horror prop maker reality show coming to Syfy Syfy original movies are notorious for their cheap-looking CGI monsters, so it’s rather ironic that the network is


premiering a show this January dedicated to the craft of practical creature effects. Monster Man will follow the ex- ploits of freelance movie-prop builder Cleve Hall (Ghoulies, Troll) and his partners in fabrication: ex-wife Sonia and daughters Constance and Elora, as well as effects artists Johnnie Saiko and Hill Vinot. The show was inevitable the moment producers saw Hall roll up to Hollywood’s Fantasy IQ FX studio with the back of a sperm whale he’d con- structed… strapped to his hearse. After receiving an emergency call for the beast while at a goth club, he’d worked through the night to fabricate the vinyl-coated foam whale for I’m Alive, a reality show about animal attacks. “When the producers saw me get out of the hearse with the whale, my eyeliner smeared and my clothes spattered


with paint, they thought it was hilarious and told me they wanted to make a reality show about me. Yeah, right! I left that day and thought no more about it,” he says. “But Gurney Productions contacted me a couple months later. The rest, as they say, is historical.” Though Hall will have some control over the monsters he builds in front of the Monster Man cameras, others will


youtube.com/watch?v=g5qivpYWj28 Check out Troy Nixey’s Latchkey’s Lament, the highly imaginative, steampunk-tinged short that won him the role of director on Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (see p.34). In the film, one intrepid, antique key matches wits with the mechanized mutant who swallows its mate whole. Not quite horror, but dark enough to appeal to genre fans nonetheless.


monsterhistory101.blogspot.com Go behind the scenes with makeup effects artist Shannon Shea (The Monster Squad, Jurassic Park) as he recounts getting his start in the biz back in the 1980s. Regularly featuring on-set images from his personal collection, Shea offers a candid look at the craft of makeup effects that’s sure to thrill fans and aspiring monster makers alike.


wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2011/07/h-p- lovecrafts-commonplace-book/ Many writers keep notebooks full of ideas and other scribblings, but it is not often that we, the fans, get to delve into these early brainstorms. So the fact that Wired has published a transcribed version of H.P. Lovecraft’s handwritten notes online is pretty freakin’ cool. Seriously, check it out. The Great Old Ones compel you.


hauntcast.net Whether you run your own haunted attraction or just want to learn some tricks from those that do, this podcast has you covered. The show also offers up musical guests, movie reviews and a diverse selec- tion of interviews, from haunt insiders to folks such as Lesley Pratt Bannatyne, who authored the book Halloween Nation. Indispensable.


playrequiem.com/index.aspx Requiem: Memento Mori is not quite the “terrifying new horror MMORPG” it promises to be; in fact the downloadable game is more like a low-rent, gorier version of World of Warcraft, with monster-slaying quests, group dungeons and even an auction house. Still, at absolutely free, the price is right for this de- cently crafted, otherwise enjoyable title.


Compiled by MONICA S. KUEBLER Got a Roadkill suggestion? Email a link to: roadkill@rue-morgue.com


be dictated by Sota F/X’s Roy Knyrim, with whom he shares a studio. “I’m realizing how quickly things tend to change and some projects don’t fit into our shoot schedule while others arise,” he says. In addition, a very enticing carrot has been dangled in front of Japanese monster fan Hall – whose MySpace


handle is “Gothzilla” – should Monster Man make it to a second season. “There is talk of going to Japan for an episode,” he says, “which will feature a collaboration between myself and Shinichi Wakasa (Godzilla 2000: Millen- nium, Evil Dead Trap), my Japanese brother and supreme kaiju creator.” Though Hall says fame and fortune would be a great result of his reality TV debut, he also wants to “promote the


idea that using physical FX for monsters can be viable in any budget range, and to see CG used more as it should be: to enhance an effect, not replace it. My main problem with CGI – other than all the jobs that go that way now – is that it takes the ‘How did they do that?’ feeling out of FX.”


A.S. BERMAN entrails Crispy killer Freddy Krueger was added to the roster


of downloadable opponents for Mortal Kombat 9 in Au- gust. According to interviews with the series’ executive producer, Ed Boon, Jason and Michael Myers were also considered before they chose the Nightmare on Elm Street baddy as being “the most instantly recogniza- ble.” Freddy’s waiting for you in your dreams, and on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live as a $5 down- load.


The Cabin in the Woods, the movie that isn’t Evil


Dead but sounds an awful lot like it, was finally plucked from the MGM bankruptcy sinkhole by Lionsgate in July for an April 13, 2012, release. Directed and co-written by Drew Goddard and co-written and produced by Buffy creator Joss Whedon, the tongue-in-cheek flick about young people menaced by something in the forest stars Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Richard Jenkins (Let Me In) and Angel alums Tom Lenk and Amy Acker.


In the words of HBO’s beloved Cryptkeeper, “Be


careful what you wish for, creeps!” A new incarnation of the ’90s television take on the classic EC Comics se- ries Tales from the Crypt is being shopped around by Gil Adler, producer of the original series, and Andrew Cosby, co-founder of comic book company Boom! Stu- dios (Hellraiser, Dracula: The Company of Monsters). Joel Eisenberg (Hollywood Vampyr) will executive pro- duce. Bizarrely, the new hour-long show will drop the anthology framework, opting instead for an ongoing se- ries “that uses characters from the comic books in a more modern context,” according to Deadline.com. As the only regular characters from the comics were the creepy hosts, we could be in for some spooky spin on Seinfeld here.


As announced at this year’s ComicCon, the Warren


publications Creepy and Eerie of the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s are being developed for television by producers Dan and Josh Braun (The House of the Devil). Though Chris Columbus (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone) will be behind the camera initially, future episodes could be directed by the likes of Ti West (The House of the Devil), Mark Duplass (Baghead) and Larry Fes- senden (Wendigo), who have all already been name- dropped.


GWAR front beast Oderus Urungus has apparently


angered the dark lords of Fox News so greatly with the band’s recent onstage decapitation of potential US presidential candidate Sarah Palin that he will no longer appear on the conservative channel’s program Red Eye. Once welcomed as an intergalactic correspondent on the show, the singer learned from host Greg Gutfeld that GWAR’s abuse of the effigy was one evisceration too far for the Fox heads. As Oderus fumed on Twitter: “I got canned because Sarah Palin complained that we disembowelled her. The nerve of that woman!” A.S. BERMAN


In July, Fantagraphics Books announced its own


plans to plunder the EC crypt with the publication of the EC Comics Library, which will repackage stories from Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, etc., though not by series but by artist. The line of books, which will be in black and white (à la the Gemstone EC library edi- tions of the 1980s), will kick off in 2012 with four vol- umes highlighting the work of Harvey Kurtzman (war tales), Wally Wood (suspense), Jack Davis (horror) and Al Williamson (sci-fi).


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