In case you haven’t already found it elsewhere you should check out the new Halloween 2 poster, which isn’t titled H2 in this one, on the left. The general consensus seems to be that this is a pretty badass poster but I have to disagree. I’m not loving it at all. Brutality alone does not a good poster make and the very photoshopped sky and rain the background is pretty dull. The poster for the first film was better and the posters for Halloween 4 and 5 were much much better than both of them. In any case there It is for all to see. The movie comes to theatres this August. Below I’ve assembled a little retrospective on the much better Halloween Movie posters.

The Poster for Rob Zombies First does a better job at capturing the "Shape" feeling.

This Original Poster From Halloween 2 is creepy and captures the what made the originals good. Its not overbearing or violent but mysterious and spooky. Also that "All NEW" lets you know that the movie is ALL NEW and not a remake. Maybe they should try that with the new poster too?

The poster for Part 4 may be my favorite after the original. Its creepy, its classy and it captures the feel of the movies better than any poster previous.

Last and still the best is the original Halloween One sheet from 1978. You just can't top this classic of movie marketing genius.

The old saying, "You can't go home again" has always held true. Many have tried, college drop outs, artists, teeny bopper parents and even presidents but none have succeeded. Sometimes it is a catastrophe like Spielberg's excrutiatingly mediocre sequel Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Other times it can be not a little less painful like Marilyn Manson's latest record, The High End of Low, which finds Manson making up with writing partner Twiggy Ramirez and returning to 1998, or at least attempting to.

The High End of the Low is a decent album that tries to fit itself somewhere between Holywood and Mechanical Animals but never quite makes it. Back in the late 90's Manson was still public enemy number one and had no trouble courting controversy. However around 2002 He split up with his long time writing partner Twiggy Ramirez and replaced him with KMFDM collaborator Tim Skold. That partnership ended with the excruciatingly bad 80's goth pop-esque "Eat me, Drink Me".

High End of The Low is a nice try but too little, too late. Songs like Pretty as a ($), We're From America, and Arma-Goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon try to be the hard rock anthems that Manson has been very good at in the past but they just don't ever seem to reach the level of Beautiful People or Rock is Dead even.

The album opener, Devour doesn't really start things off on the best footing since it sounds like somehting left over from Eat Me, Drink me. Then there is the hevily repetive Four Rusted Horses and the overly long I want to Kill you Like in the Movies that clocks in at 9 minutes. There's and abundance of songs that are more aimed at humanizing the monster. But does anyone in this country still think Manson is the antichrist? The songs that do try to capture that evil and scary sound from Antichrist Superstar seem like imitations and bad ones at that.

While High End of the Low is definetly a return to the Manson of the 90's, it falls short of offering anything new. Manson had some great albums where he was able to re-invent himself over and over again, but now he may be running out of lives. Perhaps it really boils down to what kind of fan you are as to whether you like this record. Fans of AntiChrist Superstar, Portrait, and Holywood will probably appreciate the effort but delete it from there playlist after a few listens. Fans of the later Albums such as Mechanical Animals and Golden age of the Grotesque may like what they find here.

I guess for me I just like my Manson scary, mysterious, and very evil and The High End of Low Fails on all 3 counts.

5.5 out of 10

If your a child of the 80's then you already know what Madballs are and no doubt have warm and fuzzy memories of using them to frighten your parents or siblings. When I was a kid I made a big effort to get every single mad ball that was released. These things were so popular they even had cheap knock-off's you could find at dollar stores released by rival companies. As a kid who ate, slept and lived for all things horror & weird they were the coolest thing out there. They released 2 sets back in the late 80's and even a couple "Super Madballs" that were actual size football, Soccerball, and Basketball.

Now 20 some years later Madballs have returned and they look better than ever. The good folks at American Greetings haven't reinvented the madballs but rather just revived them. They've brought back the same characters they had back in the 80's and cleaned them up, added more detail, and repackaged them for a new generation. I was pleased to see my old favorites return and look better than they ever did. The only name that has changed is Bash Brain that was known as Crackhead back before Crackhead meant what it means now.

In addition to bringing back the original characters they also brought in some new designs that look amazing and the "Sick Series" which are squishy stress balls and bulge out something gross when squeezed. However my favorite thing about this new series is that they have the same smell they had when I was a kid. If you had these as children then you know what I'm talking about. There was a smell they had from the materials they're made of and that is still intact witht the new series.

So if your feeling nastalgic or you missed them the first time around then you may want to visit Madballs.com and order your set today!

The New trailer for Rob Zombie's Sequel to his much maligned remake of Halloween is now online. I have to say its a slick trailer and its filling me with questions about the storyline. It looks like we'll be giving a lot of information as to why Michael is doing what he's doing. Taken on its own it might be interesting but I think Hardcore Halloween Fans are going to be pissed. Check out the trailer now at Yahoo! Movies

Trick or Treat is one of those movies that has all this positive buzz behind it but has been treated like a red-headed step child by its studio. Its been in the can now for about 2 years and lot of reviewers have been calling it a great Halloween movie that is destined to become a cult classic. I'm dying to see it so I'm happy to hear that it will be getting put on DVD and Blu-Ray this October. There's currently no word on any type of theatrical release. There's a new Trailer you can check out here.

Apparently 2009 is the 10th anniversary of the original Ju-on directed by Takashi Shimizu who has made a career of out making and remaking his original film with 1 Japanese sequel, a US remake and a sequel to that remake. The Grudge 3 is being release next Month in the US direct to DVD and now if your in Japan you get to check out 2 Ju-on Sequels in Theaters June 26th. Check out the Official site or watch the embedded trailer below. The quality looks pretty "Made for TV" but they have the same creepiness we've come to expect from this series.



Source: Twitch Film

One of the best things about the GrindHouse double feature last year was the fake movie trailers in between. One of the best was Thanksgiving by Eli Roth (director of Hostel). Roth has announced he's finishing up a script for a big Sci-Fi Extravaganza and wants to immediately follow that up with Thanksgiving Full Length feature! MTV quotes him as saying:

“The plan is this: I want to do a huge budget movie, but tack on three weeks to the end of it and shoot ‘Thanksgiving’,” he revealed. “I want to do an $80 million dollar movie, and then schedule three weeks at the end to quickly shoot a $5 million dollar movie.”

Sounds great to me! Check out the great trailer below for Thanksgiving!