Titans Terrors and Toys

Last Christmas, I did a retrospective post about the massive influx of Japanese robot toys that hit U.S. toy stores during the Christmas season of 1984. In the time since that post, I've learned that Japanese robot toys have their own system of taxonomy to classify the toys according to build, features, and material composition. For example, the term "chogokin" specifically refers to Japanese robot toys that were made during the 70s and 80s and featured a significant amount of die-cast metal. Chogokin toys were usually produced in one of two sizes: "ST" (or "standard"), which meant that the toy was around 5 inches high, and "DX" (or "deluxe"), which meant that the toy was much larger than 5 inches in height and came with more complex features. This post is devoted to one of the ST chogokin toys that I had as a kid: the miniature 6 inch Voltron I action figure, which was released by Matchbox in 1984. There's quite a history ...

Toy collecting has become such a popular hobby that some collectors customize toys to appear like characters from popular fantasy, horror and sci-fi franchises. Sometimes, these customizations are done of compensate for the lack of licensed toys made in the likeness of a particular character (or even a particular vehicle), but what happens when a toy is used to recreate a previously released licensed toy? Meet Eric Druon, a.k.a. BaronSat. BaronSat has produced a series of customized toy kits by using Lego bricks and you can see most of his work on his site, the BaronSat Workshop . He has assembled kits based on characters, settings and vehicles from franchises such as Battlestar Galactica , Planet of the Apes , Robotech , Star Trek and Star Wars , and you can even purchase some of these customizations--either as complete kits or as assembly instructions--through BaronSat's site. Of the many amazing things that BaronSat shares on his site, I think that the most unique are his...

At the end of this week, theaters across the country will debut The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey , the long-awaited film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's prequel story for the Lord of the Rings trilogy. While the film itself is getting positive reviews, I've noticed that many of the critics have also commented on one of the film's technical aspects--namely, the visual effect has resulted from the film being shot at 48 frames per second (fps) instead of the traditional 24 fps. The film's director, Peter Jackson, chose this new format for the sake of giving his film better image definition; some critics think that Jackson has achieved his goal in spades, while others think that the movie looks much more artificial than had it been shot at the normal frame rate. In particular, Andrew O'Hehir's made this observation about the 48 fps format when he saw The Hobbit : "(F)or me ... this cinematic innovation apparently meant to create an atmosphere of magic r...

With Lego raking in the cash through licenses such as Harry Potter , Lord of the Rings , Star Wars and superheroes from both DC and Marvel Comics, it's inevitable that Lego's competitors will follow suit. For example, Best-Lock Construction Toys has picked up the Terminator license and has released The Terminator Buildable Construction Playset . According to the product's description, "Recreate your favorite scenes from the blockbuster The Terminator movies with this superb value building block set, The Terminator Buildable Construction Playset, from Best-Lock Construction Toys. Containing over 1,000 pieces, The Terminator comes to life in block form and features all the essential elements to role play your very own Judgement Day, including; three Aerial Hunter-Killer models and two Tank Hunter-Killer models plus an army of T-800 cyborg figures as well as the iconic Terminator figure and a number of other models and accessories. This block set provides hours...

I'll say this for the Predator franchise: Even though Hollywood doesn't have a clear idea of what to do with it, this creative property sure does produce some fascinating merchandise. Even though it only has produced only three stand-alone movies and two crossover movies during the last quarter century, Predator merchandise has included comic books, novels, video games, and collectibles that range from never-before-seen mask and creature designs to replicas of Predators from both the movies and the comic books. The fourth Predator movie appears to be stuck in development hell, but that hasn't stopped NECA from moving into new Predator merchandising territory. NECA will be releasing the Big Red Predator figure, the first--and so far only--Predator figure that's based on a fan-made film. This seven-inch figure is based on a Predator that was seen in the 2003 fan film Batman: Dead End . In addition to the bold color scheme of its armor, the figure also comes with inter...

Did you ever watch a movie that you want to like but you simply can't because it doesn't adhere to its own internal logic? If you do, then you know how I feel about The Orphanage , a 2007 Spanish horror film directed by Juan Antonio Bayona. The Orphanage is about Laura (Belen Rueda) and her husband Carlos (Fernando Cayo) who are renovating an orphanage into a home for special needs children. Laura herself was an orphan at the very same orphanage that she and her husband are restoring and they even have an adopted child of their own, Simon (Roger Princep). A series of mysterious incidents begin to occur as Laura and Carlos prepare the building for new occupants, incidents that culminate with the disappearance of Simon on the very day of the orphanage's reopening. Laura's subsequent search for Simon leads her into the building's forgotten past and the dark secrets that it hides. As a gothic ghost story, The Orphanage drips with unrealized potential. The cine...

As a long-time fan of giant robot stuff like the Robotech anime series and the Zoids toy line , I'm frequently drawn like a bee to honey to giant robot video games. By "giant robot video games", I'm not talking about any of the Transformers games (where sentient robots fight other sentient robots) or games such as the Super Robot Wars series (where the robots are just pieces that players move around on the board as part of a strategy game). No, I'm talking about games that allow you to control robots that are piloted by people, something along the lines of a Japanese "real robot" anime series. For games of this variety, some of the best were made for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) back in the 1990s. Click below for a list of four SNES games that allowed players to assume control of a big 'bot and lay waste to various digital landscapes and pummel the bejesus out of other robots.

For some, the horror subgenre of found footage has become the bane of good horror filmmaking. Much like the slasher and zombie subgenres in previous decades, found footage has become the subgenre of choice for aspiring horror filmmakers who have very small production budgets at their disposal. Of course, the talents of such filmmakers vary and while some of them have produced found footage films of high entertainment value, many more have made films that are simply average, below average, or so below average that they are unwatchable. Even though some found footage narrative conventions have become clichéd due to their recent overuse, I still think that this subgenre has the potential to tell stories that other subgenres can't. As the name suggests, "found footage" is just that--footage that was shot by one person or group and found by another. With so many forms of video technology available these days, the footage could come from anywhere: home video, security camer...

"Killer kid" stories, stories where one or more children become bloodthirsty murders, has long been a popular subgenre in horror. A few of my favorite killer kid horror movies include Village of the Damned (1960), Who Can Kill a Child? (1976), and The Children (2008). Yet for a many killer kid novels, short stories and movies that there are, there are very, very few that reverse the roles in this subgenre. In other words, while there are plenty of stories about previously normal children becoming relentless and remorseless killers of adults, few dare to depict a situation where previously normal adults become relentless and remorseless killers of children. Not so with Hide , a new comic book series that's written and drawn by Vernon Smith and published by El MacFearsome Comic Squares. The plot behind Hide is as simple as it is scary: One day, people over the age of 18 decide to go on a killing spree against everyone who is under the age of 18. (By everyone under 1...

KMD Artistry, which is owned by visual artist Kelly Delcambre, specializes in restoring and replicating props and costumes that have appeared throughout Hollywood's history. To date, KMD projects have included replicating costumes from Universal's classic monster movies to restoring mechanical props used in films such as the original Fright Night (1985). Delcambre has also designed and produced many cosplay costumes, which are very remarkable in their own right. Yet with me being a huge fan of "Big Bug" movies, I wanted to call attention to one of KMD's restoration projects that is near and dear to my dark, twisted heart: the human-fly costumes from the original The Fly (1958) and its first sequel Return of the Fly (1959). Click below for more pictures of the human-fly monster restorations, as well as a few thoughts about how the restorations compare to the original costumes. All pictures are provided courtesy of KMD Artistry.

One of the great things about being a long-term horror fan who watches both American films and films from other countries is noticing how older horror films impact newer horror films in different cultures. No, I'm not talking about Hollywood's current infatuation with remaking horror movies, both domestic and foreign; I'm talking about how filmmakers from one country adopt the look and feel of horror that is often associated with filmmakers from another country--while at the same time remaining faithful to their own cultural roots. Such mixture of styles result in horror movies that are much more engaging than those that are content to merely imitate the cinematic approach used by the most well-known horror movies. Take Insidious , for example. When it was released in 2011, the ad campaigns promoted the fact that it produced by people from the Saw and Paranormal Activity franchises--namely James Wan, Leigh Whannell, Jason Blum, Jeanette Brill, Oren Peli and Steven Sch...

This weekend marks the release of the Wii U, the new Nintendo gaming console. The big selling point for the Wii U is the touch screen control pad, which offers new ways of interacting with video games. With me being a sci-fi fan, hearing about a new kind of video game control scheme immediately leads me to wonder how the new scheme will allow me to better interact with and control the iconic vehicles from my favorite sci-fi franchises when they are ported into a video game environment. Take Star Wars , for example. The earliest video games that put fans in the seats of Rebel and Imperial star fighters first appeared during the 90s, with titles such as X-Wing and TIE Fighter . (There were also the Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back arcade games in the 80s, but those were more like rail shooters than flight simulators.) Yet even before video games had enough sophistication to create a vehicle simulation fit for a galaxy far, far away, Lucasfilm tried to give fans the experience o...

Through my blog, I do what I can to call attention to movies, TV shows, video games, prop replicas, or other things that I think deserve some additional recognition among the fan community. Most of the things in question are from the genres of horror and sci-fi, but I'm happy to make exceptions to this rule for things that fall outside of these genres. This brings me to the topic of this post, my review of Wes Anderson's stop motion animated film, Fantastic Mr. Fox , which is based on a book by Roald Dahl. I'm not sure how Fantastic Mr. Fox escaped my attention for so long. I only have a passing familiarity with Anderson's films but since the movie is based on the work of an author who's as popular as Dahl, I'm surprised that it didn't earn a more successful reception. I've read that 20th Century Fox had no idea how to promote this film, so it became the victim of an extremely poor marketing campaign. That shouldn't have happened, because Fant...

With the official release of the Nintendo Wii U console just a few days away, I thought I would take the time to look back at three promising horror titles for the Wii that never made it to the store shelves. Mind you, I'm not talking about horror games that were released for the Wii overseas but not in the U.S. (although there are a few of those, such as Japan's Night of the Sacrifice ), nor am I talking about horror games that were released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 and not the Wii. No, these are games that spent plenty of time in production and development but for whatever reason were not released--ever. Click below to read more about these unseen Wii games (listed in alphabetical order), games that may still have a chance on the Wii U.

After watching all of the films in the REC franchise so far, I've come to this conclusion: The ending for the first movie in 2007 was that film's "twist" ending. Period. I don't think that the film's creators had any plans to explore that ending in any greater detail, let alone build a franchise around it. Yet a franchise is what REC started and as of the latest entry, REC 3: Genesis , fans are no closer to learning anything more about the larger significance of the ending of the first film within the REC universe. To be sure, REC 3 is not a bad horror film; its director Paco Plaza has a lot of talent and it shows in many sequences of this sequel. But even though REC 3 is a more polished movie than its predecessor REC 2 (2009), it still is a weak sequel in terms of advancing the plot that was started in the first movie. Read on for my complete review. Note: If you haven't seen REC yet but would like to, skip this review now and come back later bec...

As of this post, I have come to the end of the horror video games that I'll be reviewing for the Wii, at least for the time being. With Wii U's release set for later this month, I figured that I'd ease off the video game reviews for a while until the new Nintendo console has a chance to settle in and demonstrate how its new selection of touch screen controls complements the pre-existing motion controls. Thankfully, the Wii U is reverse compatible with Wii games, so feel free to come back to this site for reviews of low-priced Wii games that you can play to tide you over until you can afford the more expensive Wii U games. This review is of Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers , which was released for the Wii back in 2009 by Tamsoft. In case you couldn't tell by the title, Onechanbara is a big, heaping serving of campy Japanese gore cheesecake, a video game counterpart to films such as Tokyo Gore Police (2008) and Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl (2009). As a game...

Oh, you silly SyFy Channel. Have you ever liked the sci-fi genre at all, or was your initial airing of sci-fi TV shows just an excuse to sneak more professional wrestling and reality TV on the air? I just found out that the two-hour pilot episode of Blood and Chrome , the long-delayed prequel spin-off of Battlestar Galactica , will be making its debut this Friday. However, the pilot will not be seen in a single showing on the SyFy Channel, which was home to the rebooted Galactica and Caprica , the first prequel spin-off series. Instead, the Blood and Chrome pilot has been edited into ten chapters that will be made available on Machinima's YouTube channel starting this Friday. You can learn more about this segmented premiere here at the Entertainment Weekly site. I enjoyed the Battlestar Galactica reboot through most of its run, although things started going downhill when the "Final Five" Cylon infiltrators started hearing Bob Dylan in their heads. Don't g...

Everyone knows by now that George Lucas has sold Lucasfilm and all of its creative properties, such as the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, to Disney for over $4 billion. This is big news for both Star Wars fans and sci-fi and fantasy fans in general, so I thought that I would contribute a few of my own thoughts as to what this means for the future of Star Wars and sci-fi/fantasy film franchises in general, as well as how it compares to the current status of the floundering Terminator franchise. Read on ...

Last Halloween, I did a blog post about how Westlake Ace Hardware and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) were using zombies as part of their respective public outreach campaigns . Not wanting to be left out of the zombie apocalypse preparedness movement, John Deere Middle School in Moline, IL has created their own "Zombie Survival Club" in time for this year's Halloween. According to the Quad-Cities Online news site, "Zombie Survival Club is made available through a partnership between Lights ON for Learning 21st Century Community Learning Centers and the Moline Public Library. ... The program was created by Jan Laroche, the teen services librarian who has an interest in Zombie movies and recognized the trends in teen literature about zombies. She says the club will focus on STEM lessons (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) in a fun setting. 'Zombie Survival Club is intended to be a lighthearted, activity based program that develops educational skill...

This Halloween is going to be a damp, soggy one for me with Hurricane Sandy beating up the east coast, so I thought that I would warm my geeky heart with a trip down Halloween memory lane to a much simpler time. A time when Halloween costumes were easy to find and cheap to purchase. A time when a flimsy piece of molded plastic, a thin elastic strap, and an easy-to-tear vinyl suit bearing a copyrightable logo could pass for a Halloween costume. A time when Halloween itself was all but owned by Ben Cooper, Inc. I don't know much about Ben Cooper, Inc. as a company, other than that it had the licensing rights to produce cheap Halloween costumes of just about any character you could think of during the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s. These costumes were everywhere when Halloween season rolled around, so much so that it became synonymous with Halloween itself when I was growing up. Talk to anyone around my age or older (or even slightly younger) and I'll guarantee that they've worn ...

I'm a big fan of "big bug" movies, so it would seem obvious that I would pick up a copy of a survival horror video game called Escape from Bug Island for my Nintendo Wii, right? Well ... not necessarily. When the game first appeared in the U.S. back in 2007, it was panned by most video game reviewers. Yet with this game's drop below the $10 price point, I recently decided to give this game a chance anyway to see if the critics were right. Speaking as a big bug movie fan, they weren't. I can think of several survival horror video games for the Wii that have better graphics, better level designs, and better stories. Even Wii's other bug-centric game, 2009's Deadly Creatures , has better production values. Yet where Escape from Bug Island really delivers is where it delivers the most: It's got plenty of big, icky, human-eating bugs ... and that is AWESOME! Read on for my complete review.

I missed last weekend's premiere release of Paranormal Activity 4 , but I did have the time to watch another kind of "found footage" movie called Skew , which was written and directed by Sevé Schelenz and has won a few awards on the indie film circuit. Read on for my complete review.

If Bruce Wayne ever decides to re-design the Batcave, he may want to talk to these guys first: Meet Carlyle Livingston II and Wayne Hussey, two Lego aficionados who took it upon themselves to make this astonishingly detailed Batcave replica. According to Discovery.com , "This is the culmination of about 400 hours of work over three months, completed in March. This intricate Batcave employs the use of four motors to operate some cool features, such as the Batmobile's turntable, a lift for the vehicle and a wall with rotating costumes and weapons. The masterpiece also integrates lighting, bringing to life this grand project. ... Weighing in at 100 pounds, the duo estimates the creation to use about 20,000 pieces 'but it’s probably much more.'" Looking at pictures of this amazing feat, two things immediately came to mind: 1. This Batcave set dwarfs every other Batcave play set ever made, both in terms of details and features, with room for all of the iconic...

I found some interesting pictures the other week that I thought I would share on my blog, pictures of horrific, malformed dolls made by Shain Erin. I've seen quite a few horror-themed dolls and action figures over the years, but very few of them are as creepy as those produced by Erin. In fact, they remind me of the dark, enigmatic dolls from Richard Sala's giallo-esque graphic novel, The Chuckling Whatsit . According to the profile Erin provided on his Wordpress site , "For the last several years I’ve been preoccupied with dolls: I see them as a long under appreciated art form with virtually unlimited expressive possibilities. I’m inspired by traditional world art figures (kachina, bochia, nkisi, namchi, shadow puppets, etc.) while working to push the boundaries of what a “doll” is as far as my imagination and skills will take it. ... These are not comforting toys; they can be challenging and defiant, disturbing and enchanting, irrational and frightening, beautiful...

News has been circulating around the Internet this week about Cartoon Network's sudden and unexpected decision to halt the airing of new episodes of Green Lantern: The Animated Series and Young Justice until January 2013. While the exact reasons behind this decision remain unclear, I think that now is a good time for me to weigh in on how good each of the DC and Marvel superhero cartoons are doing on their respective homes of Cartoon Network and Disney XD. Read on ...

The series of Ju-on films that were started by Takashi Shimizu have grown into quite a franchise during the last few years. What began as two stories within a Japanese television anthology movie titled Gakko no kaidan G led to the production of two direct-to-video titles and five theatrical releases during the following decade: two theatrical movies in Japan, and a remake with two sequels in the U.S. In 2009, a two-part film was released, Ju-on: White Ghost/Black Ghost , to celebrate the series' 10th anniversary. With so many films under its belt, a tie-in video game is inevitable. That tie-in is Ju-on: The Grudge Haunted House Simulator , which was released for the Nintendo Wii back in 2009. As a Wii title, the Ju-on game is three things, in this order of priority: an experience first, a story second, and a game third. In my review, I will examine each of these elements and why this particular combination results in a game that, in spite of its ambitions, will only be of ...

Way back in 2010, I published a post about hand-held and tabletop video games from the 1970s and 80s . Part of that post discussed a series of tabletop games released by Coleco that emulated popular arcade games and looked like much smaller versions of arcade cabinets. At the time I joked, "Given the advancements in micro-computing and compact, high-definition video screens, a really devoted fan could probably gut one of the Coleco emulators and convert it into a tabletop unit--in other words, convert a plastic shell that was originally designed to house a VFD emulation of Donkey Kong into something that could house an actual, playable arcade version of Donkey Kong ." Apparently, someone at ThinkGeek either read my post or thinks exactly the same way that I do: Meet the "Arcadie iPhone and iPod Desktop Arcade" . According to ThinkGeek, "The Arcadie Desktop Arcade is designed especially for iPhone and iPod Touch. Slide your device into the wee cabinet, po...

As anyone who follows this blog knows, I'm a huge fan of monster art. In particular, I'm an avid collector of various mediums (books, magazines, toys, and scale miniatures) that provide accurate and detailed representations of certain movie monster designs that I consider to be art. Such designs would include the mechanical shark from Jaws , the biomechanical parasites from Alien , the submersible monster suit from The Creature from the Black Lagoon , and the various stop-motion puppets that Willis O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen used throughout their respective careers in movie special effects. Such an interest becomes an exercise in frustration when I find a movie monster design that I like but I cannot find any pictures or miniatures that provide me with a clear look at the design. Case in point: the Judas Breed insects, the giant GMOs from Guillermo del Toro's Mimic (1997) and its two sequels . As demonstrated in the behind-the-scenes featurettes that were provi...

Films that successfully combine horror and comedy are elusive things to find. The best ones work because they combine a genuine affection and understanding of horror with a willingness to satirize the genre's most improbable and outlandish conventions. Thankfully, I recently found two films that excel at making the mixture of horror and humor work: The Cabin in the Woods and Tucker & Dale vs. Evil . Both are witty spoofs of the familiar horror movie plot where vacationing young people are trapped in a remote location by some kind of menace, but each film takes a different approach to satirizing such an over worn contrivance. Cabin in the Woods  uses the plot as a starting point that expands into a gruesome parody of horror cinema in general, while Tucker & Dale use it as the basis for a gory comedy of errors and misunderstandings. Without giving too much away, Cabin in the Woods is basically a horror movie version of The Truman Show (1998). Both films are commenta...

Of the many Wii horror games in which I have been indulging as of late, the hardest one to locate and purchase was Calling , which was developed by Hudson Soft exclusively for the Wii and released in the U.S. in 2010. Despite its status as a Wii exclusive, the game didn't receive much publicity and its distribution was very limited. I can understand somewhat why this happened, since Calling is not a typical video game. Calling is less of a standard survival horror game and more of a multiple-perspective ghost story that is told through a series of three-dimensional, interactive environments; hence, I noticed that many reviewers had no idea what to make of it, even to the point of despising the game for its obtuse approach to horror gaming. Calling has a few problems, but I found the overall gaming experience to be very rewarding and I could appreciate what the developers were trying to accomplish in making such a unique and unusual horror game. Read on for my complete review...

As a horror movie fan, I do what I can to familiarize myself with noteworthy milestones in horror movie history. Thus, I recently watched The Uninvited , a 1944 horror movie that was based on the novel Uneasy Freehold by Dorothy Macardle. The Uninvited was one of the first Hollywood movies that took ghosts and haunted houses seriously. Previous films either featured ghosts in comedies or revealed them to be practical jokes or engineered distractions to keep attention away from criminal activities (you know, like most of the plots in Scooby Doo cartoons). The Uninvited tells the story of pair of siblings, Roderick (Ray Milland) and Pamela (Ruth Hussey), who purchase an abandoned mansion that overlooks the English coast. Spooky and inexplicable things begin to occur shortly after they move in and their subsequent investigation into these paranormal events takes them into the strange, secretive lives of the mansion's original owner, Commander Beech (Donald Crisp), and his gran...

A few weeks ago, I did a post about Scrap Sculptures' 7-foot-tall Terminator T-800 endoskeleton . Even though that sculpture is way out of my price range, I nevertheless wanted to add the smaller 12-inch sculpture from the same company to my own Terminator collection. I'm glad I did--weighing over three pounds and made completely from recycled metal parts, this T-800 sculpture is one of the most fascinating and durable items that any Terminator and sci-fi fan can purchase. Read on for my complete review and picture gallery.

A few weeks ago, I posted a review of a Veritech Fighter replica that Toynami produced as part of its Robotech Masterpiece Collection (click here to read that review). This post is a companion to that review, since this is a review of an Alpha Fighter from the same Robotech Masterpiece Collection line. When I purchased this Alpha Fighter, I did so because I felt that I should have an Alpha counterpart to the Veritech that I purchased for such a low price. Unfortunately, I had to pay the original, non-discounted price for the Alpha, and I'm still unsure if the price I paid was worth the product that I received. Read on for my complete review.

Last April, I posted a rant about Gentle Giant's line of Jumbo Vintage Star Wars Action Figures, wondering how this line could keep going when all it is is a series of expensive enlarged action figures--no extra details, no extra points of articulation, nothing. Then again, what do I know? The line is still running strong, with recent releases including jumbo versions of the Lando Calrissian and Yoda figures from Kenner's Empire Strikes Back line and a jumbo Gamorrean Guard figure from Kenner's Return of the Jedi line. I kept thinking that there has to be something more to what Gentle Giant is doing other than just making small things bigger, and I think I finally figured out what it is. Gentle Giant is not only re-releasing Kenner's original figures on a larger scale, they are also re-releasing every variation that's possible for those figures as well. Read on....

With computer technology's relentless advancement in the area of graphics, both in terms of complexity and depth, I find myself more and more amazed at how vividly some video games can create a virtual environment--so vividly that you can almost feel it as if it were a real thing. Such a feeling enhances a gaming experience considerably, since it's much easier to empathize with the game's characters and situations if you're engrossed in the atmosphere of the world they inhabit. Such is the case of Cursed Mountain , a survival horror game that was released for the Wii back in 2009. Cursed Mountain takes place in the Himalayan mountains during the late 1980s, and the game's rendering of the many environments you encounter during the game is nothing short of breathtaking. Read on for my complete review of this immersive horror chiller.

Among the latest generation of horror writer/directors, I've been particularly impressed with the work of Ti West. House of the Devil (2009) and The Innkeepers (2011) are two of the best horror films from the last five years, so I decided to take a look at West's earliest feature-length effort, The Roost , to get an idea of how far he has come as a director. While it's not as good as West's other work, it features a few of his trademark style choices in their early stage of development. The Roost is about four friends who are on their way to a wedding when their car is run off the road after a near collision. The friends walk to the nearest house to find it deserted, with a barn nearby--a barn that houses a horde of bats that thirst for human blood. As debut filmmaking efforts on a limited budget go, The Roost has enough wit and style to make it worth watching. The film's main story is bookended by scenes featuring a ghoulish Horror Host (played by Tom N...

Jurassic: The Hunted is the best first-person dinosaur shooter for the Wii that was published by Activision back in 2009. This may sound like a dubious honor, since other Wii FPS games such as Red Steel 2 and the Conduit games leave Jurassic in the dust. Nevertheless, it helps to keep two things into mind when considering a game like Jurassic : 1. Jurassic is one of the few horror/sci-fi themed FPS games for the Wii that doesn't involve aliens, zombies, or futuristic cowboy-ninjas. 2. The other Wii dinosaur FPS games, Dino Strike and Top Shot Dinosaur Hunter , are cheaply-made shovelware titles in comparison to Jurassic . If you've got an itchy trigger finger that's craving for some carnivorous dinosaur thrills, keep reading for my complete review of this dino shooter game.