HorrorHound19

HorrorHound #19

This issue of HorrorHound is a mix bag for me. They have a lot of really great articles and a few that make my skin crawl. So I will try to be even handed here, but who knows since I do tend to get on my soapbox time to time.

Their movie news section has a nice, but short interview with the director of Zombieland Ruben Fleischer and that is followed by a few films from the 80’s that have been remade. They finally get on the bandwagon and start reviewing Blu-Rays in a proper manner. They had been holding out for far to long for reasons I have no clue. I think the real reason they decided to give Blu some love was because their pal Paul Davis had a documentary that was added onto he release of An American Werewolf in London so they covered that one really well and then added into the mix a few more Blus for good measure. This is followed by a review of Grace and then a mini interview with the director of Grace Paul Solet. They jump on the bandwagon of whining about the cover art for Night of the Creeps as most fans have done. I say GROW UP people for real. Be happy that a movie from your past got a DVD release and a good one at that. I’m so sick of all the belly aching out there people saying “boo-hoo the cover art sucks”…..Well don’t you go buying it then. Get over it! This is not the 1980’s anymore no matter how many times you look into your Magic 8 Ball. Lastly, they finish out the first part of the magazine with DVD reviews, Dissecting Saw (which was mighty informative) & Toxic Avenger: The Musical (LAME!)

Their look into the VHS boom of the 1980’s was pretty rad once again. Now it is cool looking back on those times and having a time warp back to yesteryear, but it is always good to remember it is in the past and not coming back. This Video Invasion look was at Unicorn Video label. As always a lot of great information and really goes all out to make sure they cover it all. This series of articles have been top notch. They then have some con and toy news all this was fine and dandy getting ready to drop the mega ton bomb that is…..

NIGHTBREED! This article alone is worth the price of the magazine. Jessica Dwyer does a bang up job here and the pictures and stories that she presents for the first time is truly amazing. All I can say is that I hope FINALLY that Nightbreed will see a proper DVD/Blu-Ray release in the coming year. I really hope Jessica will do a follow up article on the progress of this film and the folks behind it in seeing it finally come into the light.

We then get into some comic book updates, how to make your very own My Bloody Valentine costume (Aaron you crack me up with this article brother) & a very cool look into the world of action figures starting with McFarlane and covering all the way up to recent with the few companies that are left.

This brings me to Aaron Crowell’s article The Persecution of the Innocent, which I loathed. It was just a hit piece on Catholics. I am NOT Catholic so let me just say that up front. I felt this piece to be heavy handed and there is a difference between informing people about these films over the subject matter and inserting your own personal vendetta/views. Which I felt he has done here where he starts to speculate that these things that could have happened to these poor souls instead of sticking to the facts. I think if you help run a company like Aaron does it is a slippery slope to start inserting your religious and political views into the public realm. The entire piece is over the history of the Catholic Church and it persecuting of mostly women who they believed to be witches. Which like Aaron I find appalling and do not take lightly at all it is a horrible part of history. However, I really feel that this subject matter would have been better served by talking about the films. In the end I give him credit that he did his research and really laid out his argument even if I didn’t like what he had to say. I need to say that I like Aaron I consider him a great guy and very fun person to be around to talk to about the genre. I have seen him a lot over the years at conventions. However, to be honest this article saddened me. So please don’t misunderstand where I’m coming from.

The last few parts of this issue consist of 10 year retrospective on The Blair Witch Project that was massive and really informative. They have a lot of different parts to this article like Where Are They Now?, toys, comic books, poster art, books, VHS, DVD, toys, trinkets & parodies. They even talk about Blair Witch 2, which I have not seen much on. Over all this was a great article over a film that I hate!

There is a great review of the film Mark of the Devil by Aaron Crowell. Sean Clark brings his Horror’s Hallowed Grounds this time it is none other than “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” another great look at some of our favorite movie locations. Jon Kitley brings us another great look at films that people tend to forget this time being films that have witches in them! Finally, HorrorHound inducts their newest film into their Hall of Fame. This time it is Children of the Corn. We have just interviewed Courtney Gains. I know cheap plug!!

So all in all this issue is a mix bag, but over all I dug it. Please keep the paper business going and buy more magazines!!!

reviewed by Jason Payne