The Plague of the Zombies

My daughter and I caught a fun movie at theMusee D'Orsay. This is the last weekend of Dans la nuit de la Hammer Festival de cinema and it is dedicated to monsters. Last week was "Under the Devil Moon" and the first week was "The Return of Dracula." Being a lover of all things zombie I opted for a showing of The Plague of the Zombies from 1966.
The Plague of the Zombies is from the less hollywood side of the zombie myth, the VooDoo zombie. A zombie created by a voodoo priest is basically a slave to its creator, so you don't get the classic flesh-eating, brain-loving zombie. But this mindless workforce is fun nonetheless.

The film kicks off with a bang, Haitian drummers who have apparently been imported to England and kept underground just to rock a mean drum circle in native dress every few days. A well respected doctor and his cheeky daughter get a letter from a former student asking advice about a plague in Cornwall. Sir James immediatly heads off to help and mayhem ensues. We get treated to fox hunts, near rape, blood theft, doll making, tin mining, grave desecration, decapitation, and everything else a horror fan might want. Several part had the entire audience laughing. Over all the film holds up really well, there isn't hardly any blood and not much overt violence but it's still creepy.
I'll leave you with one thing. What's scarier than a zombie? A zombie on fire!
I rate it five out of five nails.

Alicia Kelly :Good Web

A good friend and great artist from my hometown has a cool new website that features her art, check it out.

Freelance Whales Fleche D'or

The problem with my blogging is if I don't write up something immediately there is a good chance that I'll forget it for a week or so. My wife and I caught the Freelance Whales and The Broken Records at Fleche D'or on February 12th.
Fleche d'or is a great venue, super small, great sound and the beer is cold. Pretty much all you could want in a venue plus it's within walking distance of my apartment.

A pretty cool band that I've completely forgotten the name of opened the show. They were a French band but they sang in English. Their English was so good that I was surprised that they were speaking French between songs. I'll try to track down the name.
The Broken Records were in the middle slot. They are a great band, so great that I thought they may have blown the Freelance Whales off the stage. They had an intense sound with a violin that added an amazing amount of texture to the music. It was one of those sounds that just roll over you in waves.
I shouldn't have worried about the Freelance Whales, they put on a kick ass show. The fact that the Freelance Whale music is so different then the Broken Records rock sound really helped. Their album sound translated really well to a live setting. They ran through every song on their album and they actually said at the end of the show that they had played every song they knew. I've said it before, shows are so much more fun when the band is having a good time on stage and the Freelance Whales were having a ball.

Iron & Wine does George Michael

Iron And Wine covers George Michael


What more do you need to know, Iron & Wine doing a serious cover of One More Time by cool leather jacket wearing 80's dude George Michael.

The Mark of Satan: Hammer Horror

I watched another great Hammer House of Horror episode, The Mark of Satan. I usually prefer scary movies with a good classic monster but this one hit it out of the ball park without one.

Check out that sweet hairdo.

The ending was quite a surprise which is pretty rare for older horror pieces, having seen so many it's hard to sneak one past me. The descent into madness trick isn't new but they did it quite well.

Don't even think about it.

All in all a great episode, I give it five of five nails.

Children of the Full Moon: Hammer Horror

I happened across eight of the thirteen episodes of Hammer House of Horror, the television series made by the British horror institution in the eighties. The best part is that my daughter loves them, and if you can believe it, I just found out that there is a Hammer Horror Film Festival her in Paris over the next two weeks.
I watched Children of the Full Moon last night and it was awesome. The picture above is from my favorite scene, the couple has just seen a werewolf at the window and the man says, "I'm a lawyer, a logical man," and then jumps out the window in pursuit. What kind of logic is that? He besmirched the good name of lawyers everywhere with that move.
Those creepy children are a pain in the ass from the very beginning.
This scene was obviously going to end up like from the very outset. There is something about faintly cheesy special effects that just make me feel good.
I'd rate this episode four out of five nails.

Mike Giant Vinyl Toy

Check out this coolness, Mike Giant and Reckless Toys got together to produce this sweet toy. Get it here.

Good Music News: The Dead Milkmen

THE DEAD MILKMEN ARE RELEASING A NEW ALBUM!!
I am sooo excited about this news. The tentative title is The King In Yellow.

Pictures are Cool