Side
Note: Before you waste time with this, go and listen to my excellent
Halloween podcast – Earth Station Boo – with the ESO crew, Mark
Maddox, Stephen Platinum, and Eddie Cadaver of The Casket Creatures.
It’s awesome!
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
31 Days of Halloween: A Photographic Essay of A Halloween Party
Labels:
halloween,
holiday specials,
SyFy

Tuesday, October 30, 2012
31 Days of Halloween: Disaster Strikes! In the form of WWE '13...
No
real post today. I was playing WWE '13
all night. So far it's so much fun and extremely awesome. I made
this:
Labels:
halloween,
holiday specials,
SyFy,
wwe,
WWE '13

Monday, October 29, 2012
31 Days of Halloween: My Favorite Foreign Zombie Movies
Side
Note: Before you waste time with this, go and listen to my excellent
Halloween podcast – Earth Station Boo – with the ESO crew, Mark
Maddox, Stephen Platinum, and Eddie Cadaver of The Casket Creatures.
It’s awesome!
I
hadn’t planned on doing this, but after recognizing American
excellence in zombie movies I felt I owed it to the rest of the world
to take a look at their contributions. After all, several of the
movies on this list would have made it into at least the top ten on
the other list.
Labels:
halloween,
holiday specials,
Shannon Elizabeth,
SyFy,
zombies

Friday, October 26, 2012
31 Days of Halloween: My Favorite American Zombie Movies
I
had two reasons to do another dreaded Top Whatever list: First, I
made a comment on Facebook a few weeks ago in response to a TopThirteen Zombie Movies list on io9.com.
You should go check that out, then come back here.
Labels:
halloween,
SyFy,
top ten lists,
zombies

Thursday, October 25, 2012
31 Days of Halloween: Out Of Time!
Shit. I knew this
would happen. I just don't have time to do anything, really. So
here's a list of links my favorite posts from past years, followed by
my SyFy stuff:
Phantom
Troublemaker vs. 31 Days of Halloween
If you’re new here or haven’t been
keeping up, this is where I give my thoughts on SyFy’s “31 days
of Halloween” programming. Obviously I haven’t seen everything
I’ll be talking about, but that’s kind of what the internet is
all about – talking out of your ass.
Each day I will cover the schedule from
the time my post goes live (usually 11 AM) through the following 24
hours. On Fridays I will cover the whole weekend, which is a huge
pain in the ass but also kind of fun.
Side Note: Nothing but trailers today. I'll be back tomorrow with the weekend stuff, though!
11:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Halloween score – 5
Quality score – 2
1:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Halloween score – 5
Quality score – 3
3:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Halloween score –5
Quality score – 4
5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Halloween score – 5
Quality score – 3
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Halloween score - 5
Halloween score - 5
Quality score – 4
9:00 PM – 11:30 PM
Halloween score - 5
Quality score – 5
Halloween score - 5
Quality score –4
11:30 PM – 1:30 AM
I will say that this one looks very worthwhile.
I will say that this one looks very worthwhile.
Halloween score - 5
ThurSDAY
1:30 AM – 3:30 AM
Halloween score – 4
Quality score – 4
3:30 AM – 5:30 AM
Halloween score – 4
Quality score – 3
Halloween score – 5
Quality score – 2
5:30 AM – 6:00 AM
Halloween score – 5
6:00 AM – 8:00 AM – Paid Programming
Halloween score – 1
Quality score – 5 (for paying the
bills)
8:00 AM – 9:30 AM
Halloween score – 3
Quality score – 3
9:30 AM – 11:30 AM - A Nightmare On Elm Street 2 Again
Quality score – 3
Come back tomorrow for ZOMBIES!
-Phantom
Labels:
halloween,
SyFy,
top ten lists

Wednesday, October 24, 2012
31 Days of Halloween: 13 Questions With Beau Eadon of Southern Gothic Revival
I
was pretty sure Southern Gothic Revival was going to be yet another
metal band. Don’t get me wrong – I love metal. I always have. But
there are only so many local metal bands you can really get behind,
you know?
I
first met Beau’s wife, Sally, back when we both worked at
Wherehouse Music. Sally is literally the nicest person you will ever
meet in your life. I am not being hyperbolic. I have never
met anybody as sweet as that lady. We worked together for a little
while before I transferred stores and I maybe ran into her a couple
times after that.
A
few years later it turned out Mrs. Troublemaker knew Sally and we
ended up hanging out with her and Beau. Beau was in a band and Beau
kind of looks like a metal guy, so I resisted checking out this
“Southern Gothic Revival” for a while. Then, one night when I was
tooling around the internet, I finally decided to watch this:
Whoa.
That’s awesome. And decidedly not metal. Or punk, for that matter.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012
31 Days of Halloween: Le Sexoflex’s Slumber Party Massacre
This
one originally started out as a little history of how I came to love
the funky ball of tits (and dongs) from outer space known as Le
Sexoflex.
Side
note: If you don’t get that reference, you really need to Google
“funky ball of tits from outer space”.
But,
much like the mighty cock when confronted by cosplay pictures from
Dragon*Con, that post grew out of control and became its own entity.
I’ll be holding onto that one, Tantric style, waiting for just the
right moment to release and douse you all with wordy goodness.
Today
I’m just going to talk about the awesome experience of finally
getting to see Le Sexoflex perform live, as well as meeting a few of
them.
Labels:
halloween,
Le Sexoflex,
Mary's,
music stories,
SyFy

Monday, October 22, 2012
31 Days of Halloween: Creepy Toy Review – Prometheus Engineer - Chair Suit By NECA
I liked Ridley Scott’s Prometheus
a whole lot the first time I saw it.
It is by no means a perfect movie. I’m
honestly not even sure I can call it a great movie. But it is
a massive spectacle with a bunch of interesting characters, some
beautiful cinematography, and some interesting themes. I am still
thinking about Prometheus and what was actually going on in
that movie.
Labels:
action figures,
halloween,
holiday specials,
NECA,
Prometheus,
SyFy

Friday, October 19, 2012
31 Days of Halloween: My Favorite Vampire Movies
I
realized the other day that I haven’t done any Top Tens (or
whatever) yet. I developed this aversion to Top Ten lists a couple of
years ago and have been consciously avoiding them for a while now. It
just seems like a cheap post and I don’t ever want to rely on them
too much.
But
from time to time I think they’re perfectly okay, particularly when
presented as part of a larger whole. So today I’m going to return
to the world of Top (whatevers) and tell you about what I think are
the very best vampire movies.
Labels:
halloween,
SyFy,
top ten lists,
vampires

Thursday, October 18, 2012
31 Days of Halloween: Creepy Toy Review – S.L.U.G. Zombies Series 3 By JAKKS Pacific
So now we’re up the third series of
Scary Little Ugly Guys. From what I’ve seen they seem to be doing
well at retail. There are a lot of toy lines that sort of stagnate a
bit. The same pegs at stores have the same figures arranged in the
same way every time you go in. But the SLUG Zombies always seem to
have moved. Whether it’s the 3-packs on the pegs or the 12-pack
coffins on the shelves, these little toys appear to be doing all
right.
That’s a good thing because they’re
pretty awesome.
Labels:
action figures,
Brian Fellows,
halloween,
holiday specials,
SLUG Zombies,
SyFy,
Tracy Morgan

Wednesday, October 17, 2012
31 Days of Halloween: 13 Questions With Alucard
They’ve
got tattoos all over their necks and hands and everything and I
thought they looked like stabbing enthusiasts, so I kept my distance.
Bot not too much, because this was Dragon*Con and everybody’s cool
there and also because there was no way I was going to be anywhere
but right up front.
Labels:
13 Questions,
halloween,
holiday specials,
horror,
music,
punk rock

Tuesday, October 16, 2012
31 Days of Halloween: Creepy Toy Review – Masters of the Universe Classics Dragon Blaster Skeletor By Mattel
I’m going to cheat a little bit and
call this guy a Halloween review so he doesn’t slip too far back
like Sir Laser-Lot already has. And I’m not cheating too
badly, because I just couldn’t find a way to justify throwing a
Mekanek review in here. Even with my snazzy Halloween background.
Besides, I think having a skull for a
head and a vicious dragon that looks more than a little bit like a
THINGS chained to your back qualifies you.
I definitely didn’t have a Dragon
Blaster Skeletor when I was a kid. I didn’t have a very large
Masters of the Universe collection and I certainly didn’t have any
of the variants of He-Man or his nemesis. It’s part of what makes
me kind of happy to see these come out now – they’re relatively
new variants to me. I mean, of course I knew of them; but I’ve
never had a version in hand before.
This was one I was looking forward to
getting. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I was stoked, but the
dragon factor definitely got me more excited than I was for, say,
Thun-Derp-Unch He-Man. And once again there were just enough
new and different pieces to make this guy feel fresh.
Okay, I didn’t go into it the other
day in my Black Mask review, but my September order from
Mattycollector got me really fired up.
Labels:
action figures,
masters of the universe classics,
mattel,
MattyCollector.com,
skeletor,
SyFy

Monday, October 15, 2012
Special BONUS Non-Halloween Post: Matty's Castle Grayskull
Side
Note: Consider this an extra since I didn’t have a proper post
earlier today. I just wanted to tell Mrs. Troublemaker I love her.
This might be kind of brief; I’m not sure yet. If you’re looking
for the SyFy programming stuff, scroll down to the next post.
I felt like I should
respond to the Castle Grayskull announcement before it officially
goes up for preorder tomorrow. Because I’m sure you’re all
waiting for my opinion before you decide whether or not to commit.

31 Days of Halloween: Happy Anniversary, Mrs. Troublemaker!
Seven
years ago today I made my wife the luckiest woman in the world.
Well,
I guess she’d tell you that moment came two years and twelve days
later when our son was born, but I’m sure October 15, 2005 is a
close second.
Labels:
SyFy,
things i love

Friday, October 12, 2012
31 Days of Halloween: Darkman
Though
I did not know it at the time, Darkman
was the movie that made me fall in love with Sam Raimi.
The
movie was released in 1990 in the wake of Batman,
though Raimi had been working on it for a few years. He had wanted
very badly to write and direct a movie about Batman or The Shadow,
but couldn’t get the rights to either of those. So he decided to
write his own superhero.
I feel positive I saw this in the theater, but it was rated “R” and I was fourteen at the time. I almost wonder if my mom went to see it with me. She had cool moments from time to time, even once I turned into a dickhead teenager. Or maybe I just went and bought a ticket and nobody questioned it. I’m not sure. I previously wrote that Hellraiser III was the first R-rated movie I saw in the theater, but now I’m thinking it wasn’t. And I still wasn’t seventeen when it came out, so it wasn’t even the first one I legitimately saw.
Labels:
Darkman,
halloween,
holiday specials,
movies,
Sam Raimi

Thursday, October 11, 2012
31 Days of Halloween: Toy Review – Predator 2 Lost Predator By NECA
Predator 2 is an interesting and
brave movie. It takes a lot of the things that were so interesting
about the original film – the jungle, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and
Jesse “The Body” Ventura – and excises them completely. Instead
we have downtown LA, Danny Glover, and Gary Busey. Concrete instead
of trees, wise experience instead of young power, and… well, a
different kind of bugfuck crazy.
It was still an awesome movie and still
a great use of the concept of the Predator creature. I think it’s
worth mentioning that while the titular creatures from the Alien
franchise have been dubbed “xenomorphs” (from a line in Aliens)
the Predators have no such fancy-pants name. And it kind of bothers
me. Of course, you can also consider that fact that the Alien
and Predator franchises were never even intended to mesh and
that comparisons between the two are utterly artificial and
speculative. It just worked out that Dark Horse Comics came up with a
great idea that led to some movies that… well, they happened.
Labels:
action figures,
halloween,
holiday specials,
NECA,
predator

Wednesday, October 10, 2012
13 Questions With Fifty-Two Ways
The
first time I saw these guys they were opening for the Tone Deaf
Pig-Dogs (because that’s the only time I ever see new local bands).
They were very talented, but their set was a mess. They were very
good at playing the many different styles of the punk rock music that
the kids like, but seeing all of those styles coming from the same
band was disorienting.
For
some reason they really liked that and sent me Friend Requests on
Facebook. We’ve chatted a few times and hung out at a couple of
cons since then. Weird.
Labels:
13 Questions,
fifty-two ways,
halloween,
holiday specials,
punk rock,
wrestlemania

Tuesday, October 9, 2012
31 Days of Halloween: Atlanta Zombie Apocalypse 2012
It
is once again time to discuss the massive event that is the Atlanta
Zombie Apocalypse!
For
three years now AZA has been the
big event for the month of October. If you don’t know, this is no
haunted house. It’s an interactive – more so this year than any
other – experience where you are fully immersed in a world where
zombies roam the planet and only a small group of armed men and women
can help you and your friends survive. No pneumatic skeletons will be
popping out of doorways. There aren’t any mazes that are
spray-painted black with Walmart cobwebs spread all over. During the
month of October, AZA takes over all thirty acres and 90,000 interior
square feet of the Safety Wolf paintball facility and turns it into
the demesnes of the undead.
***SPOILER
ALERT!: There are portions of this attraction that are meant to
surprise, so if you want to go into this thing fresh do not read my
recap. Skip to the next orange bit that says “END OF SPOILERS”.***

Monday, October 8, 2012
31 Days of Halloween: DC Siganture Collection Black Mask By Mattel
I will save my unbelievably vitriolic
rant about how fucking long these fucking figures took to get to me
for another day. But just so you know, I got my September Matty order
a full week after Monkey,
Evil, and Carl. Re-fucking-diculous.
I'll
also get into why I'm saving that rant for later... uh... later.
I know
this guy isn't specifically a horror-related character, but I think
he qualifies for Halloween coverage. He has a skull for a head, he
murdered a teenage girl, and if I don't go ahead and cover him now I
might forget for a while like I did with poor Icarius
last year.
Labels:
action figures,
batman,
DC Signature Collection,
halloween,
mattel,
MattyCollector.com,
SyFy

Friday, October 5, 2012
31 Days of Halloween: Hammer Horror
I
was a guest on Earth Station One last night because the subject is near and dear to my heart – Hammer Horror.
My
grandmother introduced me to horror. Not just movies, but books but
the likes of Stephen King, Dean R. Koontz, and Robert R. McCammon.
Phantom Granny had this basket of paperbacks she kept by her
recliner, and every time we went to visit she had new ones in there.
Big, thick novels with lurid covers featuring demonic faces and
desolate landscapes. The short stories of Night
Shift were the first things
I read, but long before I was old enough to dare to crack open one of
those portable tomes I was watching the movies.
Labels:
halloween,
hammer horror,
holiday specials,
movies

Platinum Championship Wrestling Sacred Ground Chapter III 9/29/2012
I
can’t do my whole recap right now because I had to go home and go
straight to bed rather than uploading my pictures. Getting home at 1
AM and having to get up at 3:30 AM doesn’t leave a whole lot of
room for such things.
But
I do want to get some initial thoughts down about last night because
it was an incredible night and also because this is the first time I
have ever written about a wrestling event the day after it happened.
I am extremely tired right now, as it is 7:19 in the morning and I
have had about two hours of sleep in the last twenty-eight hours.
We’ll see how this goes. The really awesome part is that I have
five days worth of Halloween posts to finish and polish up after I do
this. I think the first week of 31 Days of Halloween is going to be
pretty terrible. Of course, we’ll know by the time this posts.

Thursday, October 4, 2012
31 Days of Halloween: Toy Review – S.L.U.G. Zombies Series 2 By JAKKS Pacific
I talked a little bit about the first
series of SLUG Zombies a while ago, then realized I should’ve saved
them for 31 Days of Halloween. Actually, I think I might have eaten
into my intro for today because I even mentioned finding Series 2 at
Toys R Us. But I’m sure I can fake this thing out to 1,000 words.
Labels:
action figures,
halloween,
holiday specials,
SLUG Zombies,
zombies

Wednesday, October 3, 2012
31 Days of Halloween: 13 Questions With Eddie Cadaver of The Casket Creatures
I liked Atlanta horror punk band The Casket Creatures the first time I saw them. It was at a Tone Deaf Pig-Dogs show a few years ago and they really impressed me, despite the fact that they all looked about twelve years old.
Since then I've gotten to know their vocalist Eddie Cadaver a little bit through the magic of Facebook. He's a total creep, and I mean that in the very best way. Read on find that out for yourself!
Since then I've gotten to know their vocalist Eddie Cadaver a little bit through the magic of Facebook. He's a total creep, and I mean that in the very best way. Read on find that out for yourself!
Labels:
13 Questions,
halloween,
holiday specials,
music,
punk rock

Tuesday, October 2, 2012
31 Days of Halloween: Toy Review – Predator SDCC 2012 Exclusive Stealth Jungle Hunter By NECA
Side Note: I
apologize for this guy not having my new and improved Halloween
background but I opened him up a while ago and just couldn’t find
the right spot to put his review in.
Well, shit. I blew my intro for this
one yesterday.
Labels:
action figures,
halloween,
NECA,
Predator. Holiday specials

Monday, October 1, 2012
31 Days of Halloween: Horror (Toy) Business
Welcome, guys and
ghouls, to my annual coverage of the very best month of the year –
Halloweentober! Or something. You can probably get the idea from the
title – I will be spending the entire month of October covering
spooky stuff, talking to spooky people, and celebrating spooky
things.
I don’t know
how I have never done this before, but while I was sitting down to
write my review of NECA’s new Lost Tribe Predator I got all
sidetracked during the intro. This happens sometimes. I sit down to
write a few paragraphs about the toy or the character or the company
or whatever and I realize I have enough to say to fill up a whole
post. For this one, I realized that not only would it be a whole
post, but it would be a great way to kick off “31 Days of
Halloween”.
This isn’t any
kind of all-inclusive history of horror toys. This pretty much starts
with the McFarlane revolution of the mid-90’s and continues up to
today. I could produce another whole post just about the 80’s if I
wanted to (and might someday). This is just the stuff that was in my
head today; sparked by thinking about NECA and how they have changed
over the years.
Labels:
action figures,
halloween,
holiday specials,
horror,
toys

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