It's Chiller Theatre 2010! That means we salute Sci-Fi Ninja Theater!

The Chiller Theatre Expo is taking place this weekend April 16th to 18th in Parsippany, New Jersey. I think I went to my first Chiller in the late 90s or maybe in 2000. I forget. Good times all around. However, having went 2 years ago, I may not go this year. I documented that I thought the horror conventions of late were gasping for air. I've had no motivation to go of late though I must admit the guests seem interesting.

I mean where would I get to meet and talk to.....

• Ruggero Deodato!
• Alice Cooper!
• It's Blossom! Mayim Bialik!
• Jeffrey Combs!
• Brutas "The Barber" Beefcake!

and

• Kristanna Loken!

OMG. Tom Savini is not going to be there this year. It must be a sign of the apocalypse. In any case, almost guaranteed to be there is Vincent Vlado aka Sci-Fi Ninja Theater guy. I met this guy and he interviewed me though I never got to see the footage. If you're not familiar with Sci-Fi Ninja Theater, it's a TV show that's broadcast on public access here in NYC.

Check out all his videos on YouTube. They're all a hoot, sometimes a little awkward but always filled with costumed freaks, cosplay hotties and long long long footage of models (big breasted and the ones of memorabilia). I can honestly say, kudos for interviewing such well rounded "actresses".

Though Sci-Fi Ninja Theater has interviewed some horror icons including George A. Romero and Scream queen herself Tiffany Shepis.



The intro to the show is a mish mash of anime and Asian movies. Truly bizarre and oddly hyptonizing. Our host for the show is "Shadow Ninja" and I always get a kick out hearing a man in a ski mask with no eye holes tell me he needs help with reviews and to e-mail him.

Good ninja stars times.

So we here at the jaded viewer salute Sci-Fi Ninja Theater. You get an honorary Ninja Star of Death for all the great footage of Chiller Theater and the other conventions you've covered. Thank you Sci-Fi Ninja Theater and we hope you continue to cover these conventions for years to come.

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

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

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

The Horror Continuum (Links from the Horrorsphere)

I've been thinking it over and I figure there should be a day where I share what I find on the interweb with the rest of the horrorsphere. So every Friday (hopefully), will be The Horror Continuum. Where I'll post just random things I find on the Internet that maybe you missed.

If you have some links to share with everybody, feel free to post them in the comments below.

First up free press courtesy of the jaded viewer mailbox.

....Interesting web series called The Happy Face Killer

....New comedy web series called Safety Geeks

OK now back to our regularly scheduled program.

....Great List from Eeerie books on the 50 Must-See French Horror Movies

....Fearnet has been putting some awesome free movies online

....Fangoria is having their Weekend of Horrors this weekend in NYC

....The NY Asian Film Festivall is right around the corner

....Indie horror trailers galore at Terrorfeed

....Watch some funny porno trailers of your favorite TV shows including Seinfeld, The Office and Scrubs

....Black Devil Doll has listed more theatrical screenings

....A Map to Where Everyone Died Hard in "Die Hard"

.....RunPee.com tells you went to pee during a movie

....Keyboard Cat + Haley Joel Osmont + Chuck Norris = FUCKIN FUNNY

And in case you missed the last week on the jaded viewer (yeah I gotta plug my own stuff)

I found a few more awesome trailers....

....yup you need you to see the Dead Hooker in a Trunk trailer

....it really did eat his face in the It Ate His Face trailer

....I never get sick of seeing Asian tween kids kicking ass in Power Kids

.....the new Van Damme trailer The Eagle Path is up

.....Top 5 80s Horror Movies Hollywood Might Actually Think Would Be Good Remakes

Seen any other funny viral interweb videos? Or found a crazy horror trailer when scavenging for porn? Or stumbled upon a list that made milk come out of your nose?

Comment and share with the group. Because sharing is caring.

Categories: fangoria weekend of horrors, jadedviewer.com, links from the horrorsphere, the horror continuum, the jaded viewer, viral links

Fangoria Weekend of Horrors

Fangoria is having their Weekend of Horrors in Secaucus, New Jersey next weekend June 20-22.

Official site is below.

http://www.fangocon.com/

So if you in the New York area, you should check it out.

I'm still undecided.

Categories: fangoria weekend of horrors, secaucus new jersey