Is this the end of Fangoria? **UPDATE**

Looks like Fangoria.com is back live...sorta. The site is back live but I noticed a couple of things seemed a little off:

• The last post was made on January 10th
• The site has reverted back to the old design (it had been redesigned recently)
• The forums are still not working

After my initial post yesterday, I got a few tweets from former Fangoria staff members. So here are a few updates:

• Correction from yesterday. That new blog is made up of the former MAGAZINE staff not the web writers
• From @JamesZahn (former writer for the web staff) recently quit as did others that worked on the online portion of FANGORIA
• John Z. wrote up an article as well about the potential demise of FANGORIA, its other property (STARLOG) and the Brooklyn Company. Check it out here
  
• HorrorBid also wrote up something about this as well today (possibly inspired by my post :-))
  

Thanks for all the comments. If you have a subscription, you may want to cancel (just in case).

I'm sure the new big horror sites are to blame for their demise but FANGORIA was ingrained in all our childhoods. They could have easily reinvented themselves on the web. The magazine could have been a place where they drove traffic to the site (sorta how gaming magazines do their content).

I can't believe that advertising would have been an issue as we've had a large numbers of horror movies that come out theatrically and are out on DVD. Even horrible movies like Stepfather and other crap get ads forced down the horror community's throats. Aside from movies, TV shows and video games are a potential revenue stream. As I write this right now, they are running ads for The House of the Devil DVD, Frozen and The Crazies!

Well let's see if I've created some buzz so we can get some answers. I hate to be a TMZ-ish journafan, but I'm a fan and follower and even though things look gloomy and doomy, I want Fangoria to survive. I mean I won The Tournament on DVD from them recently!

Hmm, it's going to be interesting how this plays out. J. Zahn says we should all be on the lookout.

So let's try to ignore the volcano exploding in the background and reminisce about how Fangoria affected your horror second life. What's your fondest memory of Fangoria? Is it the magazine? A Weekend of Horror convention? The forums?

What's your story?

**UPDATE**

• Deleted magazine launch point as this was year old news

Categories: fangoria, fangoria weekend of horrors

Is this the end of Fangoria?

With the Bloody Disgusting Awards contest (insert shameless plug here: Vote for the jaded viewer!!!) and the Total Film disaster, what I recently noticed that some people haven't been talking about is that Fangoria.com has been down for the last few weeks. If you click on the site, it goes to a blank white page.

Just a week or so ago, they had the logo up but it wasn't clickable. Hmmm, this all leads me to believe one of the following:

A.) The site's been having server problems
B.) It's undergoing a redesign of some sort
C.) They are possibly changing domain names
D.) The staff all left, the magazine is probably bankrupt and this is the end of Fangoria as we know it

Yup I'm gonna have to with D. That's the persistent rumor that's been floating around the interwebs of late. If it is true that most of the staff of Fangoria has been laid off, this is a sad day indeed.

Fangoria has been part of my horror childhood, tweens, teens and adult size life. I remember opening up a copy of Fangoria and looking at all the gory pictures and saying: "OMG! We gott a see Hellraiser Part...whatever". Look at Pinhead! He's fuckin badass!". The articles were a gateway into the minds of the horror filmmakers, the writers and the special effects geniuses we all know and love.

Aside from the magazine, the Weekend of Horrors was a must go event back in the day. I say back in the day because its recently become a shell of its former self. Horrible guests, boring panels, lack of dealers and just outrageous prices for autographs of C level celebrities.

But back in the day, it was filled with hard to find movies, a place to get awesome Evil Dead t-shirts and toys and collectibles that were nostalgia gone wild. The world premiere movies, the panels and the auctions made this one of the best conventions to go to.

Well that's all gone now.

The web is short on information on what's going on behind the scenes with Fangoria as we speak. Here are the rumors and heresay I've collected:

• One of the moderators at Fangoria.com (@fubarinpa) was booted as a moderator
• According to some message boards, the entire staff have been fighting and the web staff walked out and started their own blog (which you can go to here: Fangoria News)
• No new Fangoria Weekend of Horrors conventions have been announced
  
• The magazine is being handled by a different distribution agency
• The magazine has slight pulse (people have gotten the most recent issue)
  
• Editor Anthony Timpone has said it will be back up soon (via Facebook)
  

Well, will this all be addressed when it does come back up? Are all the rumors true about the web staff abandoning ship causing the site to sink? Hmm, well this post will add fire to the burning wildfire surrounding the future of Fangoria.

Fangoria is not the same as it use to be. In this internet age, how can a magazine/website compete with the Horror Hounds and Rue Morgues that seem to be now better in the space they once used to dominate.

Is this the end of Fangoria? What do you think?

******************************UPDATES***********************************

Look at what I started! Got a couple of updates and a few links from the horror-verse since I posted this up:

• As of right now, the site is down again (showing an odd logo of sorts)
  
• Here is my own update the day after I posted this (2/2)
• John Z's Weimar World Service chimes in as well (2/2)
• HorrorBid's take on the whole thing (2/2)
  
• Shock til you Drop also posted their own take as well (2/3)
  
• Jeff @ Dinner with Max Jenke adds his two cents (2/4)
• J. Zahn (former employee for the webite) tells you what it was like working there a few months ago (HorrorMovies.ca posted his rant if you can't access Facebook)

More to come as I see it. If you've got anymore information, put it in the comments. Also, check out the comments, a certain editor in chief seems to have left one in.

Here's hoping Fangoria survives. Some of us want to see it continue, others don't. But without any doubt, Fangoria has left a impact in the horror universe.

Categories: fangoria, fangoria weekend of horrors

Incest Death Squad (DVD Release)

Can you believe it? I was speechless when Cory Udler, director of Incest Death Squad told me that my quote of a review of the trailer was on the cover of the DVD. I downloaded the cover art (see above) and there you see it right on the damn cover.

"Are you going to hell if you see this movie? Probably so."

-jadedviewer.com

That was just freakin mega awesome. After watching the trailer, it's exactly how I felt. I mean incestploitation has gotta probably gotta be the last frontier of the exploitation genre (Sick Girl is a pseudo member too). But Incest Death Squad, filled with its blatant, in your face title and mindless annihilation of sinners by a brother and sister in love has gotta be breaking the fuckedupness boundaries.

I still haven't seen the flick, but I'm sure I'm going to get a copy soon so a real review is to come. My running gag here is if any of my quotes ever appeared on a DVD box, I would shut down the site. Rest assured that the site is still going to be up and running as this was a quote from a trailer review and NOT a quote from my reviews (yay for technicalities)

In the meantime, check out very quotable trailers by clicking here.

Below is from the official PR release of the DVD:

Cory J. Udler's Wisconsin shot tale of an incestuous brother and sister who kill tourists in the name of God has announced a release date for the DVD. Incest Death Squad (Shalenn Productions) will be available on DVD October 6th, 2009 from the film's official website www.incestdeathsquad.com. The film will also be available on pay per download sites and various locations across the country.

The film was shot from March 2009 through June 2009 and stars Tom Lodewyck (The Legend Trip, Pickman's Muse, Carniverous), Carmela Wiese, Greg Johnson and Melissa (Horrid) Murphy. It also boasts many horror celebrities including Troma president Lloyd Kaufman, Elske (Jessica Rabid) McCain, Scarlet Salem, George (Night of the Living Dead) Kosana and Sean Cain. 80's Hair Metal giants Britny Fox also make a cameo appearance in the film and lend their hit "Girlschool" to the film's soundtrack.

The DVD will include the feature, deleted scenes, interviews, behind the scenes footage, trailers and the online "rants" of Johnson's "Jeb Wayne" character.

Incest Death Squad will be making its world premiere October 2nd as the kickoff to the Madison Horror Film Festival at Market Square Theatres, 6604 Odana Road in Madison, at 9pm. Tickets to the premiere at $6.00 and are available at www.madisonhorror.com. Tickets for the screening are over half sold out.

"I thought long and hard about waiting on distribution", Udler says, "but at the end of the day, after we were turned down by the one company I thought was the perfect fit, I decided to just take it on myself. I don't want to sit on this film for another year waiting for someone to hand me a distribution deal. The film has a great following already and people want to see it."

Udler is distributing the film himself through the website and various local and nationwide outlets, none of which are huge chain stores.

"We are getting into smaller head shops and indy record stores, weird places where people who love good grindhouse film action can find the film. You're not going to find this at Best Buy and Blockbuster."

Udler is taking pre-orders for the DVD now at www.incestdeathsquad.com. The DVD sells for $10.00 with $2.00 for shipping and handling. The pre-orders being taken now will not be shipped out until October 6th, but as Udler says, "The DVD will be available at the screening in Madison on the 2nd and throughout that weekend. It'll be a good thing for fans, considering all of the film's stars will be there along with Elske (McCain) and Scarlet (Salem), a great opportunity to get everyone's autograph and then sell it for triple the price on Ebay."

Udler can be contacted at CoryJUdler@yahoo.com or at (920) 350 0014. He is available for interviews and appearances upon request.

Categories: 2009 exploitation movies, 2009 grindhouse movies, 70s grindhouse movies, exploitation, exploitation film, fangoria, grindhouse, incest death squad, incest death squad trailer, troma films

Incest Death Squad (Trailer)

I'm not doing my job correctly if I don't post stuff that's going to offend you. But then again, the hardcore horrorverse is un PC as can be so I'm basically preaching to the choir. So it's good to know that I can post some trailers of Cory Udler's film Incest Death Squad.

Yup you read that right, Incest Death Squad.

The exploitation craze keeps chugging along. I'm going to have to keep adding more movies to my Most Anticipated Exploitation/Grindhouse Movies of 2009. Starring Troma king Lloyd Kaufman and Elske McCain (who starred in another modern day exploit, Jessika Rabid) it seems we're not just rebooting rape and revenge, nunsploitation, and other grindhouse subgenres. Nope we gotta go with incestsploitation.

Well that's fuckin new.

So whose doing the incesting? Check out the plot below. Thanks to Fangoria for the heads up.

Incest Death Squad is the story of Jeb and Amber Wayne, an incestuous brother and sister who kill tourists in the name of God.

Check out the trailers below. The new July trailer looks better than the official trailer oddly enough. Are you going to hell if you see this movie? Hmm. Probably so.





The official trailer

Categories: 2009 exploitation movies, 2009 grindhouse movies, 70s grindhouse movies, exploitation, exploitation film, fangoria, grindhouse, incest death squad, incest death squad trailer, troma films

The Horrorsphere: What We Have in Common

I ran out of horror movies to watch.

That's a first. Don't worry, my dealer sent me a new flick to review and it should be up before the week is up. In any case, after reading this post from Freddy in Space I too got inspired to chime in on the awesomeness of being part of the horror blogging community.

Taking a cue from BJ-C from Day of the Woman who lists 7 things on why the horror blogging community is the coolest I figured I'd go on a different tangent. I'm going to list the things I think we have in common. These may be dead on or waaay off. But here it goes. I'm doing my best George Carlin "little things we all have in common, universal moments we share..." impersonation.

-We visit Bloody Disgusting, Fangoria and Dread Central every day
-We have Blogger all tabbed up and ready to go
-We have comments e-mailed to us and reply within 15 minutes
-We check our traffic every 2 days
-We skim the RSS feeds of other horror blogs and click on only our faves
-We IMDB a movie of a trailer we've just seen, then click on Trivia (if any), check out the user comments and/or click on external reviews
-We constantly add our reviews to external reviews on IMDB
-We check on Google Followers we have
-We check on how many Twitter followers we have
-We read each and every comment posted on our site even if its a comment on a post we did like 3 years ago
-We write our best posts way late at night
-We are easily encouraged when somebody likes our review and want to eviscerate Voorhees style anybody who disagrees with our reviews
-We write reviews with at least 2 quotable lines so just in case, a distributor may use it on the back of a DVD box
-We use horror slang in our everyday conversations like we're vocally blogging
-We've all been visited by a user from a country we cannot pronounce
-We are shocked when Hollywood actually comes out with a good hard R horror film
-We all moan when Platinum Dunes decides to rape our collective horror childhood and remakes yet another horror classic
-We all know who Adam Green is
-We have all written a retro review (which all came from some late night viewing of something in our DVD collection)
-We have all attended one of the following (or all of em), Fangoria Weekend of Horrors, Chiller Theater, Fantastic Fest, NY or SD Comic Con, Cinema Wastleand, Horrorhound, Fantasia, Rue Morgue's Festival of Fear, etc.
-We have all got e-mails from filmmakers, directors and writers hoping to give some press to their flicks
-We all have a bootleg version of Night of the Living Dead
-We have all read Max Brook's World War Z
-We have at least 3 t-shirts of our favorite horror movies
-We get excited when we get a screener in the mail
-We have seen one of the After Dark Horrorfest movies and regretted it
-We think some of the monsters or animal/insect movies gone wild on the Sci Fi channel are funny good but will never admit it
-We have all met Kane Hodder
-We have all met Tom Savini
-We have all met George A. Romero
-We all went to see at least 1 3D horror movie and kept the Real D glasses
-We are constantly looking for classic horror or exploitation trailers on YouTube
-We all secretly love Judd Apatow films
-We all comment on each others blogs because we genuinely have something to say
-We all hope the next leap, will be the leap home

One day, I hope too meet other horror bloggers (any horror bloggers from NYC or the tri state area?) It would be awesome to talk about horror and whatnot. Be sure to check out all the horror blogs from all the links to the right. All these blogs are probably way better than mine, but not one of them covers Van Damme like I do. :-P

I'll finally conclude with this. They're listening.

The directors, fimmakers, distributors, studios and even some mainstreaminess media listen to what's going on in our corner of the web. I've gotten e-mails from directors, writers and studios who thank me and the horrorsphere for giving their indie horror flick some press or reviewing their indie movie via a screener. It's exhilarating to hear that praise and gratitude from the industry you cover and write about.

The horrorsphere is not dead.

It's growing and it's a shacky cam flick away from being remade.

Categories: fangoria, freddy in space, horror blog, horror blogging, jadedviewer, links from the horrorsphere, the jaded viewer

The Last Gasps of the Horror Convention

Well I was planning to go. But I didn't. I was thinking of going to go to the NYC Fangoria Weekend of Horrors last weekend. I elected not to go. Not because I was booked to do anything else, I just got that very eerie feeling it was going to suck.

And from my Evil Adam's account via UGO.com it really sorta did.

I've been to my share of Fangoria fests and Chiller conventions. When I first heard of Chiller being the mecca of horrorfests, I was psyched.

In my first Chiller, I met Kelly Hu (super hotness!) and Virgil (the former Million Dollar Man bodyguard) who happen to be sitting at his rented dealers table wearing a nWo shirt begging people to get his 'graph and pic for $20. $20!!! You gotta be frakin kidding me.

You entered the tent outside (you Chiller vets no what I'm talking about) and could meet the girl from Night of the Comet, WWE divas and former washed up wrestlers, that guy who played Jason in that Friday and of course Tiffany fuckin Shepis.

You could stare at the big breasted Playboy model from 1975 or you could see that bikini model on Page 3.

You could meet Leslie Neilsen, meet a dealer hocking his own home made movie or buy a rare toy from a dealer who kept that He-Man doll from 1985.

You could meet Tom Savini and Kane Hodder.

You could buy that old Inspector Gadget cartoon from the Saturday morning cartoon dealer or buy a vintage poster from the poster guy.

The dealers rocked. This was before the commonplace ebay/torrents/internet rare palooza that now makes it easy for us horror fanatics to get our fix. I picked up so much good shit back then. 2nd and 3rd generation dubs on VHS. Bad box and cover art. The rarity of getting something on DVD-R was like finding a needle in a stack of needles.

I remember my dealers.

Long haired guy
Mexican wrestling video guy
Blackheart (aka Blackest Heart Media)
JJ (aka Maggot Video)
Mr and Mrs. Old man and old woman selling rare shit

But that's all over now.

The 21st century horror convention is filled with "reunion" specials, special previews, bad TV collectable peeps and overpriced DVD specials.

EVERYTHING IS WAY OVERPRICED!!!

I bought a Herchell Gordon Lewis Bloodfeast for $5 and I couldn't fuckin believe I got such a bargain. Everything else...$30 or over.

My biggest gripe of all was I was just plain bored. Possibly the excitement of these fests was gone but nobody had the rare shit I was looking for.

I couldn't find one exploitation or grindhouse film I was looking for. Blaxploitation movies? Nada. Sexploitation?... zip. Ilsa? I couldn't even get a fuckin Ilsa movie.

There was a time I would be a kid at the candy store sugar rushing as I looked at all the crazy fucked up horror movies I could buy. The rarest of the rare. Movies bootlegged over and over again. Shared horror community trades. Circa 2002 I was part of this community trading horror movies on the internet.

Read this post. Here's an excerpt.

Watching a horror/exploitation/cult film on an underground, imported, no cover art, mislabeled VHS tape in your slowly decaying VCR is an unbelievable feeling. The picture is kinda grainy after the 8th generation dub. The sound is kinda off. Volume goes from high to low. You try to fix the tracking. That doesn't do shit. And you watch.

Then towards the end something mysterious happens. The dude you bought or traded this flick from just taped over midget porn and you see the tale end of it. Or he's used a tape where all his old cartoons were on.

It's oh so magically delicious. This is where bootlegging becomes special. Where you feel like your part of the mainstream. The mainstream of the underground.

Ahh bootlegging + horror conventions (circa late 90s early 00s) were a dynamic punch. We recommended titles, shared stories and propagated the urban legend of snuff.

And just like a horror remake, this new 2009 version of a horror convention has raped my childhood.

It's almost now obiliterated into smithereens. Gone. All gone.

The modern horror convention is going to die a gruesome death soon...and all that will be left is Kane Hodder sitting in a corner by himself reading a copy of Fangoria.

Categories: bootlegging movies, chiller theatre, Chiller Theatre Toy Model and Expo 2008, fangoria, fangoria weekend of horrors, horror convention, horror dealers, the horror continuum

Laura Panic (Short)

On my last post, I talked about the films of Adam Wingard. Seems like the Wingard's team, with writer E.L. Katz unveiled a short at the 2008 Fantasia Film Festival (thanks Fangoria)

Luckily for us, we don't have to go to Montreal to see it as it's now on YouTube. Very twisted 3 minute short that tell us us the story of Laura (Hannah Hughes) who is in love with a man who hasn’t quite noticed her yet. Dude is kinda oblivious as our femme fatale stalker has been uber stalking him for days.

I think I may be in love with the hotness that is Hannah Hughes. She's got that Scarlett Johansson look but edgier.

Check out the entire short below.

Tags:
laura panic, laura panic short , fangoria, adam wingard, hannah hughes, american horror,

Categories: adam wingard, fangoria, fantasia film festival 2008, hannah hughes, laura panic, short

Fantasia Festival 2008 Lineup announced

Fangoria has listed the upcoming lineup for the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal, Canada that takes place July 3rd to July 21st.

Below are all the flicks announced that will be screened:

THE MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN
REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA
LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (the Swedish vampire-movie sensation)
[REC]
STUCK (Stuart Gorden)
MOTHER OF TEARS (Dario Argento)
RED (the Jack Ketchum adaptation)
BAD BIOLOGY (Frank Henenlotter)
ALL THE BOYS LOVE MANDY LANE
JACK BROOKS: MONSTER SLAYER
TRAILER PARK OF TERROR
FROM WITHIN
DANCE OF THE DEAD (director Gregg Bishop’s riotous zombie flick)
HOME MOVIE (a vérité nightmare)
RULE OF THREE
THE OBJECTIVE (Daniel (BLAIR WITCH PROJECT) Myrick)
THE ECHO (helmed by the original’s Yam Laranas)
PIG HUNT (Jim (JASON X) Isaac’s survival-horror yarn)

Asian flicks

ALONE
4BIA (directors Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom, creators of the original SHUTTER)
TOKYO GORE POLICE (with star Eihi Shiina of AUDITION)
MAD DETECTIVE
L: CHANGE THE WORLD (Hideo Nakata’s DEATH NOTE spinoff)

European flicks

TIMECRIMES (Spanish time travel flick)
ISLAND OF LOST SOULS
THE SUBSTITUTE
DARK FLOORS
6 FILMS TO KEEP YOU AWAKE: TO LET and THE BABY’S ROOM
TUNNEL RATS (Uwe Boll)

Tags:
fantasia festival 2008, fantasia festival 2008 lineup films , top horror movies of 2008,

Categories: canada, fangoria, fantasia film festival 2008, montreal, twitch, ubisoft