Wow. I finally had the chance to watch the 2013 British sci-fi film, The Machine.I was pleasantly surprised by how interesting the film itself was, but Tom Raybould's hypnotic synth soundtrack is phenomenal! Another one going into the haunt-related soundtrack playlist. This will be on repeat for those late night prop-making hours in the garage!
I'm posting the clip of the entire soundtrack, as each track really is spectacular:
Weeks ago, plans had been made to get a small group of people together to check out The Fear Experience's Valentine's weekend haunt, Love Is In The Scare. Final tally would bring a total of 12 people together to drive up to the Parma, Ohio haunt, and then go out for some after-haunt beverages. But as the date drew nearer, and the weather forecast changed for the worse, that number of attendees dropped like the frigid temperatures outside. By Saturday morning, we knew that the entire Northeast Ohio area was going to get walloped with a blizzard and sub-zero temperatures. The snows fell relentlessly throughout the day as the temperature hovered around a bone-chilling 8 degrees. Yep. 8 degrees. Friends who would have driven in from further away quickly canceled their trips and I kept an eye on the weather reports as well as the local highway traffic cams. Car accidents piled up as quickly as the snow and I was close to calling off the trip as well. When Stacey called and said that she wasn't going due to a power failure in her neighborhood, it was down to me and Mrs. Highbury, and good friend Jimmy T. and his brother-in-law, Chad. I made a call to Jim, who was already on the road, and my decision was made. Screw it. Let's do this. I won't lie, I was doubting that decision the entire way up, as we crept along the highway at 40 miles an hour. But we took our time and eventually made it to the haunt, where we met up with Jim and Chad. I was surprised at the number of cars in the parking lot, but it looked like a little blizzard wouldn't keep a large gathering of local haunt fans away. We Clevelanders are a hardy bunch... While the haunt itself didn't have any Valentine-specific theming, it was still worth the trip up. It was separated into 4 separate haunts, with a quick walkway between each. The first 2 sections, Zombie Uprising and Centralia Mental Facility, were really good. Lots of very detailed scenes with specific attention paid to lighting and sound. I hope the actors weren't offended as I completely ignored them to check out all of the rich scenery (They did manage to scare Mrs. Highbury quite a few times, though!). The third haunt, Centralia County Fair, was also a great section. More rich scenery, lighting and sound set in an old freakshow carnival with sideshow performers and clowns. I especially loved the detail in the old freakshow banner paintings on the walls as you entered. I actually stopped to admire the art, somewhat to the dismay of the people behind me.
The final haunt, District 13, was a bit different than the previous sections. Fewer actors in this section, although it was more of a dark maze, complete with oodles of wonderful, hanging fog and a painfully slow, pulsating overhead strobe light that played with your sensory perception, as you tried to navigate your way through.
Overall, I really liked The Fear Experience. I know that because of the bad weather, a few of the makeup artists didn't make it in, and I can assume that the same was true for some of the actors, but I still enjoyed the haunt greatly. I like how it was broken up into different sections with different settings and experiences. But what really impressed me was the great detail that was paid to each scene, as well as the attention that was paid to lighting. I found myself stopping in the middle of a scene, just to take it all in.
Maybe it was all the trouble we had getting there, or maybe it was the smell of the fog and the sounds of the chainsaws that made me feel like it was Halloween again, but I had a great time and I can't wait for October so that I can go check out The Fear Experience again!
Yes, a lot of people have already posted tracks from director/composer John Carpenter's new release, Lost Themes, but I wanted to wait until I got my vinyl copy before I listened to any of the pre-release tracks and chimed in.
Today, my copy finally showed up in the mail, and suffice to say that it hasn't stopped spinning on my turntable yet.
I was able to score a deluxe version from Sacred Bones, and the packaging did not disappoint. A beautiful orange and black swirl vinyl record housed by the standard gatefold sleeve with liner notes, and then wrapped in a custom, numbered, silk screened outer cardstock sleeve that is sealed with a Sacred Bones wax stamp. From the visual standpoint, well worth the wait!
Upon spinning the record itself, I was really pleased with all of the tracks. Nine moody, synth-driven instrumentals that reference his infamous movie scores, yet progress far enough to really stand on their own. Overall, the release seems like the logical progression of a Carpenter composition.
As an added bonus, the digital download includes a further six remixed versions of Carpenter's tracks, all of which take the original material and spin it in completely different directions. I like the remixes almost as much as Carpenter's originals.
I'm not one for long-winded reviews, so I'm just going to tell you to go out and pick up this release. You won't be disappointed. I know that this will be spinning at the cemetery for a long time to come!
Vercetti Technicolor's ficticious soundtrack to the 1972 Munich
Massacre, is a bleak, cold and somber work. Partly inspired by the 1999
Documentary by Kevin Macdonald, Vercetti creates a tense and brooding approach to
this, the most darkest of subject matter. This is far from dancefloor
material, this is doom-electronics at it's most frightening.
Giallo Disco is proud to present our first LP, Vercetti Technicolor's
Black September, closer to minimal wave than moroder and all the better
for it. Remixes come from Mexico's PLAYTONTO and Créme Organisation
signing's Francesco Clemente. Artwork by Eric A. Lee, Mastered by Alek
Stark at Fundamental Audio.
I'm not usually a fan of horror comedy films, but seeing this trailer has piqued my interest. This one looks really good, and it will be playing in a small independent theater in town. I'm in!
A cold, weathered hand pierces the rust-laden earth of a late autumn night. Reanimated decay becomes the evening's guide. Masked faces bask in the fiery glow of a jack-o-lantern's illumination. A lifeless finger points the direction toward the next porch-lit house. For this is the night of ghouls and goblins and tricks and treats. This is the night of Hallowe'en...
