Monster-Mania August 2022

 August 13, 2022 marked my return to Monster-Mania after not having been there since 2019. I went there with my friend and Master's Minion, Freddie. It was a packed show, both in terms of guests and attendees. A lot came for the Scream reunion, especially for David Arquette and Matthew Lillard, both who had insane lines (Arquette's line looked like absolute nightmare!). But, since I like but am not the biggest fan of that franchise and figured the horrors the Arquette line would be, it really wasn't any loss to me. 

To me, as a ridiculously HUGE Aliens fan, the person I was most pumped to meet was Carrie Henn. She was a little girl when she played Newt in James Cameron's superior, classic sci-fi/ action/ horror sequel. She is rare to cons, in fact, this might only be her second one. Anywho, she is a teacher, nowadays and was so sweet and friendly in person. It was a great way for our day to start. 

Up next for me was Lynn Eastman- Rossi, who played Sally in Don Coscarelli's classic Phantasm. That's one of my favorite movies, and she really doesn't do a lot of cons, if any, either. As such, she was another actress I was excited to meet. The wife of Leo (Halloween II, Maniac Cop 2) Rossi (who was signing autographs right next to her), she's appeared in many other movies, like Night of the Demon (1983) and the underrated Unlawful Entry. She was incredibly amicable and down to earth, in person. We talked about how nice the Tall Man, himself, Angus Scrimm was. I told that he was the first celeb that I ever met, when I was about 13 or so. She also told me that she and her hubby were gonna take a vacation after the weekend of the con was over. Like, I said incredibly sweet and humble in person.

The next celeb I met was dying to do so was Debra S. Hayes, AKA Claudette, the girl of the couple to get killed first in the classic opening to slasher masterpiece Friday the 13th (1980). The fact that she is one of the first two victims in one of horror's most prolific franchise made her a must meet! And, as I have said before, to me the first remains, easily the best in the series and one of the greatest slashers ever made. Anywho, she was very sweet and all smiles in person.  

This cosplay of Spikey from Killer Klowns from Outer Space was probably my favorite cosplay that I saw at the con!

After getting some lunch (which we had to walk to Dunkin Donuts for cause there was a half hour wait for food on top of the half hour we had already waited to get to the front of the line...), we went back to meeting celebs. And, we met the absolutely gorgeous Julie (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Dexter) Benz. She has long been one of my favorite actresses and my actual favorite on Buffy/ Angel, where she played vampire hottie and Angel's sire, Darla. I actually met her years ago at a Chiller, where I only got her autograph and not a pic with her. This time, I did the opposite and finally got a pic with her! 

She is absolutely AMAZING in person, as she talked to us for a good amount of time. We even talked about doggies, including hers and the loss of mine. She was so sweet and friendly. Not only does she look amazing, and clearly doesn't age (maybe she is really a vampire!), but also one of the nicest celebs I've ever met at a con. I did mention that I had met her at a Chiller ages ago. She thought about it for a bit and then was like she was in her 20s when she did that con!

The last person that I went up to was Zach (Gremlins 1&2, Waxwork 1&2) Galligan. Despite the fact that the two Gremlins movies are two of my favorite movies of all time, I had never gone up to him. I finally did and got a great pic with him!

These are the autographs that I got on that day. All are my discs from my collection:
Aliens: Carrie Henn

Friday the 13th: Debra S. Hayes

Phantasm: Lynn Eastman-Rossi

This is all the swag that I bought:

Phummy plush by Kid Robot of King Ghidorah

Thundarr the Barbarian: The Complete Series on Blu-Ray (which I bought of Diabolik DVD's booth)

Universal Monsters Creature from the Black Lagoon Gill-Man from Jada Toys

The Evil Dead and Maniac T-shirts from Fright-Rags.

I had a great time, and all of the celebs that we met were so nice. That being said, we were exhausted by the end of the day. 

Before I go I felt it would be wrong of me to not bring up that Gary Busey was kicked out of Monster-Mania on Sunday for alleged sexual offense charges. These is obviously disgusting and abhorrent behavior. You can read more about it here.

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The 10 Best Horror Movies of 1984

1984 is a year that doesn't have as many quality movies as the years before it, but it still has much to talk about. For one thing it has some legitimate great movies, including at least three or two classics of the genre. One of them, being Wes Craven's finest film, one that changed and influenced the genre in the years to come. It also marks an interesting batch of movies that mix the horror genre with others (you'll find a couple here!), or other genres taking in bits of horror (namely The Terminator and Ghostbusters, both great movies, but neither actual horror films, hence their omission from this list).

Honorable Mentions:
Terror in the Aisles
Firestarter 

10. Death Warmed Up- This New Zealand splatter movie is under seen and underrated but is a rollicking good time. Fast paced and violent, this one is definitely one that gorehounds will totally dig. It hadn't been available since the glory days of VHS (which is where I originally saw it), but thank the gore gods Severin put out a superlative Blu-ray of it.

9. The Company of Wolves- This British flick is a Gothic, horror take on Little Red Riding Hood with werewolves. Coming from Neil (Interview with the Vampire) Jordan this is a beautiful and stylish film with Sarah  Patterson as a teenage Riding Hood.

8. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter- The best of the first half of the Paramount Friday sequels, this one has Jason come off specially menacing. It's got a great climax, a dancing Crispin Glover to Lion (also known for doing the theme song to The Transformers: The Movie), hot girls, the introduction of Tommy Jarvis (here played by a young Coery Haim), and some great FX by Tom Savini. It is the goriest of the Paramount films (at least in the only available versions), with the best and bloodiest "death" of Jason.

7. Savage Streets- This violent and exciting rape revenge flick throws in some great action on top of the exploitation quota. It also has two scream queens in it, as Linda Blair takes revenge on the scum who rape her deaf-mute sister Heather played by Linnea Quigley. A cult classic that ranks among the best of Blair's work.

6. C.H.U.D.- This minor classic is a very cool and entertaining monster movie. The acting is solid and helps to elevate the movie's quality, as do the C.H.U.Ds themselves. Over the years, this flick has gained an even wider cult status, even being mentioned on several mainstream TV shows.

5. Silent Night, Deadly Night- This well acted, and at times dark, slasher film is better than a lot of its kind. The controversy that it caused only adds to the fun of it. On top of being a great holiday flick, it also gave us a topless Linnea Quigley getting impaled on antlers, an iconic kill in its own right.

4. Ninja III: The Domination- This genre bender is like an 80's greatest hits package in a movie. You get: ninjas, demonic possession, aerobics, and big hair! I actually like this one more as time as passes by, but how can one not love a movie where an evil, dead ninja possesses a hot chick (Lucinda Dickey)? In all this is truly awesome cheese from Cannon Films.

3. The Toxic Avenger- Troma's most iconic film is truly one of their best. Hilarious and ultra-violent, it's a blast to watch. Politically incorrect jokes, splatter galore, hot babes, and nudity abound, setting the precedent for most of the Troma movies to come. Toxie is such a beloved figure and superhero, that despite this movie being an R/ unrated flick, it managed to inspire a fucking kids cartoon, The Toxic Crusaders! That dear friends is 80's as it gets!

2. Gremlins- This amazing horror/ comedy is endearing, scary, cute, violent, imaginative, funny, gory, and heartwarming. How many fucking movies can be described by all those words? Not many, I dare say. The cast does a wonderful job, and Chris Walas, FX are absolutely amazing. Enough, so that every viewing, I have had with this film (since childhood, might I add) has made me wish Gizmo was real. Director Joe Dante fills the flick with enough in-jokes and wonderment to film a whole bunch of movies. To put it more bluntly, this classic is my favorite of all Christmas horror movies, and one of the greatest horror comedies ever made.

1. A Nightmare on Elm Street- Wes Craven's masterpiece, is without a shadow of a doubt, in my mind, the greatest slasher movie ever made. Creepy, scary, gory, and highly original, it is superior to not just its own sequels, but any movie of the same ilk. The acting is extremely strong and Craven's directing is at its most excellent level. It, of course, gave birth to one of the most iconic villains in the genre, Freddy Krueger. This appearance might be his scariest. It also gave us one of the greatest final girls ever in Nancy Thompson bought to life by the beautiful Heather Langenkamp. This is without question, not just the best horror flick of 1984, but one of the greatest horror movies ever made.


What are your guys favorite horror films from 1984? Let me know in the comments section below. And, be sure to check out the preceding year rankings by clicking on the links below.

The 10 Best Horror Movies of 1980
The 10 Best Horror Movies of 1981
The 10 Best Horror Movies of 1982
The 10 Best Horror Movies of 1983

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Toy Fair 2020- NECA Toys- Horror Edition, Part 2: Aliens, Predators, and Gremlins!

Last time I bought you the first part of my look at NECA's upcoming horror toys displayed at this year's Toy Fair. Now, let's dive right into the second part of them!

As always, they have a whole bunch of Alien and Predator figures coming out. And, of course, they look cool as fucking hell!

The Alien/ Aliens figures:

Predator:

We will also be getting some new Gremlins 2: The New Batch figures.

And, speaking of Gremlins, they put up an awesome as hell, diorama, based on the bar scene from the first Joe Dante classic. You can also see the upcoming Ultimate Flasher, among the figures (directly below)!

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Horror Action Figures from NECA at Toy Fair 2019, Part 1

The annual event Toy Fair was held between February 16-19, 2019 at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City, as it always is. I was there on-hand, as press, and, as in the past, will share some of my favorite toys that I saw at the event. Let's begin, with who hands down, had my favorite booth this year: NECA!! I will be focusing on their horror toys for this and upcoming second part.

Godzilla fans have a lot to look forward to. With the new American movie Godzilla: King of the Monsters, NECA is going all out to please us giant monster lovers:

I absolutely LOVED their Gremlins set-up and toys being displayed:

Terminator fans can currently get toys inspired by the old T2 Kenner toy line:

Fans of one of the greatest directors in the genre, Guillermo del Toro, will also have much to celebrate:

I'll end this part with all the awesome Stephen King's It/ Pennywise (both mini-series and movie) coming out (and, there is gonna be a lot!):

To be continued!

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NECA Brings the Horror Figures to Toy Fair 2018

NECA continues to put out awesome toys, many of them horror related. Here then are their upcoming toys that were shown off at this year's Toy Fair in New York City that fellow horror fans will be dying to own.

Let's begin with Predator, in particular the upcoming Aliens Vs. Predator line that is based on the video game, hence the cool and fun colors that you will be seeing below!

There will also be more Kenner inspired Aliens, as seen below:

Stephen King and Pennywise fans take heed of the awesome It figures coming out, based on both versions! The accessories on these are cool as freaking hell!

The Gremlin above isn't licensed yet, but goddamn is cool! I hope he gets made!

Evil Dead fans have much to rejoice, as there are toys coming from both Ash Vs. Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn!

 This new Ashy Slashy has some teeth, sharp ones, at that!

Those of you who follow my site, might say hey wasn't the above set from "Evil Dead 2" suppose to come out already? Well, they got pushed back for some redefining. But, I know that they will be worth our wait!

Friday the 13th fans are also getting some cool ass toys! Check these out!

Guillermo Del Toro is without question one of the genre's greatest directors. As such it is great to see his classics inspire the following stunning toys:

The final batch of horror toys that I am showing you guys are:

We are getting an official "The Fog" figure from John Carpenter's classic. He is so fucking awesome!

Plus, two new Freddy figures! One from "Dream Warriors" (left) and one from "The Dream Child" (right). both with our favorite one line delivering dream demon looking quite spiffy!

But, they toy I am most pumped for is this Herbert West from Re-Animator! Being that that is my all time favorite movie, you cannot begin to understand the joy that it gives me! It even comes with a Dr. Hill head and Rufus the cat!! I need this NOW in my life!

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