Exorcising My Demons Synopsis

The book chronicles Eileen’s journey through family tragedies to the worlds of theater, TV and film. Eileen navigates through the Hollywood misconceptions of what exactly her role was in The Exorcist when the film was released, and includes her celebratory climax with all the horror, thriller, and special effects-laden films that followed.

Exorcising My Demons follows Eileen Dietz to NYC, where she was featured in drive-in films and plays, then her screen test for the Exorcist which got her to appear as “The Face of Death.” After The Exorcist, she went to California and made a break in television.

Said Dread Central about Exorcising My Demons:

“The conversational style gives it a personal flourish, the intimacy with which the stories are told kept me turning the pages. A chunk of the book chronicles Dietz’s experiences on The Exorcist, and this stuff doesn’t disappoint.”

You can Purchase Exorcising My Demons Here

Also around the same time on Sunday May 19th, at Dark Delicacies, Tracy L. Carbone signing her short story collection, The Collection and Other Dark Tales.

From the minds that brought you last year’s V/H/S comes V/H/S/ 2 (formerly titled S-VHS), an all-new anthology with segments directed this time around by Simon Barrett, Adam Wingard (A Horrible Way To Die), Eduardo Sánchez (The Blair Witch Project), Gregg Hale, Timo Tjahjanto (Macabre, 2009), Gareth Evans (The Raid: Redemption), and Jason Eisener (Hobo With A Shotgun, Treevenge).

Some tidbits about V/H/S/ 2‘s stories:

Framing Device: a couple are looking for a missing student and stumble upon VHS tapes in a creepy house
Segment 1 “Clinical Trials” (Dir: Adam Wingard): Dude gets an eyeball implant and can see ghosts; he meets a girl who can hear them.
Segment 2 “A Ride in the Park” (Dir: Eduardo Sanchez/Gregg Hale): Guy with helmet-cam versus zombies.
Segment 3 “Safe Haven” (Dir: Gareth Evans/Timo Tjahjanto): Bizarre cult activity in the Indonesian wilderness.
Segment 4 “Alien Abduction Slumber Party” (Dir: Jason Eisener): Dog-mounted camera captures evil E.T.’s crashing a slumber party.

Currently, critics are saying this is much better than the original. We’ll find out when V/H/S 2 becomes available for video-on-demand June 6, 2013, followed by its release in theaters on July 12, 2013.

Today I look at At the Mountains of Madness: And Other Tales of Terror, which features At the Mountains of Madness as its main story. The other stories accompanying it are The Shunned House, Dreams in the Witch House, and The Statement of Randolph Carter. For people looking to get into Lovecraft, this collection will serve as a decent introduction to his world. You’ll come out of it knowing the names Necronomicon, Miskatonic, Arkham, and Old Ones. You’ll also go insane with forbidden knowledge. OK, maybe not, but you’ll still have a good time.

At the Mountains of Madness

Originally Written in 1931; First published in Astounding Stories, 1936

1/2 (out of 4)

The irony of At the Mountains of Madness is that while it introduces a number of aspects of The Cthulhu Mythos, it’s also a semi-difficult read, being a bit too verbose and clinical in its telling. It is also thin on plot – the story takes the form of a journal account of a geologist’s visit to Antarctica, only to discover an ancient city and monsters lurking within. At the Mountains of Madness mostly features a description of the architecture and tell-tale sculptures that he witnesses, and only really gets going at the end. Basically, it’s over before it begins, but there are enough interesting concepts being introduced here to make it worth the read.

Miskatonic University professor William Dyer accompanies an expedition to Antarctica only to discover the fossils of ancient life forms that appear to be both plant and animal. Soon after, the men of one split-off camp are slaughtered in horrific fashion, and some of the specimens are gone. This leads Dyer and his partner Danforth into an abandoned city which has an architecture completely alien to anything known in human history. The pair discover murals which seem to describe the history of the alien builders – referred to as the “Old Ones” who created shapeshifting monsters dubbed Shoggoths, which helped them build their civilization. The old ones eventually had to deal with a Shoggoth rebellion as well as invasions from beyond the stars by the Mi-go and the spawn of Cthulhu. Eventually the pair have to outrun a chasing Shoggoth, and one of them seems to go insane after catching a glimpse of something that even the Old Ones were afraid of.

Although slow, At the Mountains of Madness offers a fascinating peek into the world of the “Elder Things” and it works when it conveys the horror of the monsters, like the bubbly, shapeless Shoggoth entities and the star-headed old ones with their multiple tentacles. Dyer’s description of what he sees is realistic in the sense that you would expect the prose to be scientific and exact in nature, which may turn you off if you are into a more easygoing style. Nevertheless, Lovecraft communicates the utter alienness of the environment and makes connections to the Necromonicon, the forbidden book of knowledge that subjects of Miskatonic should probably stay away from but never do. I could see the influence of the ancient-aliens storyline in other works like John W. Campbell’s Who Goes There? (which was released 2 years after Lovecraft’s story was published in Astounding Stories), which of course led to The Thing from Another World and John Carpenter’s The Thing. You can see influences on Horror Express and The X-Files as well. Of course, Lovecraft himself borrowed from Edgar Allen Poe, whom he references a few times in his stories. In particular, the Antarctic setting and bizarre cry of a Shoggoth (“Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!”) is inspired by The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket.

At the Mountains of Madness succeeds in communicating the loneliness and isolation of the Antarctic. The story works best when you realize its implications – that mankind is not only alone in the universe, but is under threat from ancient, powerful beings that should not be woken up.

The Shunned House

Originally written in 1924; first published in Weird Tales, 1937

(out of 4)

The Shunned House is a haunted house story involving something a bit more horrifying than the usual spectral entity. This “ghost” can take the form of a yellowish “corpse-light” which can dissolve a human into goo. But before we get there, we are treated to the unique and tragic history of the Harris family, whose members (adults, children, and live-in-maids alike) all met unfortunate ends not long after moving into the cursed mansion on Benefit Street. The protagonist and his uncle, Dr. Whipple, seem to have traced the origins of the evil back to one Etienne Roulet, a Frenchman who got involved in certain dark things.

The house itself is the star of the story, with its bizarre weeds, horrible smells, and glowing, alien-looking fungi growing in the cellar. Lovecraft manages another shoutout to Poe, telling the reader how the author would walk past the Benefit Street house every day and, ironically, never realize how close he was to something so dark and terrifying. The history of the house is interesting and the ending has a nice ghost-hunter vibe to it. By the way, according to Wiki, The Shunned House is based on an actual house in Providence, Rhode Island, built in 1763 and is still there (135 Benefit Street).

The Dreams in the Witch House

Originally written in 1932; first published in Weird Tales, 1933

(out of 4)

My favorite of this group of stories, Dreams in the Witch House takes us to the city of Arkham and into a weird home with an oddly-angled room. Staying in the room is Walter Gilman, a student of mathematics and quantum physics, interested in the history of the house and the bizarre stories surrounding former occupant Keziah Mason, who maintained that certain “lines and curves” could “be made to point out directions leading through the walls of space to other spaces beyond.” Soon after, the woman – said to be a witch – vanished from her cell. Gilman becomes obsessed with the irregular shape of the walls and ceiling in his room, pondering on whether they have an important mathematical significance. Soon, the horrible dreams come – of entering other dimensions, plummeting through multiple abysses of inexplicable colors, and being visited by an old crone and a rat-like creature with a bearded human face and sharp teeth, with human-like hands where its paws should be. As he slowly loses his sanity, Gilman is continuously threatened by this pair in his dreams, as they attempt to take him to the “Black Man” who wants him to sign the Book of Azathoth in blood at the “center of ultimate chaos.”

We all agree it’s in Gilman’s best interest not to do any such thing, but the longer he stays in the witch house, the more his dreams and reality become blurred, and he finds himself involuntarily drawn to faraway places in time and space. As an example of Lovecraft’s running theme of horrible fate, Gilman may not have a choice. Dreams in the Witch House is a great page-turner, filled with dreamscapes beyond the scope of human reason, witches and monsters, other dimensions, a disturbing sacrifice, and terrible revelations. It’s a perfect “weird tale” and serves as a good introduction for those not familiar with Lovecraft’s work, demonstrating his themes of forbidden knowledge and alien threats. Stuart Gordon adopted it for his entry into 2005′s Masters of Horror series, but honestly the story is superior.

The Statement of Randolph Carter

Originally written in 1919; first published in The Vagrant, 1920

1/2 (out of 4)

The Statement of Randolph Carter is a simple short story of about 7 pages, written in first person as a testimony to what happened to poor Harley Warren when Randolph Carter accompanied him to an ancient cemetery – rest assured that Warren never came back when he descended into that dark pit with stone steps. Inspired to go there by “an ancient book with undecipherable characters,” Carter stayed on the surface and kept in contact through a portable telephone system, through which he could hear Warren’s screams “Curse these hellish things – legions – My God!”

The Statement of Randolph Carter works in a similar manner to The Shunned House – two people investigate unmentionable things only to end up wishing they hadn’t. The Shunned House is the better story, being more fleshed out, but this one does its job in the limited number of words allotted. In the end, I found myself wanting more. By the way, Randolph Carter is a recurring character in Lovecraft’s stories.

Conclusion

At the Mountains of Madness and Other Tales is a must-read for lovers of horror, weird fiction, and anybody who wants to get into H.P. Lovecraft. Pick It Up From Amazon. Also try H.P. Lovecraft The Complete Collection.

- Bill Gordon

(out of 4)

A film adaptation of the Sol Yurick novel, which is itself a modern retelling of Xenophon’s Anabasis, Walter Hill’s The Warriors is a camp movie with a heart, a comic book featuring real people given license to run around in a futuristic fantasyland. It’s not unlike the classic Star Trek episode Mirror, Mirror, where Kirk and crew have to manage a crisis while wearing colorful uniforms from an alternate universe. That is to say, a movie that features a street gang that looks like painted up mimes wielding baseball bats and Yankee uniforms has to succeed on the strength of its drama and the identification of the audience with its heroes; otherwise it just becomes a live action cartoon featuring funny jackets. Fortunately, Walter Hill uses his third opportunity as director to craft a well made cult film that, while dated and amusingly retro, still connects through colorful characters, good pacing, and the successful execution of certain timeless themes.

Roger Hill plays Cyrus (the younger, if you wish), leader of one of New York City’s biggest gangs, who gathers thousands of gang representatives from all five boroughs to a meeting in Van Cortland Park. Cyrus wants to organize “60,000 soldiers” against the police to take over the city, in a monologue that was destined to be sampled by just about every hip-hop and techno artist in music history. Cyrus’ mistake, of course, is having too much faith in street gangs’ abilities as city administrators, and an anarchist leader of The Rogues (played by David Patrick Kelly) explains it to him in the form of a bullet. Wrongfully blamed for Cyrus’ assassination, the Warriors are singled out by the Gramercy Riffs, who set every gang in the city after them. The Warriors’ only chance of surviving the night is to attempt a katabasis from the Bronx all the way down to Coney Island, their home turf. Gangs are kept updated through occasional broadcasts by a radio DJ (Lynne Thigpen), who informs them of the Warriors’ movements. Led by reluctant hero Swan (Michael Beck, in the Xenophon role), the gang has to prove worthiness of their name by fighting various enemies such as the Orphans (low-class neighborhood hoodlums that are “not in the network”), Turnball ACs (multiracial skinheads), the Furies (aforementioned baseball mimes, who slightly resemble the Droogs from A Clockwork Orange), the Lizzies (a female gang), and finally, the New York City police (treated no differently than any other gang). But Swan’s biggest problem is Mercy (Deborah Van Valkenburgh), the low class “tough chick” instigating trouble for the gang, and eventually joining up with them as they board the train for Brooklyn. An interesting aspect of the film is its compete distrust of women. From Mercy to the Lizzies (who aren’t what they appear to be – go ahead and guess) to the undercover policewoman in Central Park (Mercedes Ruehl), the girls of this world ain’t nothin’ but trouble, but the impact of this negative point of view is lessened by the fact that our heroes only get into trouble when they think with their dicks and not with their brains.

Playing another important character in the movie is New York City itself, a ghost town covered in a menacing cloak of darkness. The only life that exists here is that of roving hoodlums, police, and the subway system itself – the lifeblood and the means of escape, pulling everyone along with it at one point or another. The only true sunlight occurs at the end of the film, and it shines on home turf. The Warriors works in its portrayal of gangs as family units, and in its small stylish touches. Take for instance a moment on the train where our new lovebirds Mercy and Swan sit opposite a prom couple; Mercy is embarrassed by her appearance and moves to fix her hair; Swan stops her. She then closes her eyes; when she opens them again, the couple is gone, leaving a bouquet of flowers by the subway doors. Take bad guy Luther’s taunting “Warriors, come out to playyy..” while clanging beer bottles together. When asked why he would shoot a gang leader, he answers “No reason… I just like doin’ stuff like that.” Witness the bizarre militaristic structure of the Riffs, the attention to geographic detail of the city, the eerie atmosphere of an empty Coney Island and Swan’s realization at the film’s end of where his life is at.

Ultimately, the most interesting thing about The Warriors is the circumstances surrounding its creation – the distressed state of the city in the late seventies, the urban decay, the crime and decadence, the roots of the film in Greek literature, even the amusing attempts at censorship of the film after its release. It isn’t the greatest movie of Hill’s career but it’s a solid one, and while the broad portrayal of street gangs as troublesome costume party attendees is exaggerated and unrealistic, it stays afloat by surfing on nostalgia, good performances, and a certain kind of innocence that is difficult to find in today’s jaded cinema.

- Bill Gordon

Note: I insist that you buy the original theatrical version. You can get the Ultimate Directors Cut Blu-Ray or the Ultimate Director’s Cut DVD, but I wouldn’t – in these director’s cuts, Walter Hill throws in bizarre cuts and zooms, freeze-frames, and comic book panels (with thought bubbles, lol). It’s kinda ridiculous and I have no clue why he did it.

1/2 (out of 4)

He hates mornings, but the early bird gets the worms.

There was a time when I considered Zombie one of Lucio Fulci’s better efforts but I no longer hold that opinion. Not that I think the film is bad, but I just find it about on par with his other movies like The Beyond, City of the Living Dead, etc. It’s consistent with his other work of the period, and by that I mean consistently cheesy, consistently gory, and consistently dumb. Zombie (called Zombi 2 in Italy because the studio tried to pass it off as a “sequel” to Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, which was titled Zombi over there) is actually the most straightforward in terms of plotting and movie-logic – woman’s dad goes missing, trail leads to desert island where zombies run rampant, victims must band together to defeat them and escape the island. Never a fan of subtlety, Fulci fills the time with gore money-shots and in-your-face jungle music (because, you know, this is an island with natives who believe in voodoo!) The result is another zombie derivative that delivers the gore of a Romero flick while trying to take the genre back to old school roots (I Walked with a Zombie, Voodoo Island, Isle of the Dead, The Plague of the Zombies, etc.). While slow in the middle, and filled with idiot characters, it has enough boobs and blood to make for a decent time passer. However, like lots of Fulci output, the parts tend to be greater than the whole.

She’s thinking about all the fun Mia must be having…

Mia Farrow’s doe-eyed sister Tisa plays Anne Bowles, whose dad’s boat drifts into New York Harbor with a big fat stowaway zombie played by an uncredited Captain Haggerty, who takes a chunk of flesh out of the neck of an unfortunate member of NYC’s finest. Ian McCulloch plays Peter West, a British reporter (his uncle bought the paper, LOL) who has a meet-cute with Anne on the boat, where they have to pretend to be necking so an idiot cop won’t arrest them (the dialogue seems improvised but I found it funny). An ominous letter from dad sends the pair to St. Thomas and then it’s off to the island of Matool, where Dr. Menard (Richard Johnson) has been trying to figure out the cause of a zombie epidemic, which the locals attribute to voodooism and bad juju. Giving them a lift is Brian (Al Cliver, aka Pierluigi Conti) and his girlfriend Susan (Auretta Gay) who decides to bare her chest and go for a dive where she has unfortunate run-ins with both a shark and an underwater zombie. The ensuing fight between the zombie and the shark is most likely an attempt to get a Jaws reference in a zombie film, but I have to admit that it’s the best shark/zombie fight I have ever seen in a movie. (One of the many questions you’ll have at the end of Zombi 2 is whether that shark is a zombie now.) In addition to that famous scene, there’s the wince-inducing sequence where Dr. Menard’s wife (the gorgeous Olga Karlatos) takes a shower before having a zombie drive a wood splinter through her eye.

The zombies know Matthew 7:5 very well.

There’s not much else to Zombie, really, but Fulci’s zombies look great and the man knows how to frame them. The score by Fabio Frizzi is also very effective. This is helpful because the characters in this film have intelligence slightly one step above that of the undead they are fighting. Some of them literally have no sense of self-preservation, many times just standing there waiting for an oncoming ghoul to bite them. I swear, in one scene Mia Farrow literally bares her neck before one, like it was Dracula. You might argue that this was Fulci’s sly reference to said vampire, but I’m not convinced he could ever be that subtle. It’s best not to discuss the inability of our characters to shoot zombies in the head (see also: The Beyond). I have to admit that the great Ian McCulloch helps save the day here, much as he does in Contamination. I’m not sure if McCulloch (like Richard Johnson, like Christopher George) ever thought he would end up doing gory Italian horror flicks, but life is funny like that. McCulloch and Johnson use their acting chops to elevate the film (in comparison, poor Tisa Farrow goes through it with this dazed-and-confused look) while Sergio Salvati’s cinematography is as good looking as his work on the Gates of Hell trilogy. You’ll also get the Fulci trademarks – silly dialogue (one cop says “If that boat’s abandoned, we stand to make a nice little bonus if we bring her in!“. What? Why?), eye violence (and who else to perform it on than Olga Karlatos, with those beautifully expressive peepers of hers), and blood-spurts that look like broken faucets. Don’t think for a second Zombi 2 has anything going on underneath (like, say, Romero’s first trilogy); it’s a mostly silly exercise in exploitation that is best known for its sequences of gore-porn. Despite that, I wouldn’t turn down an opportunity for a brew-n-view with a beer and a willing audience.

- Bill Gordon

The 6th and 8th avenue lines must be closed for repairs today.

There are different versions of Zombie/Zombi 2 out there: there’s the Blue Underground Blu-Ray (2 disc), another Blue Underground Blu-Ray (1 disc), a Blue Underground DVD (2 disc), another Blue Underground DVD (1 disc), and a Media Blasters/Shriek Show DVD (2 disc set under the Italian title Zombi 2). I personally own the Shriek Show version, which has an amusing interview with Captain Haggerty (who passed away in 2006) and an audio commentary by McCulloch (who is literally speechless after watching the eye-splinter scene). There’s a second disc filled with bonus material, including a feature-length documentary (“Building A Better Zombie“) on the making of the movie, with lots of interviews and insights on the origins of the film, the special effects, screenplay, sound effects, and more. There’s also “An Evening With Dakar” which features Dakar on guitar and a group of trailers for zombie movies available on Shriek Show: Bio Zombie, Erotic Nights of the Living Dead, Zombi 3, Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror, Flesh Eater, Zombie 4: After Death, Flesh for the Beast, Zombie Holocaust, and Zombie 5: Killing Birds.

Zombi 2 was called Zombie Flesh Eaters in the United Kingdom. When it was released on video uncut, it became an infamous “video nasty.” By 2005 it was officially removed from the list of obscene publications. You can get it as part of the DVD set Video Nasties – The Definitive Guide.

(out of 4)

Crank: High Voltage (referred to from here on as Crank 2) is a non-stop barrage of filth: a parade of profanity, tits, sex, and violence. I kinda liked it. Jason Statham plays Chev Chelios, who was killed in the first Crank movie after he dropped from a helicopter, bounced off a car, and hit the street. It turns out that this guy isn’t that easy to kill, as we watch Hong Kong triad goons drive up, scoop him off the street with a shovel, and take him to Gangster Medical Center, keeping him on life support while his organs are being harvested. First to go is his heart, which was so strong that it was able to survive Chinese poisons in the last film. Therefore, it has been claimed by the 100-year old Triad leader Poon Dong (David Carradine), and in its place goes an artificial heart run on a battery (the mechanics of which is explained in the movie using a classroom slide presentation). As a TV anchorman (played by Star Trek TNG‘s John de Lancie) comments, it’s all quite implausible. Waking up and escaping before the bad guys can remove his penis, Chev goes on a mission to get his heart back. As you may expect, the quest to “find his heart” will involve lots of bloody violence and offending the sensibilities of just about everybody on the planet.

Jason Statham gets a jump

Crank 2 has a similar plot to the first film, which you may recall was an amped up D.O.A. for kids addicted to Grand Theft Auto and Skittles candy. The catch this time around is that Chev has to keep his artificial heart recharged; this will involve methods like tasering himself, grabbing onto high voltage transformers, or even rubbing up against people (one of them is an old lady with a walker) so he can generate static electricity. Crank 2 plays out like it was written, directed, and filmed by people constantly on amphetamines. It features sequences such as a man being anally penetrated with a shotgun, a stripper being shot in such a way that all the silicone pours out of her breasts, and a crazed hooker (but still with a heart of gold, as far as that goes) played by Bai Ling who likes to compare Statham’s character and herself to Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston (even though Chev has no intention of being her bodyguard). When we first meet her, she destroys a man’s groin with a bicycle while uttering obscenities in a broken English that the creators were kind enough to subtitle for us. There’s the return of Chev’s girlfriend Eve (Amy Smart), who is now stripping but can still kick ass if she needs to. There’s a new take on the Chinatown scene from the last film; this time, Chev and Eve have sex on a horse track to the delight of onlookers. He rides her like a cowboy and somebody even throws a hat out to him. A horse gallops over them, and Eve is astonished at the size of the horse’s genitals. We also get to watch a man slicing off his own nipples and part of a dude’s elbow being cut off with a machete, two rather gory sequences that scream out Takashi Miike (I was thinking of Dead or Alive and Ichi the Killer). The movie itself is shot as you would expect – quick cuts, zooms, weird camera angles – perfect for ADD types and video game players (the beginning of the movie starts out with video game graphics). It’s like a big swig of Mountain Dew followed by a speedball.

Political correctness does not exist in this dojo.

Normally, I hate movies like this. I usually can’t stand shaky cam and MTV quick-cuts. But Crank 2 transcends it somehow; it goes so deep into this insane territory that it becomes a kind of self-parody. It breeches every moral barrier you can think of – all the men are assholes and ethnic stereotypes, all the women exist merely to be objectified, violence is treated many times as the punchline of a joke. The movie takes the religious conservatives’ idea of a morally bankrupt nation to its foregone conclusion. In the world of Crank 2, the streets of Los Angeles are ruled by gangsters, thugs, and degenerates, and there is no purpose to anything, only chaos (this is the closest thing to a film version of Grand Theft Auto that I have seen). In this movie’s universe, Armageddon has already happened, and all of the inhabitants have been stripped down to their base elements – the sexual and violent impulse; it’s a world run by lizards on an engine of primal stimulation. It seems to me that, like Mike Judge and his creations Beavis and Butt-Head, directors Neveldine and Taylor do not really condone the behavior of anybody in this film. They seem too smart for that. I mean, the sex and violence are linked together so blatantly – take a scene in a police car where Eve is in the back seat, wearing handcuffs, sitting next to a rather horny stripper girl she works with. Chev is trying to keep himself juiced using the only thing he has available – a cop’s taser. For some reason, he tasers himself in places like his tongue and testicles, and while he is doing that we get quick camera cuts to the horny stripper girl caressing Eve’s legs. Cue: groin zap, tits, bare skin, zap again. Another scene has Chev coming across two assholes, one of whom is using a dog zapper (“I wanted a cat anyway”). Chev grabs the collar off the dog and puts it around his own neck, telling the guy to press the button. As he does so, Chev barks and jumps around like a confused canine. Friends, these are not subtle metaphors.

The ending of Crank 2 surprised me with its surrealism. It involves a disembodied head kept alive with tubes in a glass container, and our anti-hero finding “religion” in the holy spirit of high voltage. Walking towards the camera, on fire and looking like some kind of flaming angel of death, Statham gives me (you, us, critics, the world?) the finger while smiling a devilish grin. Crank 2 is unleashed in the same manner as one of the “good guys” in the film suffering from “Full Body Tourettes”, but it’s this fiery image of Statham that summarizes the film: fuck you if you can’t take a joke.

- Bill Gordon

Buy Crank 2: High Voltage on DVD (1 disc version)
Buy Crank 2: High Voltage on DVD (2 disc version)
Buy Crank 2: High Voltage on Blu-ray

Superfluous image of Bai Ling.

Black Dahlia Haunting Trailer

Plot

While investigating the murder of her father by her blind younger brother, a young woman (Devanny Pinn) disturbs the vengeful spirit of Elizabeth Short, known in legend as “The Black Dahlia”.

Distribution/Screenings

The Black Dahlia Haunting will be released in North America by the newly-formed Origin Releasing and in China by JY Entertainment. In North America it will hit Video-On-Demand and Pay-Per-View on July 1, 2013. It will appear on VOD in China soon and hits VOD and other markets in the states later this year (3rd quarter). Further screenings will be announced as the film’s home release nears. You can pre-order the Blu-ray and the DVD on Amazon (release date: August 6, 2013).

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The True Story of the Black Dahlia

Many of the characters and plot points were inspired by actual theories relating to the death of Elizabeth Short, also known as the Black Dahlia. Elizabeth Short’s body was found mutilated in Leimert Park, Los Angeles on January 15, 1947. Her body was discovered cut in half at the waist. To this day, the murder is unsolved. Short’s murder has inspired the books Severed: The True Story of the Black Dahlia Murder by John Gilmore, Black Dahlia Avenger: The True Story by Steve Hodel, and The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy. Ellroy’s book inspired the film The Black Dahlia directed by Brian De Palma and starring Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson, Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank, and Mia Kirshner.

Hudson Horror Show VII Films Shown

Gone With The Pope (1976/2009)

Duke Mitchell, who directed and starred in the legendary Massacre Mafia Style, stars and directs this similarly themed but seldom screened exploitation flick. The plot concerns a career criminal (Duke Mitchell) who hatches a plan to kidnap the Pope, the ransom being a dollar from every Catholic in the world. Made in 1976, the film was thought to be lost, but in the late 2000s somebody discovered the film negative and unfinished cut work print in the deceased Mitchell’s parking garage. Grindhouse Releasing restored it and now you get to see it in the Hudson Valley! There will be official movie rosary beads that are FREE to the first 50 people through the door for Hudson Horror 7!

Infra-Man (1975)

Starring Danny Lee from John Woo’s The Killer and featuring a pack of Asian monsters that specialize in Kung Fu, Inframan (aka Super Infra-Man) is a 1975 drive in schlocktacular from the legendary Shaw Brothers. The ten million year-old Princess Dragon Mom (Terry Liu) attempts to conquer the earth with her legion of mutant monsters. In response, Professor Chang (Wang Hsieh) creates Inframan, turning a young volunteer (Danny Lee) into a bionic superhero to save the world.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 (1986)

Probably the best of the sequels to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 stars the late Dennis Hopper as Lieutenant “Lefty” Enright, former Texas Ranger, and uncle of Sally Hardesty and her invalid brother Franklin, who were victims of Leatherface and his family 13 years earlier. Lefty is out for revenge on the Sawyer family, aided by radio DJ “Stretch” Brock (Caroline Williams). Also featuring Bill Moseley as “Chop Top.”

Army of Darkness (1993)

Revel in the insanity of Bruce Campbell’s biggest battle against the Deadites in Army of Darkness! The third entry in Sam Raimi’s original Evil Dead trilogy, this installment is mostly comedy, but it is extremely clever and solidifies Campbell’s status as a wise-cracking badass. Total fun.

Mystery Movie

What could it be? An 80’s slasher? A slice of 70’s sleaze? How about a Hammer flick? Be there and find out!

Also seen: vintage drive in trailers, vendors selling horror merchandise, door prizes, trivia contests and more.

Hudson Horror Show VII Tickets

Advance Tickets are on sale now and are only $26.00 via PayPal. If any tickets remain they will be available at the door on the day of the show for $30.00, cash only. Get tickets here. Note: Advance ticket sales will END at 11:59PM on Monday, June 3rd, 2013.

Location and Time

Silver Cinemas @ the South Hills Mall
1895 South Road
Poughkeepsie, New York 12601

Saturday, June 8, 2013
Doors open at noon. Show starts at 1pm.

Also check out the Official Site and the Facebook Page.