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2013 Archives Posts Renfield's Resurrection

Renfield’s Best/Worst of 2013

Best Top 10 Movies of 2013

10. The Lords of Salem – Yeah that’s right Shawn…I said it.

9. MaMa – Great story, but a suck ass ending (see next list).

8. Texas Chainsaw 3D – Because Leatherface could fart on video and I’d still watch it.

7. The Purge – Because I’m looking to shoot someone in the head for any other reason than a zombie apocalypse.

6. Carrie – Because it was better than I thought it was going to be.

5. Maniac – How could you not count this?

4. Evil Dead – Get your pitchforks and fire out now, but you’ll still have to catch me. I liked it.

3. American Mary – Just because I like the concept of goth twin directors.

2. Hatchet 3 – I love to hate and hate to love Danielle Harris.

1. The Conjuring – I cannot sit in the dark with a  doll and clap anymore.

 THE CONJURING

 

Worst Top 10 Movies of 2013

10. Insidious 2. – Sucked.

9. World War Z – Sucked more.

8. Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters – Sucked the most

7. MaMa – Good film, good story, ending sucked.

6. Warm Bodies – Not sure if it is actually horror, but it still sucked.

5. The ABCs of Death – Suckiest suck that has ever sucked suck.

4. The ABCs of Death – Sucked more suck than a suck can suck.

3. The ABCs of Death – Sucked so much suck than a suck could suck.

2. The ABCs of Death – Sucked so much more suck than a suck could ever suck.

1. The ABCs of Death – Sucked, sucked, sucked, suck! (Recommendation – Move to Thailand for a job.)

 bill-murray-you-suck

 

 Music

10.  Goliath – Butcher Babies. For the reason…have you seen them!?!

9.  Charlemagne: The Omens of Death – Christopher Lee.  That’s right; Christopher “F’n Dracula” Lee himself did a metal album! For all I care he could have burped for 60 minutes into the microphone and it still would’ve been metal enough to make this list!

8.  Straight Out of Hell – Helloween.  Not that the name alone buys them a place on this list but this power metal group has been going hard since 1984. So much better than their 2012 effort that sucked more than “The ABCs of Death”.

7. Das Seelenbrechen – Ihsahn.  Since being in Emperor Ihsahn has done nothing but gotten better. This album fits perfectly into his other collections.

6. Satyricon – Satyricon.  Mainly because, well,…he’s Satyr!

5.  Everblack – Black Dahlia Murders.  I think the title just about says it all.

4.  The Underground Resistance – Darkthrone.   Sounding more NWOBHM than punk, this is what I liked to hear from these guys.

3. Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor – Rob Zombie.  The heir to Alice Cooper’s throne returned this year with another blistering go-go dance/metal opus that is somehow a rock opera…Just no one understands how and he won’t explain it.

2.  Winter Kills – Devildriver.  Dez always pushes his limits and enjoys making other bands push their’s too. With a cover of AWOLnation’s “Sail”, this album does just that.  

 1.   The Dixie Dead – Wednesday 13.  Nothing else to say. From the cover, the song material, the production, the lyrics and the band line up, I don’t recall owning another album that I have played on repeat as much as this one.  W13

Categories
2013 Archives Articles The Republic of Shawntario Women Of Horror Week

Thank You

Hello Friends,

I just wanted to say THANK YOU! to all of our guests for making Women of Horror Week 2013 a huge success for us.

In no particular order I would like to thank

Danica Deering

Suzanne Bell

September Carrino

Chassity Merritt

Tabitha M

Kim Culpepper

L.C Fremont

Dusty Evely

Charity Langley

Renfield Rasputin.

We would also like to thank all of you for visiting our website and leaving encouraging comments for the writers.

It has always been our goal to create the type of community that fosters creativity and friendship among fellow writers and I truly believe we achieved that in the past week.

Thank you once again to our guest writers, it was an absolute privilege to have you share your articles with us and give us an insight in to your love of Horror.

Thank you also to our team of writers for contributing lists and reviews as well.

We now look forward to 2014 where hopefully we can do something like this again.

-Shawn

 

Categories
2013 Archives Women Of Horror Week

Why I Love Horror Movies – Chassity Merritt

When I was around seven, I remember being at my grandmother’s house with my younger brother and even younger cousin and hearing them in the next room laughing hysterically at something. Curious, I went to find out what it was—only to discover that they were watching Child’s Play. Now, I was old enough to know that this was a movie we were definitely not allowed to watch and that the reason was because my parents and my cousin’s mom would have expected it to terrify and traumatize any child under seven years old. And I would have agreed with them. But my brother and cousin were actually laughing. Maybe not at the movie itself; maybe at the fact that they were able to sneak and watch it and get away with it, But, either way, they obviously weren’t even remotely frightened, as they should have been.

Suddenly, I had to see this movie. We’d known that my uncle owned it, and kept it hidden in a box with other forbidden movies at my grandmother’s house; and I’d always accepted that it was off-limits and would probably scare me too much anyway. But knowing that these two boys younger than me had seen it and weren’t scared—well , I now had something to prove. I had to prove that I could watch it and not be scared, too.

(While this story doesn’t contain any romance, it is still most certainly the story of how a young girl fell in love for the first time. )

I’d be lying if I said that Child’s Play didn’t scare me. At the time, I was embarrassed to admit it, but looking back, it made perfect sense for that movie to scare me, but not the boys. See, they didn’t have dolls. I did. For me, the idea of Chucky was a lot more real.

But now I remember Chucky fondly. It’s even become one of the affectionate nicknames my friends gave me growing up (mostly because my hair was always wild and unkempt like his, but still…). Child’s Play was my very first exposure to horror. And though I remember being terrified, I remember the thrill of being that scared. I loved that feeling; even that young I realized that horror was fun.

It would be many years before I understood that my first exposure to Chucky and his world was my first taste of something I would come to consider a great love; because my parents didn’t let me see a horror movie for years after that. It was like having your first playground crush, and then either you or that crush moving away just as quickly.

But thanks to my uncle and his ever-growing  box of movies at my grandmother’s house  that he pretended to keep hidden from us kids (but was always telling us what new movie he’d brought for us to watch),  I wouldn’t be kept away from horror forever. When I was about 12, he brought us Scream.  Watching that movie with my brother started a bonding tradition that we still carry on even today, 15 years later. We loved with that movie immediately, and spent at least an hour talking about it after we saw it.

For me, being introduced to what would become the Scream movies was like meeting your high school sweetheart or your first true love. Having just discovered feminism—as well as the concept of what I would later know as the “final girl”—I was impressed by the idea of a horror heroine who was smart and normal-looking; who wasn’t perfect but wasn’t just some partying bimbo, either; who broke all the rules and still survived.

Watching that movie (and the ones that followed) and discussing them with my brother like a true budding film nerd- that was how I knew I was falling in love with horror. And no age restrictions or strict parents were going to keep me away from it.  In fact, when the third one came out we had an older cousin describe every scene to us in great detail after she saw it, many times, until we were able to convince our parents t rent it later.

My brother and I still get together at least once a year to relax, watch the Scream movies, and talk about them and the horror genre at large. Not only that, but thanks to these movies, we get together about twice a month to watch a random horror movie that we’ve never seen or heard of. It’s part of the way we bond.

The horror genre has given us one of my greatest film nerd loves of all: the Saw franchise. Most people who have met me since freshman year of college know me most of all as “that chick who’s obsessed with the Saw movies.” There are obviously a lot of horror movies that I love, but these films are the ones that made me want to be a filmmaker one day. If Scream was the horror-loving equivalent of a first love for me, then Saw was like meeting your one true love that you just know you’re going to marry some day.

What’s so great about these films is that they embody everything that made me fall in love with horror in the first place. The iconic villain Jigsaw; the gore of the traps, the suspense of waiting for that twist ending and trying to guess the twist in the meantime—those things are what make a really great horror movie. You gotta have suspense, an iconic villain, and lots of gore.

But at the end of the day, it’s much, much simpler than that. The thing I love most about horror is that horror movies give me the best movie-going experiences of my life. If you’ve ever been to see a horror movie opening weekend you know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s the only time in a theater where everyone is a friend—whether you know them or they’re a perfect stranger—and where it’s okay to make noise during the movie. People talk to one another, yell at the screen, and laugh at themselves and each other for falling for the false scare. Horror movies are so great because you come out of the theater not only feeling like you just saw a good movie, but that you also had a pretty awesome experience.

To this day, I make sure that come hell or high water, I always make time Friday or Saturday night of opening weekend when a horror movie comes out.

 

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Chassity, much like myself, is a huge fan of the Atlanta Braves. She has her own blog which is a great read and you can follow her on Twitter.

Categories
2013 Archives Women Of Horror Week

My Favorite Women in Horror

I am going to join in on the fun and list my favorite women in Horror.

The order of this list in no way indicates who my favorites are as each of these actresses are awesome in their own way.

 

 

 

Danielle Harris:

Danielle Harris

My first introduction to Danielle Harris came as a child when I watched Halloween IV for the first time. I was around the same age as her character in the movie when I first watched it so I developed a slight little boy crush on her. I didn’t see her in a movie again until I watched Rob Zombie’s Halloween years later. In the span of a few months it seemed as though she was in every Horror movie I watched. Stake Land, Hatchet 2, Blood Night and The Black Waters Of Echo Pond.

The characters that she plays are always diverse and they never seem to fall in to the

clichés that most female horror characters suffer from.

Her portrayal of Mary Beth in the Hatchet series is a perfect example of a multi layered

character who is so much more than just beauty.

 

Jodelle Ferland:Jodelle Ferland - Silent-Hill -

I first saw Jodelle Ferland in Kingdom Hospital. I remember talking to my friends and having all of us agree that this creepy kid had a real future in horror. A few years later she starred in Silent Hill which, in my opinion, is the best film adaptation of a video game.

I would next see Jodelle in The Messengers where she played the ghost of Michael Rollins. It was weird seeing her play a boy but it was one of the few things to actually enjoy about that movie. She started out playing the creepy child but her performances have become more diverse as she’s gotten older. One of her stand out performances was as a demon in Case 39. Jodelle Ferland is still young, but she is absolutely one of the future greats in the Horror Genre.

 

Jennifer Connellyjennifer connelly

I’m including her here on a technicality. She’s really only been in Phenomena and Dark Water but Jennifer Connelly is my favorite actress. Jenifer Connelly brings a wide range of depth to any character she plays. I immensely enjoyed her in the Dark Water remake and I still maintain that if the film was marketed properly, it would have done much better. It is one of the most underrated Horror films of the last 15 years for me.

Jennifer Connelly isn’t just one of my favorite women in Horror, she’s one of my favorite women in Hollywood. She’s an incredibly talented actress who never seems to give an off performance.

 

 

 

 

Dee Wallace: dee wallace

I don’t see Dee Wallace listed on a lot of these lists and that is an absolute shame to me.

Name a great Horror great classic Horror Movie and chances are Dee was in it.

Cujo, The Howling, Critters, The Hills Have Eyes(original), The Frighteners.

She’s been very active in Horror in the last few years as well, co-starring in  Exit Humanity(which has become my favorite Zombie Movie), Halloween, The House Of The Devil and The Lords Of Salem.

Like everyone on this list her roles are always diverse and very enjoyable to watch.

 

 

Jamie Lee Curtis:The American Foundation For Equal Rights & Broadway Impact Present "8"

If I have to explain why Jamie Lee Curtis is on this list then you’re doing something wrong. I never pull out the “You haven’t seen this movie???” card but if you love Horror and don’t know who Jamie Lee Curtis is then you need to clear out a weekend and watch her films from the late 70’s and 80’s. The term “Scream Queen” gets tossed around a lot but there is absolutely no denying that the original and greatest Scream Queen is Jamie Lee Curtis

 

Categories
2013 Archives Women Of Horror Week

What Made Me Write Horror – Kim Culpepper

To delve into what made me love writing horror, you first must learn what made me love reading horror. I got into the horror genre at the young age of 12. I read my very first Stephen King book, Pet Cemetery, and was immediately smitten with not only the author himself but the genre of horror. I don’t know if it was the fact that horror made me an escape into someone else’s life that was having a worse day than me or the fascination with death but it was certainly a love at first site type of thing.

 

I grew up in one of he poorest states in America, a small town in Mississippi, and we didn’t have much and my parents never strived to have much more than nothing. Depression ran in my family and I struggled with it throughout my entire teenage years. Writing became an outlet for me when I felt all hope was lost and nothing made me release the anger and teenage angst better than horror. I could kill someone off horribly and still feel the sunlight on my face as I strolled through the halls of high school.

 

As I’ve become an adult and now have two children of my own, I swore they would never know what it was like to want for anything and so far I’ve accomplished that goal. I have only recently taken my writing seriously and continuously strive to make something from all the misery and heartache that my childhood and teenage years brought me. The only difference? I can think longer about those horrific things that I wrote and not be so angry about them. I’ve let a lot of things go.

 

I’m currently on depression meds so I don’t have those ugly demons that throw fire at my very soul and threaten to take away my happiness, however; they do rear their ugly heads from time to time. I find writing horror as an outlet for all the people that make me angry, all the days that go horribly wrong, and combine them with all of the love and support that I continue to receive from the ones who love me.

 

As a female in horror, I get that awkward look when I tell people what genre I write. I think part of that is because I write horror and live in the Bible belt but also because I’m a female. I’ve been thrown into that stereotype that all females write romance and women are supposed to think everything is all buttery and gooey in this world. Unlucky for me, I’ve had to learn from a young age that this just isn’t so. I’m a bit of a realist.

 

In conclusion, I’ve met a lot of women who write horror and love the genre through social media. I still feel alone down here next to the muddy Mississippi and am always on the lookout for new friends who love the genre as much as I do. It’s always fun to share and laugh at the reality of life through the genre of horror.

 

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Kim is currently looking for a literary agent for her first novel “The Blood Talisman.

She has an official website which you can visit here and a twitter which we recommend you follow!