Horror Report

Year: 2017

  • ‘Slender man’ deliberations begin

    ‘Slender man’ deliberations begin

    From the AP:

    WAUKESHA, Wis. — A Wisconsin girl accused of helping her friend stab a classmate nearly to death to please the fictional online horror character Slender Man was lonely and depressed and had descended into “madness,” her attorney said Friday in pleading with a jury to send the girl to a mental hospital rather than prison. 

    Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser lured classmate Payton Leutner into the woods at a park in Waukesha, a Milwaukee suburb, in 2014. Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times while Weier urged her on, according to investigators. A passing bicyclist found Leutner, who barely survived. All three girls were 12 at the time. 

    Both Weier and Geyser told detectives they felt they had to kill Leutner to become Slender Man’s “proxies,” or servants, and protect their families from the demon’s wrath.

    Weier, now 15, pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree intentional homicide in a deal with prosecutors in August. But she claims she was mentally ill during the attack and not responsible for her actions. A jury heard three days of testimony from psychologists and detectives. If the jury agrees she wasn’t responsible, she’ll be committed to a mental institution. If not, she faces prison.


    Jury deliberations began today.. 


    Developing

  • It follows It

    It follows It

    The film IT is getting awfully close to $200 million.. It may surpass soon.

    I predict this weekend: It will be the number film for the second week in a row.. and maybe just as big..
    DEVELOING..

  • The odd ‘invisible wall’ attack in Cuba

    The odd ‘invisible wall’ attack in Cuba

    This may be one the strangest AP news dispatches I have ever read..

    I cannot add more to it..

    The blaring, grinding noise jolted the American diplomat from his bed in a Havana hotel. He moved just a few feet, and there was silence. He climbed back into bed. Inexplicably, the agonizing sound hit him again. It was as if he’d walked through some invisible wall cutting straight through his room.
    Soon came the hearing loss, and the speech problems, symptoms both similar and altogether different from others among at least 21 U.S. victims in an astonishing international mystery still unfolding in Cuba. The top U.S. diplomat has called them “health attacks.” New details learned by The Associated Press indicate at least some of the incidents were confined to specific rooms or even parts of rooms with laser-like specificity, baffling U.S. officials who say the facts and the physics don’t add up.
    “None of this has a reasonable explanation,” said Fulton Armstrong, a former CIA official who served in Havana long before America re-opened an embassy there. “It’s just mystery after mystery after mystery.”

    MORE

    In several episodes recounted by U.S. officials, victims knew it was happening in real time, and there were strong indications of a sonic attack.
    Some felt vibrations, and heard sounds — loud ringing or a high-pitch chirping similar to crickets or cicadas. Others heard the grinding noise. Some victims awoke with ringing in their ears and fumbled for their alarm clocks, only to discover the ringing stopped when they moved away from their beds.
    The attacks seemed to come at night. Several victims reported they came in minute-long bursts.

  • spiPhone X: Brave new world with a filter

    spiPhone X: Brave new world with a filter

    It is hard to believe that only ten years ago, the technology that Apple would be selling the public was just about unfathomable.. Extremely fast processors. Facial recognition. Emojis that can make poop turn into your face and voice. 

    In 2007, people were happy with Myspace and turning ‘off’ the net in favor of a night out. Now they can’t leave home without the smartphone.
    Apple wants to capitalize further on the influencers: Those who we are told have ‘disposable income’ (credit cards) and are below the age of 25 .. those who care less about processor speed and more about selfie. Those who would indeed literally buy an iPhone simply because it can turn their face into an Emoji of feces…

    Let’s pause for a moment. The most precious few seconds of Apple’s big unveiling was a big flop: They tried to announce facial recognition but when they actually attempted to use it, it failed.

    Apple has offered an explanation for an embarrassing glitch at the launch of its most expensive iPhone ever, arguing that the phone didn’t make an error – the company’s staff did.

    During the first ever public demonstration of the expensive iPhone X, Apple executive Craig Federighi attempted to unlock the device using the company’s new Face ID feature, which scans a user’s face to ensure only they can unlock their phones. But the feature failed, bumping Federighi to an old-fashioned passcode entry screen and forcing him to switch to a backup phone.

    Too many people. Not tech. The people.

    The people ruin everything!

    But it’s pretty interesting to say the least: The biggest selling point of Apple in 2017 is a device that can see you, get to know you, and also stay knowing you even as you age. As your facial features change.  

    The cutting edge of yesterday was fingerprint.. now it’s motion sensing, unlocking with gestures, and facial definitions that will be forever surveiled by your very own pocket spiPhone.  How quaint.

    I am not going to lie to myself, though. AT this point there is really no way that technology slows down. There is no ability or us to quell the march of advancement. In a few years, when iPhones or smart phones of your own choice are firmly implanted in either your hand or buttocks, facial recognition will look so 2000 and late.

    Yes indeed… Things that would have been either laughed at or feared 20 years ago are completely and perfectly normal now. And expensive.

    Thankfully we all have that ‘disposable’ income… Income that is mostly disposed of in the form of debt payments, late payments, and school loans that are constantly being tinkered with because of how high a percentage of your take home pay they consume.

    But all that can be on hold for a while! 

    A new phone is out. And I can make by face an Emoji if shit. 

    2017, baby. The future is now.

  • THE CHAINSAW NUN AFTER IRMA

    THE CHAINSAW NUN AFTER IRMA

    An off-duty cop in Miami went to check out the damage Hurricane Irma brought to a local neighborhood when he encountered a nun cutting up trees to clear the roadways…with a chainsaw.

    Sister Margaret Ann wanted to help clean up damages after witnessing an almost car accident as a result of the storm. She took it upon herself to start the cleaning process.

    The Miami-Dade Police Department posted to Facebook, uploading the video and praising her for being the symbol of kindness in the community.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_imqdeTLbc]

  • EW shares exclusive details of IT 2

    EW shares exclusive details of IT 2

    ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY has some exclusive details concerning the upcoming IT film (so as long as perfect things happen and the film is made, which I assume it will be) .. from the report:

    MIKE HANLON

    “My idea of Mike in the second movie is quite darker from the book,” the filmmaker said. “I want to make his character the one pivotal character who brings them all together, but staying in Derry took a toll with him. I want him to be a junkie actually. A librarian junkie. When the second movie starts, he’s a wreck.”
    Muschietti said he wanted to “infuse more agency to him in those 30 years we don’t visit.”
    “He’s not just the collector of knowledge of what Pennywise has been doing in Derry. He will bear the role of trying to figure out how to defeat him. The only way he can do that is to take drugs and alter his mind.”


    Pennywise’s origin and weakness 

    “It resonates with what the kids do when they go to the smokehouse in the Barrens,” Andy Muschietti says. “By inhaling these fumes from the fire they have visions of It, and the origin of It, and the falling fire in the sky that crashed into Derry millions of years ago. We’ve brought that to Mike, by the end of those 30 years Mike has figured out the Ritual of Chüd.” 

    No, that’s not a reference to the 1984 schlock classic C.H.U.D., which stood for “Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers.” King’s Ritual of Chüd is more of a Lovecraftian spell, an old-world mysticism that involves a duel of imagination between the shapeshifting trickster and the children (now adults) who want to end It once and for all.
    But even as Hanlon sounds the alarm to his old friends that they must return, his addiction becomes just another demon he has to battle.
    When the Losers return, he won’t be facing it alone.


    Stan Uris 

    “There is something in the future for him, taking his own life, that finds its seed in this film,” Andy Muschietti said. “He is the one who doesn’t want to accept what’s going on. And being the one who didn’t want to participate he gets the worst part.”
    Those who’ve seen the movie know the part: deep in Derry’s sewer system, Stan separates from the group and comes face-to-uh-something with It in the form of the creepy woman from the painting in his father’s study. 

    When his friends finally find him, It has its comb-toothed jaws around his head and is sucking Stan’s face into its mouth. Although he survives, the memory and the traumatic stress he lives with makes him decide it’s a horror he can’t confront again.

  • What did NOT make it into IT and why it may be best it didn’t.

    What did NOT make it into IT and why it may be best it didn’t.

    IF you read IT by Stephen King, you may recall there were some elements that could have garnered the film an NC17 or above rating.. Group sex.. masturbation while torturing animals.. and Bevvie’s dad doing MORE to Bevvie than worrying about her..

    Lots.
    Lots of things could have upset the apple cart.

    What resulted was a stellar film that, in a perfect would, would be worthy of some Oscars (we know Hollywood doesn’t like to reward horror often however) .. If these few elements would have been included, perhaps the movie’s successful script would never have made it to cinemas..

    MOVIEPILOT has a bit more on the items that floated from the script into oblivion.  Read with caution.

    Concerning the MOST controversial of all (and there are a LOT), this:


    Lost in the sewers and with nowhere to turn, Beverley realizes that the only way for the group to escape is for each boy to take it in turns and put their “thing” inside of her. By losing their virginity together, the Losers’ Club can then once more tap into the power of the Turtle and find their way to safety. Yes, this scene is even more insane than the Deadlights themselves, no Muschietti didn’t include it in his adaptation and yes, Stephen King himself continues to defend the sequence, even now.

    Whether you believe that the sewer gang-bang should have appeared in the movie or not, it’s fascinating to see how Muschietti tried to remain faithful to #IT while still navigating the controversy of #StephenKing‘s original text. It’s no wonder then that Cary Fukunaga’s original script never made it into production. After all, there’s only so many controversial plot points one can add to a movie before the inevitable starfish attacks and incestuous rapes take things a step too far.

    The HORROR REPORT ponders if these omissions are such a bad thing. After all, the film was WILDLY successful and will most likely continue to be throughout at least the early autumn.. Ignoring some of these aspects of the book, even with Stephen King adamantly defending them, may have been the best decision ever made.. mainstream for the masses! The Loser’s Club wins.

  • LIFE IN SPACE

    LIFE IN SPACE

    If you never saw the movie called LIFE with Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds, you should. It is about a life form discovered on Mars. The entire world changes.. the space station changes too when the life form begins to rapidly get intelligent and gigantic, devouring astronauts and taking over the vessel..  

    The horror movie aside, there is something equally strange afoot on the space station.

    Bacterial cells treated with a common antibiotic have been spotted changing shape to survive while aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

    The way bacteria act in near-zero gravity environments could pose a serious problem for treating astronauts with infections.

    The “clever shape-shifting” was detected in bacteria being experimented on in the near-weightlessness of space, and is believed to help the bacteria survive.

    An experiment on the common E coli bacteria subjected it to different concentrations of the antibiotic gentamicin sulfate, a drug which kills the bug on Earth.

  • THE US VIRGIN ISLANDS IN CRISIS AFTER IRMA

    THE US VIRGIN ISLANDS IN CRISIS AFTER IRMA

    As the Earth Changes..

    This is reporting from the WASHINGTON POST (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/after-irma-a-once-lush-gem-in-the-us-virgin-islands-reduced-to-battered-wasteland/2017/09/12/b49532e0-9736-11e7-af6a-6555caaeb8dc_story.html?utm_term=.4b43fb7b69f2) along with a must-read article about the devastation in the wake of Hurricane Irma and the destruction being seen in the islands:

    CRUZ BAY, U.S. Virgin Islands — The Asolare restaurant is gone, practically blown off its cliff, along with its world-famous carrot ginger soup. The facade of Margarita Phil’s is a junkyard of yellow and vermilion planks. Multimillion-dollar homes and aluminum huts alike lie in ruins.

    On the island of St. John, that was only Irma’s beginning. Once a lush gem in the U.S. Virgin Islands, a chain steeped in the lore of pirates and killer storms, this 20-square-mile island is now perhaps the site of Irma’s worst devastation on American soil.

    Six days after the storm — some say several days too late — the island finally has an active-theater disaster zone. Military helicopters buzz overhead and a Navy aircraft carrier is anchored off the coast, as the National Guard patrols the streets.

  • The ‘prince of horror’ promises a new Halloween

    The ‘prince of horror’ promises a new Halloween

    Producer Jason Blum, the CEO of the budget-conscious and incredibly successful Blumhouse Productions (Get Out, Paranormal Activity, Insidious, The Purge) has promised that their planned Halloween sequel – the one written by Danny McBride and David Gordon Greenand directed by Green – will definitely be released by its planned date in October of 2018. And additionally, there’s word that Carpenter himself is still interested in providing the score. 




    All seemingly good news for Halloween fans for the man who once dubbed himself the Prince of Horror..

    The newest incarnation of Halloween, is hoping that viewers ignore Halloweens 4-infinity in place of this one, as it takes place immediately after the Rosenthal Halloween 2.

    Getting confusing?
    Yes.

    And that it why it seems Halloween films have become a mockery of themselves. Nothing serious anymore in the way of actual scares or storylines.. 

    John Carpenter being included, along with a catchy piano song, may help… but I get the feeling that we have been down this long path before.  And it leads to nothing but sequels drowning in misadventure and contempt for premise and character development. I’ll give it a chance.

    …got to be better than the Rob Zombie versions, no?