Well, this will freak you right the heck out

Well, this will freak you right the heck out. And I thought our urban legend of saying 'Bloody Mary' into a darkened mirror was scary. Japan is way crazier than us.

Whatever you do, don't Google this term. Uggggh. Can't unsee that.

Japan has even more creepy urban legends. And this one, too.

Do zombies poop?

Do zombies poop? WELL, DO THEY? How has George A. Romero not addressed this yet?

Next film: Biffy of the Living Dead.

Witchy woman

I'm writing a lot about horror movies this month, and someone suggested "Black Sunday" (not the Super Bowl one) as one of the scariest old movies. Dude, they brand the witch AND nail a mask to her face and that's before the credits even roll!

You can watch the first nine minutes here.

And here's a tribute to star Barbara Steele.

Braaaaains

I agree with Gawker/Defamer. This upcoming AMC zombie series, based on "The Walking Dead" comics, looks absolutely awesome.

I predict this will be the zombie version of "True Blood," even if a scene in the trailer is super similar to the hospital opening of "28 Days Later." Is that the only way to introduce us to a zombie plague, have someone unconscious wake up to an apocalyptic world? (The answer to that being obviously no, since "Shaun of the Dead" opened brilliantly with him staggering into a convenience store and not even noticing the zombies strewn around the road.)



Behind the scenes at Zombie School!



Creating the Bicycle Girl zombie. Wow.

Spooky

Mysterious crate arrives from London.

Just try to sleep through this

I've written before about how I'm a real fan of movies that feature handheld cameras --"Cloverfield," "Blair Witch Project," etc. I know most people hate them, but the shakiness and amateur feel never made me sick, it just makes me feel as if real people are relating the events.

So I'm intrigued by "Paranomal Activity," in which a young couple think their house is haunted, so they set up cameras to record what happens while they sleep. The trailer freaks me out, even though the ghostly activities are too blurry and dark to really see.

(Via Pop Candy.)

Se habla Espanol?

"Pontypool" is a creepy sounding Canadian horror movie in which certain words in the English language turn people into zombies who must "chew their way through the mouth of another person."

It's based on a book "Pontypool Changes Everything," and apparently Pontypool is a town in Ontario. And also a really fun word to say.

The only cure for the zombieism? Speak French! Somehow I wonder if this thing wasn't written by the Bloc Quebecois. (Heh, the Village Voice makes that joke too, only better.)

Many levels of horror

Here's a horror film that sounds fascinating: "The Hills Run Red" is about a young horror filmmaker who tries to track down a lost horror film and winds up pretty much living the film. Deliciously creepy!

"I do not cannibalize for my own amusement."

It kind of scares me that highway signs are this easy to hack ... or maybe the zombies are REAL. (Thanks, Omar!)

My friend Kim points out that zombies have even invaded Jane Austen, with this book, "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies," due out in May. (Did Miss Austen's estate approve this? Are they making bank from it? Blood-stained bank?)

Because I have often said to myself: You know what classic corset romances need more of? Brain-munching zombies.

Creepadelic

Three upcoming movies that look creepy (that's good, for horror fans).

"Shutter Island," based on the book, about people trapped on an island in a storm with a murderess escaped from an insane asylum. Brrr. I may have to pick up the book since it's a while till the movie comes out, and books are almost always better, anyway. Here's an interview with the author, Dennis Lehane, who also wrote "Mystic River."

The trailer for "The Unborn" freaks me out every time I see it. I don't expect I will, but the plot, about a dead twin who stalks his living sibling, and the creepy backbend-walking people/dogs, is really disturbing.

"The Uninvited" is due out later this month, and it's based on a Korean horror flick, which is usually a plus. It's about sisters who don't think their dad's new fiancee is who she pretends to be.

Scare tactic

A woman I work with wanted a scary movie this weekend. So she rented this.

Yeah, bad mistake...she somehow confused "scary" with "GORY." So it started us talking about films that are really scary without loading on the gore.

"The Shining" came to mind right away, as did "The Thing" and even Nicole Kidman's "The Others." And of course, the whole Japanese subset -- "The Ring," "The Grudge," etc.

I actually think one of those most heart-poundingly scary movies I've ever seen is "Aliens," especially the scene where the Space Marines are examining the colony and Ripley is nervously watching them from back in the command center. As it slowly starts to dawn on her, and them, that they are surrounded (they're in the WALLS!), I cannot stop my heart from pounding. But really, that's a sci-fi film, and my co-worker specifically wanted a horror film.

Anyone want to nominate a film?

Potluck at the Michael Myers house!

Zillow has a neat roundup of Scary Homes -- real houses that were used in horror films and TV shows, from "Halloween" to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video.

Ring, ring

This horror movie, "One Missed Call," doesn't come out till January, and it can't be that gory, since it's rated PG-13. (Although Margaret Cho is in it, woo!)

But I must say the film description would make a great around-the-campfire horror story, even if the movie ends up disappointing:

"Beth Raymond is traumatized when she witnesses the gruesome deaths of two friends just days apart. Even more disturbing, she knows that both of them had received chilling cell phone messages—actual recordings of their own horrifying last moments. Impossibly, the calls were received days before they died, but each death occurred precisely when and how the messages foretold. The police think Beth is delusional—except for Detective Jack Andrews whose own sister was killed in a freak accident that bears a strange similarity to the deaths of Beth's friends. Together, Jack and Beth work feverishly to unravel the mystery behind the ominous calls."

The Cold War

I love TiVo, but with it, future generations may never know the joy of finding a goofalicious old movie that you'd never otherwise watch, and tuning in because you only have five channels and three of them are showing golf.

As a kid, the movie I most remember stumbling upon was "The Frozen Dead." Here's a much-more-hilarious than it deserves scene-by-scene dissection of the classic film. Nazis! Frozen Nazis! Disembodied arms attached to a peg board and swinging into action! Decapitated pissed-off heads! For a dumb bored kid stretched out on the rug in the den, what could be better?

The cast of "Mystery Science Theater" should have gotten its hands on this one. It was prime beef for their jokes.

Free parking

We saw a preview for "P2" while waiting for "Superbad" to start, and it creeped me out, even though the trailer was all of two seconds long.

I'm already freaked out enough parking in the deep bowels of a parking garage, thankyouverymuch, and this movie is NOT helping matters.

You can watch the creepy-ass trailer here.

Gore girls

"Hostel part 2" (warning: audio) comes out this week, and since I saw the first one, I probably will eventually see this one, too. This time, it's three women running from the creepadelic torturers instead of three men. There was an actual story to the first one, which probably accounts for many of its good reviews. So many horror-movie makers don't bother with the story part.

Horror-ible

Wikipedia really does have everything, including this super-creepy and super-long list of gory movie deaths, sorted by implement.

A blender in the mouth? Decapitated by a jinxed branch? Death by ice cube filled with nanobots? Yikes. However, it's kind of funny to me that several of the deaths happen to singer Meat Loaf. Gives new meaning to "I'd do anything for love, but I won't do that."