This certainly has not been a good year for fans of Rated R horror. After “Scream 4” grossed just $39 million in April (to put that into perspective, many box office analysts that it would make that much opening weekend), “Final Destination 5” opened last weekend to just $18 million (roughly $9 million less than FD4), and now “Fright Night” has become the latest victim. “Fright Night” opened this weekend to just $7.9 million on a budget of $18 million. You can just see the eager journalists coming up with a great headline. “Fright Night” fails to make a bite at the box office” “Fright Night” sucks life out of box office”, etc. The general public reaction seems to be “who cares?”. With three strong Rated R horror films bombing in the last months, where is horror going to go in the future? If it’s PG-13 and supernatural, I give up right now. Where do you think horror is headed in the future? Why do you think the latest crop of horror movies bombed at the box office? Leave your comments
Category: *Horror
Slasher Death of the Day: “Chopping Mall”

We here at Slasher Studios have a love for Chopping Mall that runs deep. You can check out our review here to know all of the juicy bits that we love about this movie and why we believe it is an underrated masterpiece of a slasher flick. Nonetheless, that being said, we are pleased to bring you our slasher death of the day. It’s a hilarious mock-up of the laser to the head ultimate death of the film. Slasher fans enjoy and hopefully this will cure your Monday afternoon blues.
Slasher Hero of the Week: Joe Bob Briggs

Let’s be honest, in the horror world is there anyone out there that is cooler than Joe Bob Briggs? He’s smart, he’s funny, he’s an avid horror fan, and he just wants to make you laugh. If only there were more people in the horror world like him. He’s pretty much some sort of amazing.
Joe Bob Briggs’s acting persona is that of an unapologetic and unrefined redneck and male chauvinist with an avowed love of the drive-in theatre. He specializes in humorous but appreciative reviews of b-movies and cult films, which he calls drive-in movies (as distinguished from “indoor bullstuff”). In addition to his usual parody of urbane, high-brow movie criticism, his columns characteristically include colorful tales of woman-troubles and high-spirited brushes with the law, tales which inevitably conclude with his rush to catch a movie at a local drive-in, usually with female companionship. The reviews typically end with a brief rating of the “high points” of the movie in question, including the types of action (represented by nouns naming objects used in fight scenes suffixed with -fu), the number of bodies, number of female breasts bared, the notional number of pints of blood spilled, and for appropriately untoward movies a “vomit meter”. A typical such concluding paragraph would be, “No dead bodies. One hundred seventeen breasts. Multiple aardvarking. Lap dancing. Cage dancing. Convenience-store dancing. Blindfold aardvarking. Blind-MAN aardvarking. Lesbo Fu. Pool cue-fu. Drive-In Academy Award nominations for Tane McClure. Joe Bob says check it out.” “Aardvarking” is Brigg’s euphemism for sexual intercourse.
From 1995 to 2000, he hosted “Monstervision” for TNT. The show often featured Briggs giving a monologue about certain things in life, including his four ex-wives (usually “Wanda Bodeine”). He often made fun of the “scissoring” (editing) of the films, saying “Has Ted (Turner) been crackin’ down on us again?” This led to a famous running gag during a Halloween marathon of Friday the 13th movies in which strange occurrences kept happening throughout the night, leading up to Joe Bob realizing that it was Ted Turner trying to kill him, the final scene of the event led to Joe Bob giving an impassioned apology to Turner, claiming he was an amazing person, before the video feed cut off eerily. A similar stunt was staged in Blair Witch-themed host segments for a marathon showing of Carrie, Child’s Play and Phantasm one night, with the host mysteriously missing. For Super Bowl Sunday in 1997, he hosted a 16-hour marathon of monster movies from New Orleans starting with The Omen.
This week at Slasher Studios, we salute you Joe Bob Briggs and we hope that you come back to “tear the heart out of Saturday night”.
Slasher Studios: Top Five Favorite Scream Queens
On this week’s episode of Slasher Studios, we talked about our favorite Scream Queens/Final Girls. These are the women of horror who slashed up the screen and slashed up our hearts. The best of the best of horror heroines. Below is our list of favorite Scream Queens!
If you missed the show click on the link below to listen to an archive:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/slasherstudios/2011/07/18/slasher-studios-final-girls-and-scream-queens
5. Jamie Lee Curtis
Curtis’s film debut occurred in the 1978 horror film “Halloween”, in which she played the role of Laurie Strode. The film was a major success and was considered the highest grossing independent film of its time, earning accolades as a classic horror film. Curtis was subsequently cast in several horror films, garnering her the title, “scream queen”.
Her next film was the horror film, The Fog, which was helmed by Halloween director John Carpenter. The film opened in February 1980 to mixed reviews but strong box office, further cementing Curtis as a horror film starlet. Her next film, “Prom Night”, was a low-budget Canadian slasher film released in July 1980. The film, for which she earned a Genie Award nomination for Best Performance by a Foreign Actress, was similar in style to Halloween, yet received negative reviews which marked it as a disposable entry in the then-popular “slasher film” genre.
That year, Curtis also starred in “Terror Train”, which opened in October and met with a negative reviews akin to Prom Night. Both films performed only moderately well at the box office. Curtis had a similar function in both films – the main character whose friends are murdered, and is practically the only protagonist to survive. Film critic Roger Ebert, who had given negative reviews to all three of Curtis’ 1980 films, said that Curtis “is to the current horror film glut what Christopher Lee was to the last horror movie glut-or Boris Karloff was in the 1930s”. Curtis later appeared in “Halloween II”, “Halloween H20: 20 Years Later” and “Halloween: Resurrection”, as well as giving an uncredited voice role in “Halloween III: Season of the Witch”.
4. Adrienne Barbeau
The ever enchanting Adrienne Barbeau is best known among horror fans as one of the original Scream Queens. She is one of the few actresses who is not afraid to attack each role with gusto. From Stevie Wayne, the beautiful, gravelly voiced DJ in John Carperter’s “The Fog†to the biggest bitch of in all horror anthologies, Wilma Northrup, in George Romero’s “Creepshowâ€; there is simply nothing that Barbeau can’t do. She has worked with some of the greats of the genre, including the aforementioned Carperter and Romero, she has also appeared as Alice Cable in Wes Craven’s underrated classic “Swamp Thingâ€. More recently she appearing in one of the best direct to video horror films Slasher Studios has ever seen, “The Conventâ€. A mix of “Evil Dead†and “Night of the Demonsâ€, “The Convent†is a hoot and a must see for every genre fan. If you haven’t seen it yet, go over to Amazon and order your copy now. You won’t be disappointed.
3. Danielle Harris
Danielle Harris is, and has always been, one of my favorite “Scream Queensâ€. She has shown a dedication to the genre ever since she was a child. She has appeared in over two dozen horror movies, four of them in the “Halloween†series: “Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers†and “Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers†as Jamie Lloyd and Rob Zombie’s remakes “Halloween†and “Halloween II†as Annie Brackett. In 1988, she auditioned and was chosen (beating out Melissa Joan Hart) for the part of Jamie Lloyd, Michael Myers’s niece, in the movie “Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myersâ€. Just one year later, she would reprise the role in “Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myersâ€. The character of Jamie returned in 1995 for “Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers†but Harris did not participate due to disagreements regarding the changes to her character on the script. After seeing the final film, at least part of me is glad that she didn’t participate.
Harris would later return to the franchise in a much different role, that of Annie Brackett, in Rob Zombie’s “Halloweenâ€, a 2007 reboot of John Carpenter’s classic 1978 original. In this film, she had nudity for a sex scene and her encounter with the dangerous Michael Myers, a career first. She stated “[It] is something that I wanted to do because everyone’s like, ‘Oh, she’s little Jamie. She’s 14.’ And it’s like, no, actually, I’m 30. It’s something that I’ve never done before.†She reprised her role in Zombie’s sorely underrated “Halloween IIâ€.
2. Neve Campbell
Campbell’s first widely released film was the fun, “witchy†horror movie “The Craftâ€. She then got the role of her career. A role that would change her life as a Scream Queen forever. She was offered the leading role in “Screamâ€, directed by horror master Wes Craven. In the film, she plays Sidney Prescott who receives threatening phone calls from a killer with, who is obsessed with scary movies, on the anniversary of her mother’s death. Campbell stated that she “adored†the character saying “She’s a fantastic character for any kind of movie.†Sidney is depicted as an intelligent, resourceful young woman who slowly becomes stronger as she attempts to overcome the threats and deaths around her.
The film was a huge success, earning over $173 million at the worldwide box office, and winning critical acclaim. Campbell’s role as Sidney Prescott has received significant critical praise throughout the series, earning her the title of “Scream Queen in the 1990sâ€. Campbell won the Saturn Award for Best Actress for her role in “Screamâ€. She also received two Blockbuster Entertainment Awards for Favorite Actress – Horror, for “Scream 2″ and “Scream 3″. The film was followed by two sequels, both of which were also hugely successful, with “Scream 2″ earning over $170 million and “Scream 3″ earning over $160 million. Campbell won the MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance for “Scream 2″. Roger Ebert, in his review of “Scream 3″, wrote of Campbell, “The camera loves her. She could become a really big star and then giggle at clips from this film at her AFI tributeâ€. In 2011, she reprised her role as Sidney Prescott in the wonderful “Scream 4″.
1. Heather Langenkamp
Heather Langenkamp wasn’t always a horror fan and admits that before she was cast in the role that would change her life that she had never seen a horror film. Funny that now, nearly 30 years later, the actress is remembered as one of the greatest horror Scream Queens of all time.
While she was studying at Stanford University, Wes Craven cast her as teen heroine Nancy Thompson in the original “A Nightmare on Elm Street†as he wanted someone very “girl next door†to play Nancy. He believed that Langenkamp met this quality. For the part, she beat out over 100 actresses. The film, follows the story of a group of teenagers who are killed in their dreams one-by-one by a past child murderer turned supernatural serial killer, whom their parents killed. The film was continued the 80′s slasher movie craze, following the trend set by “Halloween†and “Friday the 13thâ€.
The film introduced the iconic villain Freddy Krueger, played by Robert Englund. Nancy, as the film’s protagonist, lives, and defeats Krueger after he has killed all of her friends. Johnny Depp, in his feature film debut played Nancy Thompson’s boyfriend, Glen. Veteran film actor John Saxon played Nancy’s father, police lieutenant Donald Thompson. The film was both a critical and commercial success, earning a total of $25 million at the American box office. In 1985, she received the Best Actress Award at the Avoriaz Film Festival for this role. She also became one of the original scream queens and final girls.
She continued her role as Nancy in “A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriorsâ€, in which she co-starred alongside Patricia Arquette and Laurence Fishburne, and “Wes Craven’s New Nightmareâ€, in which she played herself, and through events in the narrative, she is compelled to reprise her role as Nancy Thompson. John Saxon also returned with Langenkamp in “Dream Warriors†and “New Nightmareâ€. “A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors†earned nearly $45 million at the domestic box office, making it both the highest grossing film for the studio that year. “Wes Craven’s New Nightmare†earned $18 million at the U.S. box office. The three films in the series in which Langenkamp stars are considered the three best due to their critical reception. As Craven write on the script that Langenkamp reads from, “Thank you for having the guts to play Nancy once last timeâ€, the horror world couldn’t agree more.
Slasher Studios: The Best Horror Documentaries Ever Made
On this week’s show, Kevin Sommerfield will be talking about his favorite horror documentaries. Make sure to listen in and also call in to discuss with Kevin your favorite horror documentaries and to discuss what makes a good horror documentary. Tonight at 10PM central! Click on the link below to listen in live or to listen to one of our past shows.
I Want to Make a Horror Movie!
The following is a list of guidelines that one should look at when trying to make a successful horror movie. I thought this was a pretty solid list with a lot of good ideas for independent horror filmmakers. The following list is a combination of Mary Hallberg’s list from the Hattiesburg Horror Movie Examiner and Screen Crave.com for the second half of the list. A big thank you to both websites for sharing! While the list does seem basic, I do think that this is going to help out some filmmakers working on their first scripts. Are there any others that you feel is missing from the list?
*Have interesting characters. Movies (and stories in general) are about people, not events. Sure, picking stupid teenagers off one by one works, but only for awhile. If you want to do something revolutionary in modern filmmaking, convince your audience to actually (gasp) care about the characters.
The interesting characters rule does not apply to villains. When introducing us to the villain, less is more. Did he suffer a terrible childhood filled with abuse and poverty? Leave it out. The less your audience knows about the villain, the less likely they are to sympathize with them. Sympathy isn’t very scary.
*Create suspense. Even if you plan to show the monster in the end, make the audience wait for it. Sometimes not seeing something is even creepier than actually seeing it.
*Don’t stress about budget. Some of the most well-known horror films have been low budget sleeper hits. Unless you’re remaking Lord of the Rings, you can make do with a smaller budget. See: Insidious, Saw, Paranormal Activity, The Blair Witch Project, John Carpenter’s Halloween
*Don’t take your movie too seriously. Some of the best horror movies are the ones that try to be scary but end up being campy. You’re in the business of entertainment and if you’re not entertained yourself, your audience probably won’t be either. Have fun with it! Plenty of people would kill to be in your position. Well, not literally.
*Have a great score. A good horror movie isn’t a good horror movie without a good original score. We’re talking about music that adds depth of feeling, and by depth of feeling we of course mean depth of terror in this case. Classic horror movies like Halloween and Jaws wouldn’t have had near the effect that they did without their music being every bit as scary as what was happening on camera. Sadly, the art of making an original score for a horror movie is being lost as the years go by and the trends change.
*An unstoppable killer. Horror movie killers/slashers must be remorseless. They generally can’t feel sorry for anybody. A killer who feels sorrow humanizes himself, and leaves the audience open to empathize with him, take pity on him, and possibly even understand him. And as we know, the more we understand something, the less we fear it. You want to tell a story about a guy who goes on a murder rampage to avenge the death of his wife? Fine, go for it. But don’t expect people to be frightened by a guy who’s simply standing up for his wife. You want to tell a story about a guy who goes on a murder rampage because his dead grandmother came to him in a dream and ordered him to do so with a sling blade? Now that’s a tad bit creepier.
*Fear. A good horror film takes common fears, exploits them, and acts upon them. So what do people fear? Easy. They fear the dark—create visual imagery that’s ill-defined and shadowy. They fear the unknown—keep certain psychological and physical components hidden. They fear death—keep the body count unpredictable as to who might be next. Knowing what people are afraid of isn’t rocket science, and fears aren’t always rational. Would we have a horror movie (Stephen King’s It) with an alien killer dressed as a clown if a lot of people weren’t at least a little afraid of clowns?
*Blood and gore! Above all, people must die in a horror movie. Remember what we said about exploiting the universal fear of death? And as far as dying goes, a horror movie doesn’t necessarily have to be gory, or gratuitously violent, but a little blood must be split in order to remind the audience that the shit is real, and the stakes are as high as they can be. A character vanishing out of thin air is out of sight, out of mind. We might know he’s dead, but as long as we don’t see him hanging from a tree with his guts spilling out, some part of our brain is still subconsciously suggesting to us that there’s a chance he’s just chilling on a beach in Maui or something.
Three Horror Films Scare Up 2012 Release Dates
2012 is shaping up to be one of the most “horrific” years in recent member. There are currently 11 horror films with release dates sometime next year. Bloody Disgusting reported today that three more will also be added to the list. Moving from it’s previous February 3 release date, Relativity Media’s House at the End of the Street is now set to bow on April 20. The Mark Tonderai helmed film, which centers on a teen girl (Jennifer Lawrence) who moves with her mom to a new town and learns that their home is across the street from a house where a double murder took place, will now go head to head with Dimension’s Scary Movie 5.
Scary Movie 5 has been rumored to be in preproduction since mid 2006, after its predecessor took in a solid $91 million at the U.S. box office. The Weinstein Company has announced that the next chapter in the Scary Movie franchise will be released in theaters on April 20, 2012. With the series beginning back in 2000 and Scary Movie 4 being released five years ago, a solid fan base will be excited to see what the filmmakers have in store for number 5. With a long list of possible horror movies to spoof in this upcoming film, Scary Movie 5 has much potential. No word yet on casting, but fingers are crossed for the return of Anna Faris and Regina Hall. The two actors have been in all four previous films and have become the faces of the franchise.
Speaking of films stuck in development hell, looks like Dimension is fast-tracking Halloween 3D with a release date of October 26 (finally a Halloween film around Halloween!). Patrick Lussier and Todd Farmer are currently working on the Hellraiser reboot for the Weinsteins. There is no word whether or not they are still on board to make this film as well.
Rob Zombie Directs Woolite Commercial
The laundry detergent company, Woolite, hired Rob Zombie to create their newest commercial and help spread the word for their new ad campaign: “Don’t let detergents torture your clothes.” It’s a very clear, clever and well made 33 second ad, with what looks to be a decent budget. With the masked man, quick cuts and eerie music, horror fans will be able to tell instantly that Rob Zombie was at the helm during this production. The ad is set to be shown in theaters during this upcoming 4th of July weekend.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-p68u3ZWlDU