This is the Otherness Bunny? Well, maybe. It could be a Ally bunny.

This is a photo of a real rabbit. What happened was since it was near dark, I used the camera flash.

The result was great bunny picture except for the red and yellow eyes. Since it would have been difficult to remove the red and yellow colors from the eyes, I decided to leave it be.

So now we have what I consider a neat photo called Hellbunny.

The Audible Horror
Radio’s Role in Shaping a Genre

“It…Is…Later…Than…You…Think.”

So began Arch Oboler’s “Lights Out”, a radio drama focusing on tales of horror and suspense. The program originally aired on the National Broadcasting Corporation but moved to the Central Broadcasting System radio network where it thrived and thrilled audiences with some of the most twisted tales this side of The Twilight Zone.

The programs were creative, well written, sound effect heavy, glossy productions that delivered the late night chills contemporary adults were looking for.

By today’s standards the stories on “Lights Out” are mild, but in the years that the show graced the airwaves it was raw, cutting edge and terrified the listening public with tales of the macabre. The show had its start in the early 30’s under the watchful eye and creative hand of Wyllis Cooper, a notable scribe, who wanted to offer a late-night theatrical program to counter the music-saturated airwaves. The program focused on the supernatural and dark tones such as serial killers, pathological madmen, and conniving spouses while focusing on violence (Being eaten, buried, and burned alive)and twisted tongue-in-cheek humor. The show was often compared to a radio-broadcast of the popular Grand Guignol theatre. Characters in Cooper’s scripts often met their demise by dismemberment, torture, beatings, dismemberment or being dissolved alive in a vat of molten metal.

Unfortunately, no known recordings of the Cooper era exist. Oboler came on board in 1935 and in 1936 his first script for Lights Out “Burial Service” about a paralyzed girl who is accidentally buried alive and told from the point of view of her thoughts. The show was claustrophobic and panicked and NBC was flooded with letter expressing outrage at the program, which by this time was airing in prime-time.

Oboler departed the show in 1938 and NBC canceled the show a year later. In 1942 Oboler re-launched the program on competing network CBS and it featured the now famous “It…Is…Later…Than…You…Think” introduction and riveted audiences with a disclaimer advising the audience that the following program is not intended for the weak of heart.

One thing the radio networks learned from the success of Lights Out was that America wanted to be terrified. The ratings hungry networks were quick to capitalize on this trend and began producing horror/suspense shows in mass quantity, one of the first instances of market saturation which ultimately led to the demise of the genre.

Before horror went belly up on the airwaves, America was introduced to Orson Welles and the most infamous prank ever played. The prank would go down in history as the most successful radio broadcast of all time and terrified a nation captivated with outer space.

Welles played on the fears of an innocent audience on October 30, 1938. The public tuned in to listen to the American radio drama anthology “Mercury Theatre On The Air”, they were greeted with a musical performance by a big band. Out of the blue a news broadcast interrupts the program in progress and announces in a news bulletin format that a Martian invasion was taking place. The War of the Worlds, based on the novel by HG Wells was underway unbeknownst to a stunned public. Listeners assumed what they were hearing was an actual event and mass-hysteria and overall panic flooded American homes of a public already on edge due to mounting activity culminating in what would eventually be World War II.

Though there were repeated announcements during the broadcast that what the audience was hearing was a radio production of WotW, the first announcement didn’t come until 40 minutes in and by that time police stations were flooded with calls, families cried in their homes and some scant reports of people attempting to flee were noted. Contrary to popular belief no deaths were the result of the program.

To this day, the radio broadcast of WotW is one of the most horrifying pieces of the genre to ever grace the airwaves.

Sometimes a more subtle horror is acceptable to a public. Based on the public outcry calling WotW cruel and calling for an apology to the citizens from the producers of the program, listeners were quick to accept “Sorry, Wrong Number” as a masterpiece of suspense and storytelling. “Sorry, Wrong Number” was originally broadcast on the Suspense radio program on May 25, 1943 and featured Agnes Moorehead as a bedridden invalid who overhears two men plotting a murder when her phone line gets crossed. She learns at the end of the play and way too late that the plot she overheard was that of her own murder. It was a classic twist ending that ripped the floor from under the audiences feet and drove the point that you are never as safe as you think home with a vengeance. The show was so popular that it was performed on air a record seven times, each with Moorehead playing the lead role of the doomed Mrs. Stevenson.

The success of the program led to television productions, stage plays and big screen adaptations. Apparently America loved the idea of a reclusive bed-ridden woman trying to bring to light the events that she heard transpire over the phone.

Horror is not new, long before the scares graced the big screen they were piped into the homes of an innocent America who gathered around the glowing radio, hypnotized and mesmerized by the horrors emanating from the box and dared disturb the calm and sanctity of their dwelling. It made them uneasy, tapping into the primal fears we all have on perhaps a level more intimate than anything this modern generation can ever imagine.

While It Is later than You Think, it is not too late to enjoy these programs. The internet has many sites available to listen to these wonderful programs and revel in a time when horror was pure, raw, new and thrilling. The total lack of visual stimuli allows the imagination to run wild and that is one thing the genre could use a little more of. Imagination.

Tony Harrington
Little Rock, Arkansas

Visit my blog at Genrefinity.net, the nets newest home to horror, SciFi and fantasy.

I just saw this film on Sunday, and it was FANTASTIC! Having worked in the banking industry (I worked for First Interstate Bank for over 5 years) I know how the Banks are the REAL evil in this world! Some of the stuff that I saw, working in the "Legal executions" dept. (Wow! now that I think of it, that really sounds sinister, doesn't it!) which was basically sueing people and grabbing their cars, bank accounts or wages (Horrible job) I could tell you some horror stories of how they manipulated the courts, and lied thru their teeth, to the Nth degree, just to get a judgement! This bank in the film, however was even more sinister that FIB was, they were in the market to start wars, just for the profit avail! I imagine that there could be some banking institutions that would, or may have done something like that, but I have no first-hand knowledge of it.
If you get a chance to see this movie, I would put it in line with "The Davinci Code" for a political thriller! Good stuff!

Lexx

Hello, All. I wanted to put this picture up here to see what you think. Is he young enough and plain enough for Jack? Let me know, Lexx

I thoroughly enjoyed this little semi-romantic comedy with Ricky Gervais, Tea Leoni and Greg Kinnear. I say semi because it doesn't truly feature romance in the true sense of the word, instead we get to see Gervais' Norman Pinkus rediscover life as he is able to communicate with ghosts after his 'death' on an operating table. A little meatier than most movies of this ilk, it is nonetheless tender and lighthearted at its core.

I used to not like Spike Lee films. There were often too preachy, rife with stereotypical characters and the endings were too long. I've come to realize with "Malcolm X", "Inside Man" and now "Miracle at St. Anna" it's not Spike Lee the director's fault. It's Spike Lee the writer's fault. Just like with Paul W.S. Anderson, he's a fine director, even brilliant at times (though Spike Lee has a tad bit more talent), but he hasn't the ability to be objective to his own material. "Miracle" is the story of a WWII vet who takes revenge after aboput 40 years. He is a few months away from retirement from the post office when an unassuming old man walks up to his window. Recognition dawns on both men's faces before Hector Negron, the American vet, shoots his customer and is promptly arrested. Joseph Gordon Levitt, the child actor from "Third Rock from the Sun" who didn't grow up all freaky looking and short is a obit reporter trying to find his break. He attaches to the story late and somehow gets Negron to speak where the police couldn't. Negron weaves an intricate tale of the plight of the Buffalo soldier after stating he knows who the Sleeping Man is. Fox Company and George Company are both peopled with negro soldiers. After being torn to pieces the remaining soldiers eventually make their way to an Italian village. A bunch of stuff happens (drama, intrigue, action, etc.) and we come to find out how Negron has come to be in possession of a priceless statue's head in his apartment in 1983. Lee still is heavy-handed on the message, but his storytelling ability really blossoms in this film. And he also touches on something I've never seen in a WWII film. The German's humanity. Sure, the bulk of them are monsters, but even the monsters have a human side and even they pray to a God. I won't give away what I think the miracle is in this film, but you should all be pleasantly surprised with it.

I just got back from seeing the New Line Cinema/Paramount joint effort "Friday the 13th" which set out to rebbot the franchise featuring hockey masked killer Jason Vorhees.

A little back story first:
I spent the last 2 days catching up on all the orginal films in the franchise. From the original to the abysmal Freddy vs Jason in order to whet my appetite for this glossy remake which was bound to put the scare back in the tired formula of the Jason films.

This new release was produced by Michael Bay, the guy who brought us the remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Transformers. Where those two films succeeded Friday the 13th fails on epic proportions.

The first rule of making a horror film is to make it scary. I mean...it must have true fear in it. Friday takes everything scary about a horror movie and replaces it with characters the viewer doesn't care about, horribly written dialogue, more titties than at a mammography clinic and horribly rendered CGI death scenes.

In the defense of the film, Friday the 13 was never a horror film as it was a gorefest, and in that regard this new film delivers in spades with a staggering body count and all the things a viewer looks for in a Friday film. The townies are there, and though they are as crazy as ever they aren't as cartoon-ish as they were in the original films. They are pretty cliche, but nowhere to the degree as portrayed in the first films.

The remake starts with a bunch of kids going to the town of Crystal Lake to look for pot. A lot of pot. Friends told them of a place where the weed grows like..well...weeds. And the harvest is bountiful. So six kids venture out into the wilderness with GPS in hand and after drinking, smoking and screwing they are all systematically slaughtered by a figure wearing a pillowcase over his head. At fifteen minutes in to the film we finally see the title of the film.

Flash forward six weeks later when a young man, Clay Miller, portrayed by Supernatural star Jared Padalecki goes out to search for his missing sister Whitney. He runs into a bunch of pretty boys with Jonas Brother haircuts (Seriously...the hair was horrible and because of this egregious style they needed to die anyway.) and their girlfriends (Translation of girlfriends: sluts). They leader of the pretty boys dislikes Clay immediately though no real reason is established other than establishing Alpha Male status.

We also meet Lawrence, the films token black guy and he lives up to the role by constantly judging others by playing the race card. At one point he is asked to pump gas and he replies..."Do you know how it looks, having the black guy pump the gas? Next thing you'll have me carrying your bags." Then later when he indicates he is working on starting a record label one of the girls asks him if he will be producing rap. "Just because I am black it has to be rap?" he asks, then instructs her not to box him in. Turns out he was producing rap music, but anything to make the character as one dimensional as possible will do.

Shortly after arriving at the palatial summer home of hateful rich boy Trent, played by Travis Van Winkle whose screen credits include Veronica Mars, that's So Raven and some opus called "Billy's Dad is a Fudge-Packer". Yes, for reals...look it up, Jason makes his appearance and begins killing.

And he kills and kills and kills and none of it is scary but every scene is trite and predictable. Tossed in amongst the random carnage is breasts, sex, pot and drinking. We know its a Friday the 13th film, but the excess at which these occurrences transpire is ridiculous. Even when one of the female leads screams out to her boyfriend who is shagging another chick at the time, he ignores her to continue his copulation with the trick of the minute.

Let's get back to the dialogue though.

I don't know how old the author of the screenplay is, i am too lazy to IMDB it, but he must think that all teens talk like the ones on MTV's The Real World do. The script is rife with sexual innuendo, drug references and drinking. Perhaps kids talk like that these days and I am finally feeling every one of my 33 years. If that is the case then our country is in need of serious help. One scene in particular follows the film's only Asian character as he goes to the shed and finds a hockey stick. He holds it between his legs and says, "It bends tot he left, just like my dick." WHAT!?!?! Who is he talking to? why does the audience care which way his junk bends. (Mine goes to the right to be honest and one ball hangs lower than the other...this is normal so I am told.)

There is nothing remotely entertaining about this mess of a film. The only time I was entertained was when a preview of the teen comedy "Miss March" came on before the feature presentation in which an unfortunate woman in an RV bounced off the bed and out the door of the moving RV. That's comedy...and that is entertainment. 12 seconds in a trailer were leaps and bounds a better entertainment value than the 2 hour film that followed.

The unfortunate part is this film has already scored box office gold and a sequel has already been green lit following the pending reboot of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise.
With Halloween II, Hellraiser, Nightmare on Elm Street, and a myriad of other remakes and relaunches in the works (Scream 4 is coming soon) it will be a long time coming before we see anything remotely scary or original in the near future. And that is the scariest thing of all.

Do yourself a favor and scratch Friday the 13th off your calendar.

(visit my blog at www.genrefinity.net)

Hey guys, I'm a newbie here so please humor me. I saw this crazy movie when I was in high school called The Keep. Ever since I've been a big fan of FPW and Tangerine Dream (who did the music obviously). Any other TD fans out there?

Just finished reading the distributor by R Matheson in advance of the arrival of He is Legend

[SPOILER]The concept is wonderful, a character who ruins the lives of a whole neighborhood, then all it means to him is a paragraph in 700 page book.[/SPOILER]

I can't wait to see what FPW has done with the follow up, the potential is endless I can't wait to see how it has been handled

I was looking forward to this collection anyway - but now I've read Distributor I am almost drooling with aniticipation.

A lower-priced trade paperback edition is now for sale on Amazon.