Black Gate

Tricks for unsuspecting viewers and a delicious treat for us horror fans.

If you’ve watched various Fox networks over the past couple of weeks you may have been visited by strange and chilling advertising just in time for Halloween. Mars candy brands (M&Ms and Skittles to name a couple) have collaborated to give up-and-coming horror directors the opportunity to make disturbing short films — which have been running in their entirety during Fox commercial breaks.

Four “Bite Size Horror” flicks (they are all two minutes long) have rolled out so far. The one that’s gotten the most attention is Floor 9.5, presented by Skittles, written by Simon Allen and directed by Toby Meakins. (Allen and Meakins previously worked together on the Vimeo staff pick horror shorts Breathe and LOT254.) Floor 9.5 ran during a Yankees-Indians playoff game on FS1, and judging by the Twitter reactions, it clearly freaked people out.

Actually, it kind of freaked me out…

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If you enjoy your scares draped in black velvet and crinolines, ala Guillermo del Toro’s period ghost story Crimson Peak (and I certainly do) then we’re both going to love a new film by Epic Pictures Group that debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) earlier this month.

Entitled The Lodgers (no relation to David Bowie’s classic Berlin-era album of a similar name), the film offers up a chilling ghost tale with in a rich, Victorian setting. The movie was directed by Brian O’Malley (Let Us Prey), and features performances by Bill Milner (X-Men: First Class, Locke), Charlotte Vega (The Misfits Club, Another Me), David Bradley (Captain America: The First Avenger, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones), Eugene Simon (Game of Thrones, Ben Hur), and Moe Dunford (Vikings, Patrick’s Day).

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First, a moment of fan girl squee’ing…

Okay, here we go.

Second generation scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis is returning to play her iconic character Laurie Strode in what Universal Pictures promises will be the eleventh and final installment of the Halloween franchise. Curtis’ character will have one last confrontation with Michael Myers, the masked figure who has haunted her since she narrowly escaped his killing spree on Halloween night four decades ago when the original movie opened in October, 1978.

John Carpenter will executive produce and serve as creative consultant on this film, joining leading horror producer Jason Blum, who’s behind The Purge and Paranormal Activity franchises. In case you forgot (and who really could?) the Halloween films were launched by Carpenter from his own original script; it and the nine films that followed have grossed nearly $400 million worldwide.

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Credibly creepy source material? Check.

Good acting? Check.

Clowns? Double check.

“One of the best horror movies of all time.” Umm…probably not.

Then again that was a quote from author Joe Hill who, if you weren’t aware, is Stephen King’s son.

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As you likely know, the staff at Black Gate has the distinct honor and pleasure to witness the passion that goes into the creative process. We get early looks at everything from books to movies, and comics to gaming. Each and every effort is the result of someone making the decision to put their imagination and creativity on display for the world to enjoy or possibly to pick apart – but in the mind of the creator, the risk is worth the reward.

Back in 2000 when I began contributing to the print version of Black Gate, I submitted a rather scathing review of a new author’s work. True, it was my opinion and to this day I stand by my comments, but I never stopped feeling bad about delivering this critical feedback in a public forum. That new author made a leap of faith sending his work to Black Gate and I feel my review disrespected the creative process.

Since that point, if I truly am not a fan of something that is sent to me, I simply do not tell you about it. And if pressed by the creator, I will share my thoughts with them privately, but never here.

So what’s the point of telling you this?

It’s a typical GCN setup of course and a way to tell you that if I write about a topic, it’s because I truly believe it’s something you need to experience for yourself. And in a rare case, that your need is more important than say, Tom Cruise’ ego or the collective commercial power of the Twilight franchise.

So with this in mind, I invite you back to last week when I reintroduced you to the wonderful, twisted world of Charles M. Kline in the form of his latest book, The 12 Frights of Christmas. At that time, I also said we’d talk about Mr. Kline again this week in the context of his short film, Frankenfriend.

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