From Fangoria.com:  If you want to talk about badass crap, you really can’t do a hell of a lot worse than the horror genre. Whether it’s crazy Eastern Europeans with slicked-back hair and overly developed canine teeth chomping down on the necks of scantily clad maidens or demented, murderous psychopaths running around in body armor made from human skin and carving X’s into the chest cavities of wayward coeds with gasoline-powered gardening implements, horror never seems to disappoint when it comes to violent homicide or paint-bombing dungeon walls with a thick coat of crimson substances. Therefore, in an effort to promote my new book BADASS: A RELENTLESS ONSLAUGHT OF THE TOUGHEST WARLORDS, VIKINGS, SAMURAI, PIRATES, GUNSLINGERS, AND MILITARY COMMANDERS TO EVER LIVE (in which I talk about such real-life badasses as the notorious Vlad the Impaler; see the trailer here), I will attempt to discuss some of the toughest heroes and villains the genre has to offer.

Now, I would never for a moment presume to try and dictate a definitive list of anything horror-related to a fan base as rabid as FANGORIA’s, so please allow me a brief caveat before I get too much further along in this process. I will say only that these are among my own personal favorites, and in no way an attempt to quantify or rank horror-movie badasses in any order other than chronologically. In the presumably likely event that you disagree with my decisions, I strongly encourage you guys to utilize the comments section below to express how brain-crushingly unfathomable it is that I didn’t include your favorite movie, character, fictional person, artificial construct, clothing article or food product on this list.

Abraham Van Helsing (DRACULA, 1897)

badassesofhorror1vanhelsingThese days, it seems like you can’t chuck a crucifix into a crowded room without accidentally impaling some crappy vampire-centric romantic comedy/drama about a dark, brooding, impeccably dressed blood-chugging metro douchebag flitting about in the woods with his whiny high-school girlfriend and talking about forbidden love ad nauseum, until pretty much everyone watching wants to barf up whatever is left of their rapidly shriveling brain cells. Well, back in the day (and by “the day,” of course I mean the late 19th century), everybody just thought vampires were complete bastards good for only one thing: getting pointy wooden stakes rammed through their chests at high velocity by Abraham Van Effing Van Helsing. This grizzled, hardass old Dutch physician/cryptozoologist/crazy occult genius dedicated his long and single-purposed life to training his mind and his body in the fine art of murdering the undead with extreme prejudice all the way up their cadaverous asses, and he was so good as his job that nowadays, his name is pretty much synonymous with stomping vampires’ balls into a thick marinara-like sauce smelling faintly of garlic and failure.

via Badasses of Horror: Part One.

From Horror Hacker:  When I mention the trite phrase that horror movies are horribly sexist, I bet some female readers of this column shout an instant, fist-pumping “Preach on!” When I clarify that horror movies are horribly sexist against men, that’s when those same ladies decide that this preacher actually spews misogynistic lies. The prevailing belief is that horror flicks are sexist and that the targets are women. But if you do the basic math, the sexism is against men.Let’s look at this from a scientific perspective, and by “scientific” I mean in light of the theories of that early legend of science, Charles Darwin. Maybe you’ve heard of him? He’s the guy who coined that pesky phrase “survival of the fittest.” If only the fittest survive, and most horror movies feature a “final girl,” then what does that say about the genre’s stance on men? Or let’s go at this issue another way: Do you actually think horror movies portray females as weak? Tell that to Halloween’s Laurie Strode. Tell that to Scream’s Sidney Prescott.The winner of any fight is the one left standing — no one cares how you survive, as long as you do. If that survival comes wrapped in screaming, crying, pleading, more crying, running, a little more screaming, tripping, not being able to put the car keys in the lock and then finally sticking a knife in a bad guy? Yeah, you still won. So I don’t care how “weak” a final girl may look, if she’s the one who walks away, she’s the survivor and therefore the fittest.
Read the rest at the link below:

via AMC – Blogs – Horror Hacker – Scott Sigler – Dumb Dudes Die While Leading Ladies Live… Ah, the Sexism of Horror.

Halloween is a week from now, and there’s one very special way to celebrate it in Evans City, Pennsylvania this year, at Gary Streiner’s 2nd Annual Living Dead Festival. Recently, I interviewed Gary about his role in the production of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. Through Gary, I was able to interview another of the key people involved in the film: his brother, the producer and the actor who played Johnny, Russell Streiner.

Russ was an important part of the Latent Image, a commercial filmmaking company which he founded with George Romero. He’s since gone on to work on many films with another NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD collaborator, John Russo. Russ was gracious enough to take some time today and discuss the legacy of the zombie classic with me, for his fans at Icons of Fright.

Phil Fasso: How did you first get involved with George Romero?

Russ Streiner: I started off wanting to be an actor, which I pursued through high school. And after high school, I went to the Pittsburgh Playhouse School of the Theatre, and graduated from their two-year acting program. While I was there, I was working in stage shows at night, and at one of those, I was cast with another fellow. His name was Rudy Ricci, and we shared a dressing room. Rudy had been attending classes at Carnegie Mellon University (back then it was called Carnegie Tech). He was taking art classes there, and he met George Romero in an art class. George was transplanted, from the Bronx to Pittsburgh, to go to Carnegie Tech’s School of Painting and Design. Rudy brought George over to one of our shows one night, and that’s how I first got to meet him. Then, within maybe six or eight months, George called me and asked me if I would be willing to be an actor in a movie that he was putting together, called EXPOSTULATIONS. And I told him I would. I showed up for my very first day of production, and really became intrigued with the whole film production part of the business, which I knew nothing about. I stuck with EXPOSTULATIONS as an actor, and then also helped out on the crew. That’s how George and I first met. And we went on to set up a business and worked together for about 10 years.

PF: How did your experience in commercials and industrial films help you to put together a feature film?

RS: Any time you get a chance to practice your craft, whether it’s in short form like TV commercials or longer form like industrials, all of that goes to help you refine your craft. And that’s certainly how our whole group got helped out, all of which led up to 1967, when we did the actual filming of NOTLD.

Read the rest of this interview with a piece of Night of the Living Dead history click the link below.

via Icons of Fright News and Updates: An Interview with Russ Streiner.

From Lunch.com:  Takashi Miike is a very inexhaustible and prolific director; the man has directed many different films in different genres that I believe that he is one of the most versatile filmmakers around. He is also arguably one of the most darkly audacious director in contemporary Japanese cinema. “GOZU” (a.k.a. “Cow-head”, Gokudo Kyofu Dai-gekijo: Gozu, 2003) is arguably one of his most mystifying, wanton, provocative and demented displays of Miike’s imagination. Miike re-teams with Sachiko Sato, who adapted “Ichi The Killer” for him. Miike seems to be drawn to the Yakuza gangster themes but believe me when I say that “Gozu” is anything but your standard Yakuza film. I’ve always said that the best way to approach Miike’s films is to have no expectations and the less that you know, the better. The reward into Miike’s films is the journey itself.

Minami (Hideki Sone) is a member of the Azamawari Yakuza crew. He highly respects his Aniki (brother) Ozaki (Sho Aikawa) to whom he is greatly indebted to for his life. However, when Ozaki becomes paranoid and eccentrically imbalanced, Minami is asked by their elder (Renji Ishibashi), to escort him to the yakuza dumping site in Nogoya, Minami becomes torn between his loyalty to Ozaki and following the orders of their boss; but instead Ozaki appears to peg out in the car as soon as they approach their destination and to make matters worst, the corpse goes missing. Now in his quest to authenticate Ozaki‘s death, Minami must find the body; this quest brings him to a nightmarish journey that brings him face to face with several creepy characters from a transvestite restaurant owner (cameo by its writer Sato himself), to Nose, a man with a skin condition (played by Shohei Hino), to a hyper-lactating woman (Keiko Tomita) and her brother (Harumi Sone), a demonic half-human half cow, and mysterious beautiful woman called Sakiko (sexy Yoshino Kamiya).

via Takashi Miike Once Again Manages to Disturb,…: Review of Gozu – Lunch.

The producers at Mutantville Productions were out in full force last night as we decended upon the historic opera house in downtown Albemarle.  We spent a full six hours on the set testing the lights for this weekend’s scenes, shooting behind the scenes videos, as well as continuing our construction of MVP’S How-To seris on no-budget filmmaking – the Guerrilla Filmmaker’s Cookbook.  We’ve just about run ourselves ragged through pre-production – and filming hasn’t even begun!  That’s OK because the harder we prepare – the easier it is for everyone when we’re all on the set.  All that’s left now is to put the finishing touches on the costumes and props and email the directions to everyone.  We’ll see you all soon, MVP.

While the phrase “grand-guignol” has become commonplace in describing anything bloody or gory, its origin has its roots in an almost forgotten theater at the end of one of Paris’ alleyways. This theater, which started out life as a Catholic church, became famous for showing blood, guts, dismemberment, thrown eyeballs, acid burned faces, and severed tongues.

The Théâtre du Grand-Guignol (literally, The Theatre of the Large Puppet) was born in a part of town well-known for its roughnecks and whores in 1897. By the time it closed its doors for good in 1962 it had entertained hundreds of thousands of people and had a lasting influence on the worlds of literature, art, film, and theater.

The theater did not start out with the blood and guts, but was a theater dedicated to showing reality; taking its stories from the local papers. The theater had been running for several years before it hit on the formula of turning the most salacious stories into popular plays. Once they began with murder and rape, their popularity soared.

via STAGE FRIGHT: THE GRAND-GUIGNOL AND THE POPULARITY OF HORROR.

CHARACTERS:

Maya : Thirty-something industrious executive producer of the world renowned G.H.O.S.T. paranormal research team and TV series.  Tough.  Charming.  Energetic.

G.B. : Part-time cameraman for G.H.O.S.T. and full-time horror buff.  Awkward yet intelligent.  Prankster.

Seth: The sound expert and resident skeptic of G.H.O.S.T.

Maximillian: Elderly caretaker of the Andersonville Opera House.  Affable yet kind of creepy.

Byron: Smarmy yuppie.  Co-producer of G.H.O.S.T.

Young Maya: Young Maya.

Grandfather: Maya’s elderly grandfather.

Scripts will be given out cold on the day of the audition. Readings will be taken on a first come first serve basis.