s even a scene in which Freddy resurrects all of Jason’s previous victims in order to stop him when he turns on Freddy. Pretty cool stuff.

I could see this being a worthy entry into the franchises. Again, this seems to be Freddy’s story in which Jason and Ash make appearances. I like how it was handled and it would have been fun to see this on the big screen. And the artwork was really good as well.

In 2009, Jeff Katz and James Kuhoric returned to write a sequel called Freddy vs Jason vs Ash: Nightmare Warriors.

The government resurrects Jason and Freddy looking to harness their supernatural abilities and the power of the Necronomicon to create an army of demonic soldiers. However, as you’d expect, the government can’t control them and they get loose. Ash forms a team to fight the monsters, known informally as the Nightmare Warriors. It includes former franchise characters Tommy Jarvis who appeared in Friday the 13th Parts 4-6 and Tina Shepard who appeared in part 7 and has telekinetic powers. Again, the story is fun and a definite horror fanboy’s dream. Lots of killing and HUGE epic fights. There’s also some subplots talking about how the original Freddy used the Necronomicon to become the dream being he is now. Very cool stuff. I highly recommend it.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

AWESOME-tober-fest 2012: A review of Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

Posted in Halloween, holiday, movies, pop culture, reviews with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2012, Freddy Krueger, Halloween, holiday, movies, Nightmare on Elm Street, pop culture, reviews on October 19, 2012 by Paxton

Platinum Dunes had a minor success with their Texas Chainsaw Massacre reboot in 2003. 2009’s Friday the 13th reboot also actually made some money. So, in 2010, New Line and Platinum Dunes decided to reboot the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise.

I am a fan of Freddy Krueger as well as the slasher movies of the 80s. However, if I had to pick, I was more of a Jason guy myself. But I enjoyed the Nightmare movies, especially the first one and the third one. I was intrigued by this reboot, I enjoyed the Friday the 13th reboot by New Line/Platinum Dunes in 2009 and I loved the idea of Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy, so I was anxious to see how well they pulled this off.

Unlike the Friday the 13th reboot, I had not watched this movie beforehand, it was my first viewing. I was intrigued by the idea of Jackie Haley playing Freddy and I really liked the look of Freddy from the trailer. I didn’t go into it with HIGH expectations, per say, but I was optimistic.

Check out the trailer:

I think the best thing about the movie is the “look and feel”. It was definitely grittier and more dark than the later Nightmare movies. I also liked Haley as Freddy. His mannerisms and his look were very well realized. I even thought Haley was slightly more menacing than the original Freddy, well at least the version from the later movies. The wise-cracking jokester killer. All in all, I enjoyed it. It sort of fell apart at the end, mainly because I think the teens in the movie weren’t very interesting. I didn’t really like anybody. Rooney Mara was okay if a bit understated as Nancy. Katie Cassidy did pretty good, but I think I just got bored with the teens by the end. I like the way Freddy is “dispatched” in the final battle and how the final stinger shot is sort of an homage to the final shot in the original Nightmare movie.

I liked it, but I didn’t love it. However, that being said, I would watch another Jackie Haley as Freddy Nightmare movie. I think the potential is there to have a really good sequel. Especially if they follow along the story lines of Nightmare 3: Dream Warriors.

And they have to reunite Dokken for the soundtrack. That is a must.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2012: Marvel Comics’ A Nightmare on Elm Street magazine (1989)

Posted in A Nightmare on Elm Street, comic books, Freddy Krueger, magazine, movies, pop culture with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2012, comic books, Freddy Krueger, Halloween, holiday, magazines, Marvel Comics, Nightmare on Elm Street on October 18, 2012 by Paxton

In 1989 Marvel comics released the magazine Freddy Krueger’s A Nightmare on Elm Street.

The magazine had gorgeously painted covers by Joe Jusko. The interior art was in black and white and done by Rich Buckler and Tony DeZuniga. Tony DeZuniga also worked on the awesome MGM’s Marvelous Wizard of Oz magazine I’ve talked about before for my Oz series. The interior stories were written by Steve Gerber. The magazines were published around the release of Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child. At the time, comics were coming under fire for being too violent and Nightmare 5 was getting protests in LA for this very reason. This general backlash caused Marvel to decide to cancel the magazine after issue #2. Marvel wasn’t receiving pressure from anyone and the magazine actually sold fairly well, Marvel just wanted to avoid any problems so they quietly folded the magazine.

It’s a shame the magazine was canceled. The story was pretty interesting. The first issue even has a few pages devoted to its own version of Freddy’s origin involving Amanda Krueger’s entrapment, beating and rape within the walls of a mental hospital. The art is pretty good too, especially in the first issue. The second half of the second issue, though, the art becomes a little uneven and a little inconsistent. Sometimes it’s nicely inked and sometimes it looks like pencil drawings. A little weird.

Check out two samples of the art. On the left is a nicely inked page from early in the issue and on the right is a page that looks more “pencil-like” with very little inking. You can click the images to see them BIGGER.

It goes on like that for the last 10 pages or so. Sometimes only one panel on the page will have the “pencil” look. I guess they knew the mag was being canceled and just rushed it out. Which makes sense since the second issue of this magazine is extremely hard to find.

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