Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) 08, 10/7.

A couple of recommendations from Richard Harland Smith: "Every day is Halloween for the minds behind Kindertrauma, where you can find confessions of childhood nightmares spawned by mindless entertainment, a sausage surprise recipe you won't soon forget and some traum-mercials that will scar your soul (no, I really mean that) and what has to be the scariest album cover ever." And "Frankensteinia is always a good time and host Pierre Fournier is a gracious and affable host in possession of an encyclopedia-like brain (which is to say it's very heavy and dry) about all things related to Mary Shelley's undying Creature."

"[E]ven though he hasn't directed a picture in 17 years, Nathan [Schiff] has lost none of his mojo in the gore department," writes Ray Young. "Clocking in at 20 minutes, Abracadaver! is part of Worst Fears, a series of shorts from England's Pathetique Films.... Call it Sartre Chainsaw Massacre: Schiff transcends genre for existentialism. It makes you wonder what he could do with a lot of money and a cast and crew willing to go the distance."

"With Criticized, [Richard] Gale proved once and for all that it's the little things in life that matter in a horror movie," writes Michael Guillén. "In his follow-up - The Horribly Slow Murderer With the Extremely Inefficient Weapon - Gale shifts from the office desk paperclip holder to the kitchen cutlery drawer. Already at its world premiere at Austin's Fantastic Fest last month, The Horribly Slow Murderer With the Extremely Inefficient Weapon won a special jury prize and saw its equally popular West Coast premiere in this year's Dead Channels' 'Fantastic Short Films' program. At this point I have to officially crown Richard Gale as the reigning king of 'object horror.'"

Also, Latchkey's Lament: "Ambitious it is and darkly beautiful, veined with a uniquely mesmerizing mystery and magic, clearly expressing the phantasmagorical sheen familiar to the imagined terrains of Evening Class favorite Guillermo del Toro."

For the Los Angeles Times, Gina McIntyre talks with Greg Nicotero, executive producer of the doc, Fantastic Flesh: The Art of Make-Up EFX.

Posted by dwhudson at October 7, 2008 2:50 PM