Friday, October 30, 2015
31 Days of Halloween - Devlin's Domain - The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence)
All Hallow's Eve is nigh upon us and here in Devlin's Domain I am celebrating with more vomit inducing fare. Last time I covered Martyrs, which was a dead serious type of horror film. On this edition I'm going to lighten the mood a bit with the close of a disgusting trilogy. I mean Halloween should be a little fun, right?
31 Days of Halloween - Needless Things Podcast 79 – The Evil Dead
Phantom
Troublemaker, Beth V, Richard Davis, and Arian talk about the
greatest horror franchise of all time – The
Evil Dead!
Labels:
31 Days of Halloween,
Arian,
Army of Darkness,
Ash vs. The Evil Dead,
Beth V,
Bruce Campbell,
Evil Dead 2,
halloween,
horror,
horror movies,
Needless Things Podcast,
Richard Davis,
Sam Raimi,
The Evil Dead

31 Days of Halloween: Dead of Winter Board Game Review
I
have raised my family to be very…unique. My oldest was quoting the
Green Lantern oath at the age of seven. My middle child sleeps with a
Batman pillow. My three
year old roots for Harley Quinn. I’m proud of my geek children. So,
while watching Wil Wheaton’s Tabletop channel, I felt my pride swell
when my teen decided that a game that they played during one episode involving surviving the Zombie
Apocalypse not only seemed fun, but a moral imperative to
own. I have raised my children well. Her birthday this October granted
her dearest wish, and we rang in the Halloween month right by surviving
zombies, frost bite, raiders, and a colony traitor out to destroy us
all. Welcome to my review of the survival
horror game, Dead of Winter.
Labels:
31 Days of Halloween,
gaming,
tabletop gaming,
zombies
Thursday, October 29, 2015
31 Days of Halloween: Numb To the Horror- Movie Ratings And How They've Changed For The Genre
When I was a kid I was allowed to
watch Rated R movies. For the people that write on this blog, the terms
“Liberal” and “Conservative” weren’t thrown around often in our childhood, but
Liberal my parents were. My mother was a punker and in her later years a
modern goth. Heck, I was sung to sleep as a baby to Alice Cooper and cut
my teeth on Motorhead, Bad Company, and GWAR, so naturally Rated R movies were
not something they hid me from either. There was only one movie that my
father ever kept me from for reasons I never understood, and that was Harlem Nights.
It was an F-Bomb laden twenties-era romp, and it later became one of my
favorite movies of all time! But Dad would never let me rent it. I
thought, “Dude, I am TEN, and you let me watch Basic Instinct. I can’t
watch THIS? What is wrong with you?” Granted I don’t let my kids
watch Rated R movies, but I look back and inventory many of my favorite R rated
horror/thriller flicks and realize something horrible; half of them my teen can
watch now legally. PG-13 is the new R. What the heck happened?
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
31 Days of Halloween: Spooky Toy Review – A Nightmare on Elm Street 30th Anniversary Freddy Krueger from NECA
Apparently
this is “Old Toy Month”.
NECA’s
“Ultimate” Freddy Krueger came out last December and I just never
got around to reviewing him. Sometimes even though I might really dig
a new toy, I have trouble getting motivated to do a review. I sold
off all of my Pacific
Rim
toys recently and barely reviewed any of those. Although to be honest
I think it was a lack of excitement over them. I love that movie and
the toys were beautiful, but I think that NECA might not have been
the best company to make them. Pacific
Rim is
about monsters and mechs beating the shit out of each other, but
those were some “toys” that were equally fragile and dangerous.
You could kill someone with the sharp points on the Kaiju and if you
did more than blow gently on the Jaegers pieces would fall (or break)
off. I would much rather have had toys that could actually be played
with from Hasbro or Mattel. Or heck, even JAKKS probably could have
offered up some kickass figures. They would have been huge, at least.
Labels:
31 Days of Halloween,
A Nightmare on Elm Street,
action figures,
freddy krueger,
halloween,
horror,
toy reviews,
toys

31 Days of Halloween - 30 Years Later-The Horror Movies of 1985
Ah 1985. What a great time to be a child with a penchant for horror and permissive parents. (I know it seems like all I do is watch and talk about horror movies. I swear I have other interests. Just not many that can get me going on a long, drawn out diatribe like scary movies do.) A lot of really good (and really bad) horror movies came out in 1985, and I thought it might be fun to take a look at a few to see how they've held up. Some are still great, a few haven't held up as well, and several were pretty terrible to begin with. There are definitely more that came out that year than I have time or inclination to talk about. I'm pretty much just going to cover the ones I liked, were the most memorable, and of course the very worst of those that I've seen. Let's go with alphabetical order since the seems most fair.
Monday, October 26, 2015
31 Days of Halloween: The Phantom Channel Listings for October 26, 2015
This
is it!
The
last week of Halloween and the final installment of this series that
I accidentally came up with. And boy, am I glad that I did. I was
sick of writing about SyFy’s schedule.
Labels:
31 Days of Halloween,
80s cartoons,
halloween,
horror,
horror movies,
television,
tips from uncle troublemaker

Friday, October 23, 2015
31 Days of Halloween - Needless Things Podcast 78 – Return of The Casket Creatures!
The Casket Creatures return to talk to Phantom Troublemaker about horror
movies and the Halloween season!
Labels:
31 Days of Halloween,
A Nightmare on Elm Street,
Friday the 13th,
halloween,
Haunted Attractions,
horror movies,
horror remakes,
Needless Things Podcast,
slashers,
Texas Chainsaw Massacre,
The Casket Creatures

Wednesday, October 21, 2015
31 Days of Halloween - Devlin's Domain - Martyrs
Halloween is fast approaching and I've decided to make the most of it this week. I've got a trick or a treat, depending on your level of mental stability, in store for you on this edition of Devlin's Domain. This won't be for the faint of heart, so I'm giving fair warning to those with weak stomachs or weak minds. If you find films like Saw, Hostel, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, and Last House on the Left to be horrifying or disturbing, turn back now. If you find films like those to be tame and are searching for something to push things to a true extreme, look no further. This is your unlucky day.
31 Days of Halloween: Goosebumps and More!
I
took the family to see Goosebumps
on opening night. I never watched the show or read the books because
I was older when they came out, but my wife is a fan because of her
niece and nephew and she and my son have watched a number of episodes
on Netflix. I love it when we can all go and see movies together, so
this was in the cards for a while.
All
I really knew about the franchise was that it was basically
kid-friendly versions of The
Twilight Zone
and Tales
from the Darkside.
Labels:
family movies,
Goosebumps,
halloween,
Jack Black,
movie reviews,
Spooky Movie

31 Days Of Halloween - Archie Vs. Sharknado Comic Review
Archie Comics has taken yet another
gamble at mixing Riverdale's favorite teenagers with something that
nobody saw coming. I mean really, can you honestly sit there and tell me that you could have seen this one shot
starring the SYFY phenomenon coming. That's right, straight from your
television screen to your comic book pages we have Archie vs
Sharknado. With the popularity of Afterlife With Archie and Archie vs
Predator it was inevitable that we would get something just as odd
from the publisher. However, I don't think with a hundred guesses I
would have selected Sharknado as something that would crossover into
the Archieverse.
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
31 Days of Halloween: Spooky Toy Review – Marvel Select Zombie Magneto from Diamond Select Toys
It
took me a while to check out the original Marvel
Zombies
miniseries because, quite frankly, I didn’t see how it could be any
good. Also because it started in December. If it had launched in
October I probably would have bought it just because.
Labels:
31 Days of Halloween,
action figures,
Diamond Select Toys,
halloween,
Magneto,
Marvel Comics,
Marvel Select,
Marvel Zombies,
mutants,
toy reviews,
x-men

31 Days of Halloween - Horror Movies and Mental Health
I recently read an article about horror movies that really offended me. It claims to be about the movie The Babadook which is the only reason I checked it out in the first place. It wasn't really about The Babadook, but it had other things that kept me reading. Other things that pissed me off. You can read the full thing here, but if you can't be bothered I'll sum it up for you. Horror movies are stressful, and you're more likely to be a bad person if you like them. I mean, okay I may not be the best person, but I don't think I'm a bad person. I'm certainly not the kind of bad person that this article describes. The writer goes on to make several pseudo-scientific points so I'll address them each in turn.
Monday, October 19, 2015
31 Days of Halloween: The Phantom Channel Listings for October 19, 2015
We’re
well into 31 Days of Halloween and I wanted to check in with some
spooky updates, as well as another day of fantasy Halloween
programming to hopefully prompt you guys to put together your own
dream viewing schedules.
Labels:
31 Days of Halloween,
halloween,
horror movies,
Phantom Channel,
television,
tips from uncle troublemaker

Friday, October 16, 2015
31 Days of Halloween - Needless Things Podcast 77 – Demons of the Ring: Supernatural Gimmicks in Wrestling
Phantom
Troublemaker, Sean Reid, and the one and only Johnny DANGAAAAAA
discuss the biggest and spookiest gimmicks from the colorful history
of the greatest sport of them all – professional wrestling!
Labels:
31 Days of Halloween,
Dungeon of Doom,
Gangrel,
halloween,
Johnny Danger,
Misfits,
Needless Things Podcast,
pro wrestling,
professional wrestling,
Sean Reid,
undertaker,
Vampiro,
wcw,
wrestling,
wwe,
wwf

Wednesday, October 14, 2015
31 Days of Halloween: Devlin's Domain - The Sacrament
As promised, I'm diving into the world of psychotic, brainwashing, religious cults. It's an ironically perfect topic to celebrate Halloween. I grew up in a religion that condemned the celebration of the holiday and it was known to me for a long time as "the Devil's holiday". Coincidentally it was the only holiday that ever appealed to me. I found that the Devil is a tame, ficticious threat in comparison to what I see as a true evil, religion itself.
Labels:
Devlin Valek,
Devlin's Domain,
halloween,
horror,
Jim Jones,
Jonestown,
Movie Review,
Religion,
The Sacrament
31 Days Of Halloween - Fat Vampire Book Review
I first discovered author Johnny B.
Truant a few years ago. Even though Truant is a writer, that is not
how I first found him. Oddly enough it was through podcasting where
Truant is one of the hosts of the Self Publishing Podcast and the
Better Off Undead Podcast. SPP as it's commonly called is for
aspiring writers which includes tips and interviews with other
authors. On that show there are three hosts which include Johnny,
Sean, and Dave. All three are authors that collaborate with each
other and Sterling And Stone is their company. They also do solo projects as well. I have followed the
podcasters for years but have never read any of their work which has
been a mistake on my part. Well, due to one of the books being free
on iTunes, I finally changed that.
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
31 Days of Halloween - Please Scare Me
Monday, October 12, 2015
31 Days of Halloween: Creepy Toy Review - Critter from Monstarz
First
of all, I have to clarify that this is not a toy. It says so right on
the box:
I
suppose that makes it an “Adult Collectible”, which is a term
that I will never be entirely comfortable with because of the
connotations of the word “Adult”. Not just because “Adult” so
often means “pervy”, but also because when it doesn’t
mean “pervy” it tends to mean “shit that I don’t want to
do/think about”. And I like pervy an awful lot more than I like any
of that. But I tend to stay away from pervy in the context of
Needless Things.
Labels:
31 Days of Halloween,
Amok Time,
Crite,
Critters,
halloween,
Monstarz,
monster toys,
monsters,
toy reviews

Friday, October 9, 2015
31 Days of Halloween - Needless Things Podcast 76 – The Horror of the Batman!
Phantom
Troublemaker and Mike Gordon talk about the horror-infused history of
the Dark Knight Detective in the newest Needless Things Podcast!
Labels:
31 Days of Halloween,
batman,
comic books,
dc comics,
Elseworlds,
ESO Podcast,
halloween,
horror,
Mike Gordon,
Needless Things,
Needless Things Podcast,
superheroes,
Supernatural

31 Days of Halloween: How To Survive A Horrow Movie Book Review
Has anyone seen that hilarious Geico
commercial with the idiot teenagers running from the psycho killer? They
see the still-running car, and the kids says "Are you crazy? Let’s hide behind the chainsaws!" And that’s
exactly where the little morons go. Even the psycho killer stops, stares,
and shakes his head. He's even ready to just say, "This is pathetic
and no longer fun for me. Next." I could watch that commercial
over and over again until I pee my pants from laughter because it outlines why
most horror movies don't hold suspense for me anymore since all the morons
behave this exact same way. My husband and I have come to predict who
will die, in what order, and how (with the exception of the Friday the 13th
reboot with Jared Padalecki. The last few minutes of that movie total went
against horror movie formula!) But this book, ladies and gentlemen, will
help you to fight against the horror movie stereotype. If you are ever
trapped in your own horror movie, this book shall help you get out the other
side alive.
Labels:
31 Days of Halloween,
book review,
Christina Sizemore,
horror,
How to Survive a Horror Movie,
Seth Grahame Smith
Wednesday, October 7, 2015
31 Days of Halloween – Aliens Are the Worst
I
am more terrified of aliens than I am of anything else. I discussed
this a bit on Episode 34 of the Needless Things Podcast,
but I felt the topic warranted a little more in-depth investigation.

Tuesday, October 6, 2015
Dragon Con 2015 - Final Thoughts
Here are just a few final thoughts that didn't really fit in with my recap stuff, but I feel like it should still be said somewhere.
31 Days of Halloween - Movie Review - It Follows
I know It Follows has really good reviews and meta-scores and all that, but I don't know that many people who've actually seen it. And some of those people didn't "get it" so I feel like I need to put my two cents in here. I've seen it twice now, and would totally see it again. If you haven't seen it yet go to your nearest Redbox or On Demand to watch it now! I thought it was a brilliantly understated work of art that took me back to John Carpenter's Halloween or Last House on the Left or any of the other great classic horror movies of the 70's and early 80's. It was done that way on purpose. It was an homage without being tongue-in-cheek or giving the audience a knowing wink. It was totally serious, and that's what made it great. Well, that and just about everything else in the movie.
Monday, October 5, 2015
31 Days of Halloween: Ancient Toys of Yesteryear – Resurrection of Monstress Franken Steela from Yellow Submarine
I
wanted to do something special for the first toy review of this
year’s Halloween coverage. While there are plenty of new horror
toys on the market thanks to companies like NECA, Mezco, and Funko,
you can find reviews of that stuff everywhere
(which is not to say that I won’t be reviewing some of that stuff
here – after all, nobody else is me). I decided to dig into my toy
archives and review an old favorite.
Sort
of.
Labels:
31 Days of Halloween,
action figures,
Ancient Toys of Yesteryear,
Franken Steela,
Frankenstein,
import toys,
Resurrection of Monstress,
toys,
Yellow Submarine

Saturday, October 3, 2015
31 Days of Halloween - Needless Things Podcast 75 – The Films of Wes Craven
Phantom
Troublemaker and the Needless Things Irregulars talk about the career
and impact of Master of Horror Wes Craven in the newest Needless
Things Podcast!
Labels:
31 Days of Halloween,
A Nightmare on Elm Street,
Beth V,
Devlin,
halloween,
horror,
horror movies,
Needless Things Podcast,
R.T. Ewell,
Scream,
Shocker,
The Hills Have Eyes,
The People Under the Stairs,
Wes Craven

Thursday, October 1, 2015
31 Days of Halloween: The Phantom Channel
Welcome
to Needless Things’ month-long celebration of the greatest time of
the year!
From
today through Halloween, me and the rest of the Needless Things
Irregulars will be sharing the spookiest, creepiest, and most fun
content we can to help get you in the Halloween mood.
Labels:
31 Days of Halloween,
halloween,
horror movies,
movies,
television,
tips from uncle troublemaker

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