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Goth Chick News; The Girl (and the Movie) With All the Gifts

Goth Chick News; The Girl (and the Movie) With All the Gifts

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The Girl With all the Gifts novel-small The Girl With all the Gifts poster-small

Seeing that it now has a sequel, I finally got around to reading M.R. Carey’s first novel, The Girl With All the Gifts (2015).

I’m not sure what I was expecting. As the book has been out for over two years, I don’t think it is giving away too much to tell you the story takes place in a future dystopia, made such by a literal zombie apocalypse. And with all of us having lived through seven years of The Walking Dead, Brad Pitt in World War Z and slightly lighter takes such as Zombieland and Warm Bodies just to name a few, one might conclude that zombies, as a monster fad, might be played out both on screen and in print.

So if I was expecting anything at all, it wasn’t much. In fact, my local bookseller placed it in the YA section which meant I might either love it like A Series of Unfortunate Events or hate it with a burning passion, like Twilight.

Turns out, I definitely didn’t hate it.

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Goth Chick News: Forget Virtual Reality, Let’s Do This

Goth Chick News: Forget Virtual Reality, Let’s Do This

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Alien War

Some years ago while wandering around London in the evening, I had the very lucky pleasure of coming upon the grand opening of a new attraction called Alien War. Being an avid fan of the Alien franchise and having no idea what I was walking into, I allowed the realistically dressed interstellar marines manning the sidewalk outside, to convince me to check it out.

What I experienced for the next 20+ minutes would almost certainly require me to sign some sort of liability waver if it existed today; but it was such an unbelievable adrenaline rush that I queued up to do it twice more that night.

As I have nothing to compare it to in recent memory, I was happy to find several YouTube clips. Including the one below, which gives you an idea of what I’m talking about.

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Goth Chick News: What if Noah Brought More Than Animals on the Ark…?

Goth Chick News: What if Noah Brought More Than Animals on the Ark…?

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Could it be Satan-small

Admittedly, I’m a sucker for old-fashioned, biblical-inspired horror. There’s something about texts that old that seems to add a layer of plausibility to a story. Once, following a very odd conversation with a minister’s wife attending my college, I spent one whole summer researching obscure ancient religious texts in which you can find the inspiration for most of your nightmares.

Okay, so I didn’t get out much in those days.

But what remains is an attraction to stories like Constantine, The Seventh Sign and The Rite for their otherworldly creepiness, so when I got word of a fairly new release by Christopher Golden called Ararat, I dashed right out to get my hands on a copy.

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Goth Chick News: Stranger Toys for Cool Kids

Goth Chick News: Stranger Toys for Cool Kids

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Stranger Things Funco toys-small

Netflix’s Stranger Things is one long nostalgia trip for kids from the ’80s, so it only makes sense that at some point, homage would be paid to the most prominent of 80’s attributes aside from should pads – rampant consumerism.

Funko, the company best known for their Pop! Vinyl toy line agrees. It’s preparing Stranger Things action figures that are bound to rekindle memories of playing with GI Joe or Masters of the Universe toys as a kid and cause collectors who love the show to be willing to traverse the Upside Down to get their hands on them.

The news comes directly from Funko’s website, where they explain that they’re selling two separate three-packs of 3 3/4 tall action figures. One pack contains figures based on the characters of the group’s de facto leader Mike Wheeler (played by the awesomely-named Finn Wolfhard), the logic-driven Lucas Sinclair (played by Caleb McLaughlin), and the mysterious Eleven (played by Millie Bobby Brown). The other pack includes figures based on the unfortunate Will Byers (Noah Schnapp), the loyal Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo), and the evil Demogorgon.

The figures are all fully articulated, and most come with some sort of prop that reflects the character: Eleven has her Eggo waffles (obviously), Mike has a walkie-talkie, and Lucas gets two – a slingshot and a pair of binoculars. The second pack is far more sparse; it looks like the only prop that comes with that is a package of chocolate pudding, which I’m guessing isn’t intended for the Demogorgon.

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Goth Chick News: “Show Me the Mummy!” or Universal Studios Eats Its Young…

Goth Chick News: “Show Me the Mummy!” or Universal Studios Eats Its Young…

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The Mummy 2017-small

Back in October I reported on the travesty that Universal Studios was perpetuating on its own iconic catalog of classic movie monster films. Though I was sincerely hoping the early rumors were not true, it has recently been confirmed that Universal is indeed committing this violent crime which they are entitling their “Dark Universe,” the umbrella under which it is planning at least five films including The Invisible Man (with Johnny Depp), Dr. Jekyll (Russell Crowe), Frankenstein’s Monster (Javier Bardem) and Bride of Frankenstein (not yet cast but Angelina Jolie is rumored).

So what’s the problem you ask?

These films have already been remade multiple times, you say.

True enough.

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Goth Chick News: A Unique Musical Take on a Weird Tales Classic

Goth Chick News: A Unique Musical Take on a Weird Tales Classic

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Weird Tales May 1933-small The Beast of Averoigne-small

When musician Matthew Knight contacted me about his new release, The Beast of Averoigne I admittedly had to do a bit of research. I knew I had heard of the story somewhere, but could not immediately place it.

The story’s author, Clark Ashton Smith (1893 –1961) was one of “the big three” of Weird Tales, alongside Robert E. Howard and H. P. Lovecraft. Smith was a member of the Lovecraft circle and his literary friendship with Lovecraft lasted from 1922 until Lovecraft’s death in 1937.

First appearing in the May, 1933 issue of Weird Tales, Clark Ashton Smith’s story “The Beast of Averoigne” concerns itself with a man of science whose superior knowledge enables him to deal with a dark threat that the ignorant, religion-besotted inhabitants of 14th century France simply cannot. What sets “The Beast of Averoigne” apart is that it might be called a science fiction tale rather than a fantasy one, for the titular “beast” is not some demon from Hell but an alien invader.

And it is around this story that Matthew Knight weaves his debut release under the label Haunted Abbey Mythos. The theatrical, musical audiobook presentation consists of a dramatic narration of “The Beast” read by Knight and set to a backdrop of eerie soundscapes scored by avant garde electronic musician, Jon Zaremba. The CD also contains five unique interlude pieces by Knight, which range from ambient synth-driven, to darkly romantic.

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Goth Chick News: Look Behind Pennywise – If You Dare

Goth Chick News: Look Behind Pennywise – If You Dare

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Pennywise the Story of It-small

2017 seems to be the year that clowns replace zombies in the dark subconscious of the general collective, thanks entirely to the nightmare-inducing remake of It, due out September 8.

But before Bill Skarsgård donned the red nose, it was Tim Curry looking up at us from the sewers and giving us the screaming heebie-jeebies. As good as the new version may (or may not) end up, we’ll never completely get over the emotional scars left by Curry.

So it is with great anticipation that I tell you Dead Mouse Productions Ltd and Cult Screenings UK Ltd, makers of Leviathan: The Story of Hellraiser and You’re so cool, Brewster! The Story of Fright Night, are gearing up to produce a fully independent retrospective into the making of the 1990 TV miniseries of Stephen King’s IT. Exploring the series’ cultural impact over the last 28 years, the upcoming documentary Pennywise: The Story of IT, is being directed by Chris Griffiths and is set to “tell a story heard by few and showcase a wealth of behind-the-scenes footage and photos seen by even fewer.”

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Goth Chick News: Are the Blade Runner and Alien Worlds Colliding?

Goth Chick News: Are the Blade Runner and Alien Worlds Colliding?

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Blade-Runner-2049-small

I was super excited to see the new Blade Runner 2049 trailer released this week, partially because I was curious to see how much if any actual running Harrison Ford would actually be doing.

Okay, don’t look at me like you weren’t wondering exactly the same thing.

Turns out, there was more than one item to discuss in this latest look into our dark futures.

First, Mr. Ford does do a bit of a hustle at the 1:41 mark, which incidentally was not bad for a 75-year-old man. Next, Jared Leto’s Wallace character is sufficiently creepy with those cataract contact lenses. And apparently you make the future even more futuristic with 3-story-tall, sexed up holograms – who knew?

But what is really giving the fan girls and boys fits is the possible Easter egg at the 15-second mark.

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Goth Chick News: C2E2 2017 – More Harley Quinn’s Than You Can Swing A Mallet At

Goth Chick News: C2E2 2017 – More Harley Quinn’s Than You Can Swing A Mallet At

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C2E2 2017

The annual cosplay bacchanalia that is the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (or “C2E2” for you cool kids) rolled into our city’s largest convention space on April 21 for three full days of exhibition in every sense of the word.

Now in its 8th year, preliminary attendance estimates easily top the 100K mark which was illustrated by the fact that the McCormick Center’s 6000 parking spaces were full on Saturday by 11 a.m. and attendees were being bussed from other nearby lots. Of course one must also consider that this year’s C2E2 event was sharing a small amount of their space with The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics annual Experimental Biology convention which accounted for some of the parking consumption.

Imagine with me if you will, jacketed and bespectacled scientist-types of a certain age, navigating the long pedestrian bridge connecting the garage to the event space alongside Superman, Wonder Woman and various members of the Seven Kingdoms. Now imagine Black Gate photog Chris Z and I under the influence of too little sleep, too much caffeine and more than the normal snark level, trudging along behind them.

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Goth Chick News: Ellen Ripley Relives Her Tortured Past

Goth Chick News: Ellen Ripley Relives Her Tortured Past

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Alien digital Sigourney Weaver-small

Consider for a moment your adult self, with all your current knowledge, experience and (theoretic) ability to know better, magically transported back in time to relive the trials and tribulations of your incredibly awkward and potentially misspent youth.

Would you do it?

Personally that’s a great big “no” with several colorful swear words preceding it. But this is the exact personal hell soon to be faced by Sigourney Weaver.

Sort of.

Ridley Scott isn’t ruling out a young Ellen Ripley entering the storyline in one of his planned Alien: Covenant sequels, via the magic of CGI de-aging.

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