Dylan Charles's Blog, page 19

31 Days of Spoooktacular: The Prequel

I hope you enjoyed yesterday’s descent into madness. I hope I never have to do that again. But it did give you a little taste of what to expect in the coming days.

For the next 31 days, I plan to post more Spoooky Beer Reviews, horror movie reviews, and my occasional over-philosophizing about the horror genre, both in books and in film. I plan to blog from Rock and Shock. I plan to even blog about things that aren’t directly related to Halloween, just to mix it up a little bit.

In the end, I ho...

Entry X

So! For the second time this year, I’ve forced myself to write ten entries in a single day. I’d feel bad about making this last entry a cop-out, wrap-up entry, but I don’t.

So there.

In the future, I’d like to avoid this little bit of tom foolery. Shouldn’t be too hard. All I have to do is actually update my blog in a reasonable fashion so that I have the proper number of entries up per month.

Ha!

Anyway, it’s been fun, but I’d really like to go watch Hellraiser now. If, for some reason, you miss...

The Funny Pages (Entry IX)

Over the last few years, I’ve become more and more convinced that some of the greatest unsung artists are those that write and draw comics. By comics, I mean any and all forms of sequential art; newspaper comics, webcomics, comic books and anything else that might fall into that category.

There is an artistry involved in being able to tell a story with both pictures and with words and to do so within a fairly strict confine. The borders of the panels bind and confine the artist. They must make...

The Magnum Opus (Entry VIII)

I want to write a book of absurd length, of bizarre depth and of unspeakable horrors.

I have an idea in mind, but I think it would take a year just to get it started. I don’t know if it would be any good. That’s not really the point anyway. I want to make something of such scope and of such lunatic vision that people look up and stare in wonder.

And, like I said, I have an idea.

It needs to span decades and cover a cast of characters that are almost innumerable. It needs to be far reaching…and y...

Our Monsters (Entry VII)

Through the years, you can see the evolution of our fears. In the 30′s and 40′s, there were vampires, werewolves and mummies. The old world monsters, the creatures we brought over in wooden sailing ships. They were beasts that had been haunting the imagination for centuries.

By the 50′s and 60′s, we had outgrown them and moved on to Atomic Horrors and Aliens. We feared what our science had wrought. Giant ants and nuclear monsters. Creatures that had mutated and grown out of control. Creatures...

Cabin in the Woods: Worst Horror Movie Ever (Entry VI)

As a horror movie,Cabin in the Woodsis pretty terrible. It’s hilarious, well-acted and my favorite movie to come out this year, but it’s a terrible horror movie.

It’s similar toScream in a lot of ways. There’s a lot of winking and nodding at the audience, but whereScream decided to be scary,Cabin in the Woods went down a different trail.

I like to think of the two movies as two sides of the same coin: a reverent acknowledgement of horror movies.Scream was constrained, somewhat, by the fact that...

Rock and Shock: Second Attempt (Entry V)

Last year, I was going to go to the Rock and Shock Horror Convention, but circumstances prevented me. Luckily, my friend was able to grab the following for me:

So all was not lost.

But I still want to go. Ineed to go. A horror convention is like the Mecca for horror fans. You realize you’re not the only freak in the world who likes red corn syrup and Tom Savini. You’re surrounded by the fans of the genre and the people who make that genre go: Actors, directors, make-up artists and writers.

It’s...

Spoooky Beer Review: Port Brewing’s Shark Attack (Entry IV)

I’m taking it upon myself to review as many Octoberfests and Pumpkin Ales as I possibly can during the Halloween Season. All while listening to “Thriller”.

Next up: Port Brewing’s Shark Attack

Here we have another beer that I’m pretty sure is available year round and isn’t Halloween specific, but the name is just horror themed enough that I don’t really care. Serve it up at a Halloween party and people will think you’re spooky beer awesome.

In fact, if you bring Shark Attack, a double red ale fr...

Mass-Produced Horror (Entry III)

While watching the remake of My Bloody Valentine (not the 3D version, because beer reviewing and 3D blood splatter don’t make for good companions) I decided that Hollywood will never again make a movie that canlegitimatelyfrighten me. They might be able to make me vaguely uneasy or jump in surprise, but they will never scare me.

The last time a movie actually gave me the out and out willies was Anti-Christ, a movie made in Europe somewhere. It was weird, controversial and, I’m assuming here, w...

Spoooky Beer Review: Cambridge Brewing’s The Great Pumpkin Ale (Entry II)

I’m taking it upon myself to review as many Octoberfests and Pumpkin Ales as I possibly can during the Halloween Season. All while listening to “Thriller”.

Next up: Cambridge Brewing’s The Great Pumpkin Ale

I’m going to be honest with you: I’m kind of getting sick of pumpkin ales. They taste violently of pumpkins and I can only take so much of it. And why JUST pumpkins? Come on guys, there are more ways to celebrate the season than with the flavor of pumpkins! Like….candy corn beer.

Ugh, never m...