
Welcome to another rambling mess of words from yours truly. Why? Because nothing I have to say really can come together in a fluent post. So here goes:
Earlier last week I had the honor of sitting in with Brian Solomon of
The Vault of Horror for an episode of his
'Conversations in the Dark' vault-cast. Our topic? None other than the Italian virtuoso, Dario Argento. While it is no secret I have a great devotion to the bloody-good director, I'm not sure I've ever talked aimlessly for 45 minutes about him before. It was great fun and I have to thank B-Sol again for having me on.
So if you feel the need to hear me say the words "great", "stylized" and "beautiful" about a hundred times, you're gonna want to tune in.
Go here to do so.

Speaking of Argento, if you're a fan of his, chances are you've heard of his plans to film his own version of the classic story, Dracula. Now I've been rather nervous since I first heard this news. For one thing, I had trouble believing it was true. Secondly, Argento does Dracula? I mean, what will that be like? Will we see Drac's cape flowing in lieu of the black gloves associated with many of Argento's films? I heard he's making it in 3D. This disappoints me simply because, as I have formerly stated (and will continue to do so), I am so done with 3D. All that being said, you need to watch this video in which Argento himself discusses his upcoming project - the location sets are going to be outstanding....hopefully it will reek atmosphere.
Check it out. And yes, it's subtitled. Get over it.

Last night I finally got a chance to check out
The Commune, which was written, directed, and produced by the amazing Elisabeth Fies, and let me say - I was BLOWN AWAY! I really don't want to spoil anything, and I don't think I'm giving too much away by saying it reminded me of the original Wicker Man, but with a completely updated, authentic feel. Totally realistic and utterly compelling, The Commune is a film that everyone should check out. God, it really freaked me out! I rented it from Netflix, but intend to buy it asap. You should too - by going
right here. Support independent horror!! (And no, that is NOT Lindsay Lohan!)

You've got to check out the inaugural episode of a
brand new podcast over at
The Blood Sprayer.
Hosted by three of The Blood Sprayer's own: Kristy Jett, Jeff Konopka, and James Sugrue, it's chock full of ranting and rambling about such subjects as television horror (True Blood, Dexter, and the upcoming The Walking Dead), anthology horror, and the best of horror in 2010 so far. It's great stuff! Can't wait for more.

Check out
my interview with Robert Galluzzo over at The Blood Sprayer. The guru behind the forthcoming DVD,
The Psycho Legacy (Oct 19), he answers burning questions about the highly anticipated DVD that includes never before seen interviews, clips, and tons of extras that celebrate 50 years of Psycho and its sequels, and in particular Norman Bates. As a HUGE fan of Psycho, I have to say it will be my go-to DVD purchase of this year.

Also, celebrating Psycho's anniversary is
Rue Morgue, whose October/Halloween issue boasts a classic shot of our pal Norman on its latest cover. Needless to say, me and my Psycho addiction cannot wait. May even have to frame that one.
Continuing on my Psycho trend, I'm very excited to share how I am spending my major overtime checks from this past summer. I'm having a poster done by Steve Jencks, a fellow
LoTT-D pal of mine whose work is just mind-blowingly (I may have just made that word up) good. It's a commissioned work (his first, but certainly not the last) and so I will have the one and only.

You can check out Steve's retro style
right here at his regular haunt:
The Lost Highway - it's a superior blog on cult films and B-movies - and though you cannot share in all my Psycho goodness, you can get yourself one or more of his other excellent works. I have to admit I did already order the Halloween poster, I couldn't help myself. He's just revealed a sneak peak at his latest work, a piece on the great anthology film, Trick 'r Treat. You're gonna want to get in on this one, folks.
Oh, and I will post a pic of my good fortune once I have it in hand.

Let Me In. Okay, at first I was utterly disgusted and pissed that they are remaking the foreign film that really knocked my socks off just a few years ago (and by the way you can see Let the Right One In streaming on
Netflix Instant Watch right now). But now that I've seen the trailers several times, I have to admit I'm more than intrigued. I may even go see it at the theater.
Let Me In opens in theaters October 1st.
On a side note, my iTunes and I haven't been getting along since I had to do a system restore on my desktop computer. What this means is that many of my 4735 songs on my iPod are no longer in storage. The good news is that I have almost everything backed up. The bad news? I cannot find the score I downloaded off iTunes for Let the Right One In. It's entirely possible that it could have been something I simply forgot to burn off onto a disc. It's one of my favorite scores and I am just dying without it. I've just about decided to buy it again, but thought I'd throw out a last plea to anyone who may have it on CD - I'm begging anyone with a hard copy to burn one off for me out of the kindness of their hearts. If not, I'll download it again, because I just don't want to live without it. Anyway....

I've officially reached Laura Palmer overload. Recently I've spent an unimaginable amount of time with the little teenage tart, by way of my
Twin Peaks box set and the movie,
Fire Walk With Me. There's an unmentionable reason for my madness, but at this point, Laura and I are starting to have disagreements about where she's been hanging her hat. When I wake up at three a.m. humming Angelo Badalamenti's theme he wrote for Laura, I know I'm becoming engulfed with her woes. Note to self: stop obsession now. It's unhealthy.

I also have to admit openly that I've cheated. It happened this past weekend. I was out with a friend, and one thing led to another and wham! I shopped at Barnes & Noble. I completely betrayed my hometown Borders, even with all its rewards, live music, and fresh coffee. Then I double-crossed them again by actually purchasing two books. But hot damn, B & N's sci-fi/fantasy section is the bomb! Is it healthy to spend well over 45 minutes just standing in two rows of books? I'm thinking of getting therapy. I've also made a pledge to Borders not to make it a habit. (But no, I still haven't mentioned my secret Amazon.com obsession. It would only make things worse.)

And where did I find this Barnes & Noble? Why, the Monroeville Mall. I live about 40 miles from there, but haven't been shopping there for quite some time. I heard there is a zombie store somewhere at the mall, but I couldn't see it anywhere amongst all the high-end stores selling Chanel, Ralph Lauren, Louis Vuitton and Michael Kors. Next time I will look a little closer.
And for the record, not one zombie. Alas.

Recent DVD purchases include *House of the Devil - which I've wanted for awhile but waited till it came down in price, *Dorian Gray - because British accents are carnal catnip for me, *IT - because my VHS just wasn't cutting it anymore, *Daybreakers - because I got it for free from my DVD club when I bought Robin Hood for the hubby, and the original *Last House on the Left - 'cause it was only 5 bucks. I've also just ordered *Nightmares in Red, White & Blue - I'm a fan of retrospectives, what can I say? - as well as *Dark Night of the Scarecrow - and if I have to tell you why, you haven't seen it.



I'm getting totally beside myself with anticipation for AMC's The Walking Dead. Premiering on Halloween night, this upcoming tv show has all the horror fans in a frenzy. The trailer looks fantastic, and talk is good....so far. And it can't be a coincidence that all three
major horror mags are running it on their covers at the same time. So fingers crossed it lives up to the hype!

And one last thing. In "wildly exciting and truly overwhelming" news, I've inherited a massive collection of VHS horror films. My hubby's friend owned a video store, and when he closed it around 8 years ago, he kept all his movies in storage. Well, he finally wanted rid of the tapes, so yours truly benefited in such a way that I almost can't believe. I got the entire horror section. I'm going to guess there are something like 250-300 titles, maybe more.
There are some movies we haven't found yet, such as Halloween 1-3, most of the Argentos and Fulcis, really popular stuff like the Friday films, The Shining, NOES, etc... These films quite possibly just in a hidden box, or someone else scarfed them up and hubby's friend didn't remember. But the collection I ended up with - EPIC. I already watched several, including The Gate, Demons, Fright Night, and Popcorn....all of which brought back such great memories of my youth! Some of the other titles include the originals: Psycho, Dracula, The Mummy, and Frankenstein... all three Evil Deads (in hard cases), all the Phantasms, Child's Plays, Sleepaway Camps, and more! And of course there are just a ton that I've never even seen. Movies with titles like The Vineyard, Cemetery High, The Shrieking, Biohazard, and The Paperboy...
I plan a whole separate post regarding this windfall, but suffice it to say, the pic above is a little taste of what is to come. I'm a happy girl!
So that's it from this corner. Stay tuned.