Check out the Tom DeSimone interview on Retro Slashers Blog!

Great director of a fantastic movie (amongst others) called Hell Night and brother of Bob DeSimone, who us Friday The 13th fans know as Billy in Friday The 13th Part V!

“It was always my goal, even as a child, to make movies. I started making 8mm films when I was ten and continued on all through high school. Mostly using friends, family and table-top models for my projects. It was always my intention, if I would be so lucky, to go to California and work in films. After getting my Masters in Motion Picture Production at UCLA I worked at various companies making educational films and shorts. Mostly as an editor. My first real mainstream movie was Chatterbox. I had an old story outline for an X-rated comedy called Lips. A producer saw it, liked it and we joined forces and it became Chatterbox. American International did the theatrical releases.”

Check out the rest- it's a great interview!

"Friday the 13th": Breathing new life into the horror genre.

Someone posted this on the Friday The 13th-Community and I found it interesting:

LOS ANGELES: When the filmmakers behind the new "Friday the 13th" began plotting their resurrection of the gore-besotted horror franchise, they understood they were riding the knife edge of a series (and genre) with its own sets of rules. Campers die. People who have sex die. No matter how fast they move, the victims can never get away. And Jason Voorhees, the hockey-mask-wearing killer, never runs. He walks. But the producers knew they could not go wrong with sliding a topless waterskiing scene between the episodes of carnage and mayhem. Because in movies like "Friday the 13th" less is never more, particularly when it comes to showcasing comely teenagers (aka the victims).
While very little about "Friday the 13th" can be called delicate, there's a fine line between reinventing such an institution and alienating the people who make up its meat and potatoes. The genre demands those good-looking, feckless young men and beautiful, courageous women; the geysers of blood erupting from the imperiled campers; and Jason in a hockey mask, a machete in hand, slaughtering human livestock until someone drowns him, or feeds him into a wood chipper.

Read the rest.

Tom Savini: Misanthrope or Misunderstood?

Growing up in the 1980's and seeing Tom Savini's name attached to 1/2 of all of the significant horror films in my golden age sort of sets me up to really admire what Savini has done. I remember reading about him in Fangoria and thinking how cool this guy must be. Sadly, this is not the case- my only encounter with Tom was not bad, however no words were exchanged so I can not have an opinion good or bad about the guy. It just seems that the fans are split half and half- one half thinks that he is burnt out to the point where he hates conventions and in turn treats his fans like shit. The other half is completely opposite- they think he is super nice to the fans and is very fan oriented.

Dark Deilicacies "His Name Was Jason" signing video.

I thought this was a really neat watch- it was really nice to see unfamiliar faces to the Friday The 13th signing circuit like Erich Anderson, Gloria Charles and Elizabeth Kaitan. Dark Delicacies are known for their huge DVD signings, but this one takes the cake! Here's a YouTube video of it- note Richard Brooker's misinformation at 1:25 in. LOL.

Night Owl Productions repaint by Erich Lubatti.

I recently obtained this Night Owl Productions "Hack" from a collector and really disliked the pain job. I asked around the Night Owl Productions forum for someone to repaint it and Erich Lubatti from Lubatti Designs came highly recommended. So, needless to say for a very reasonable fee I had him repaint it and - WOW - what a difference. Note: the photos of the repaint is not completely finished.

BEFORE.

AFTER.

Mezco Cinema Of Fear Series 4 pre-order.

Man, gotta love this Jason III figure- captures the Brooker stature to a tee. Two others in the series 4 are A Nightmare On Elm Street related so go take a look and pre-order if you want these- they may sell out as fast as the last!

Is 3-D horror making a come back?

In the 1980's a good handful of horror movies (mainly Part III's) were released in 3-D, maybe you recognize the names; Friday The 13th Part III, Jaws III, Amityville III? It seemed like the huge success of Friday The 13th Part III paved the way for these movies in hopes to capture the same success, for the most part it did not happen. Friday The 13th Part III up until recently was the highest grossing 3-D film of all time, only to be dethroned by Spy Kids 3-D. Although the 1980's gave a valiant effort the 3-D craze of the 1950's was not recaptured and seemed to die with a bunch of failures like Silent Madness and Parasite.

A fan perspective: Friday The 13th I-III and His Name Was Jason DVD review.

I really don't want to let people down with this being one of the biggest horror releases of the year and all. I was really excited for these and got them all, came home and popped them in. First and foremost all of the movies had a better transfer, which really makes the DVDs worthwhile in my opinion. However, that's where it ends- I am a sucker for behind the scenes, making of..., cast interviews and all of those awesome extras that every other Special Edition gets. Aside from Part I we got none of those, or at least nothing new. It really seems like that the same cast members over and over and I am not beating these people up, but am I the only one who is freaking tired of Ari Lehman's story? Why hasn't Warrington Gillette shut up yet? How many ways can you talk about a 6 second scene?

Benevolent Street: Friday The 13th in memorium.

The late and lovely Laurie Bartram

Benevolent Street did up this extra sweet, extra special blog post on the late Friday Th1 3th cast members. It has been posted allover, but I wanted to do so as well!

With the remake of Friday the 13th hitting thereat in a little over a week, I think now is the perfect time to honor the franchise alumns who are no longer with us. Without these guys and girls, the Friday universe would not be what it is today. And in fact, without them today, that universe is just a little bit smaller. However, as sad as it is, it is only natural and inevitable that in the 3 decades now that the series has been running, a few of those stars were bound to burn out. However, by watching these movies over and over again and remembering these men and women, we are keeping them as immortal as Jason Voorhees himself.

We have lost a total of 12 on screen personas in the Friday the 13th franchise over the course of, ironically, 12 installments. Lets take a moment to remember those who have passed on.

Ruste Dowg interviews Derek Mears.

People know Dowg for his hockey masks, and that's all good and well since he is one of the top hockey mask painters out there. If you don't frequent horror and mask forums you may not have known that he also interviewed Derek Mears, Mister Jason 2009 himself!

Dowg: What did you think the first time you saw it (the mask)?