Here are several horror movie previews for some upcoming 2013 films, as well ... Read More »]]> Horror movie previews have a tough job to do. They need to capture the essence of a film in 3 minutes or less and give away enough of the film to make you want to see it, but not so much that they spoil the surprises of the film. Audiences don’t want to feel disappointed because all of the scariest stuff was shown in the preview, and since most horror movies will lose a chunk of their potential audience when they get slapped with an R-rating, the pressure is really on for studios to crank out great previews that make even a mediocre movie look like a must-see cinema event. They want to disturb the audience enough to leave them saying, “I have got to see that movie!”

Here are several horror movie previews for some upcoming 2013 films, as well as some that have recently been released on DVD, and my take on whether or not the preview gets the job done. See if you agree.

2013 MOVIES COMING SOON

DARK SKIES
iTunes Synopsis: From the producer of Paranormal Activity, Insidious, and Sinister comes Dark Skies: a supernatural thriller that follows a young family living in the suburbs. As husband and wife Daniel and Lacey Barret (Keri Russell) witness an escalating series of disturbing events involving their family, their safe and peaceful home quickly unravels. When it becomes clear that the Barret family is being targeted by an unimaginably terrifying and deadly force, Daniel and Lacey take matters into their own hands to solve the mystery of what is after their family.
Director: Scott Stewart
Cast: Keri Russell, Josh Hamilton, Dakota Goyo, Kadan Rockett, J.K. Simmons
In Theaters: February 22, 2013
Preview Rating: 3 out of 5 screams
Preview Effectiveness: I was never a big Keri Russell fan, but I give her fanboy credit for giving a decent voice performance as Diana in DC Universe’s 2009 animated Wonder Woman movie. In Dark Skies, it looks like she’s facing a mash-up of Signs, The Sixth Sense, and Close Encounters. The preview offers up a few horror movie clichés and the plot seems to be of the standard “something weird is happening to our family” variety… right up until the end, where that big-headed thing rises up in the shadows behind Keri’s character. I bet it’s an alien and I hope it gets its extra terrestrial butt kicked for sneaking up behind her like that. This movie should not be confused with the short-lived UFO conspiracy TV series of the same name (starring Eric Close and Megan Ward) that was yet another genre show cancelled by NBC before its time.

CARRIE
iTunes Synopsis:
A re-imagining of the classic horror tale about Carrie White (Chloe Grace Moretz), a shy girl outcast by her peers and sheltered by her deeply religious mother (Julianne Moore), who unleashes telekinetic terror on her small town after being pushed too far at her senior prom. Based on the best-selling novel by Stephen King.
In Theaters: October 18, 2013
Director: Kimberly Peirce
Cast: Chloë Grace Moretz, Julianne Moore, Judy Greer, Portia Doubleday, Alex Russell, Gabriella Wilde, Ansel Elgort
Preview Rating: 1 out of 5 screams
Preview Effectiveness: The preview does a good job of showing how much carnage Carrie causes in her town, but it really didn’t seem all that scary. That’s kind of how I felt about the original, too. It’s a tense and depressing story, but I don’t recall being particularly scared by it… except for that last scene where Carrie’s hand comes popping out of the grave. Although, this one has Julianne Moore in it. She might be enough to get me to see it. Unfortunately, they didn’t show her in this preview.

TRAPPED IN ABYSS
iTunes Synopsis: While driving around a deserted ghost town in California, Andy (Bobby Hicks), Jackie (Antonia) and Dev (Shihab) decide to break into a supermarket. They get trapped inside the store as an evil force pushes them to the breaking point. Keen on finding her son, Andy’s mother shares an interesting piece of information with a reporter (Amber Armstrong), who tries to find out what has happened.
In theaters: March 3, 2013
Director: Srinath Ramalingam
Cast: Bobby Hicks, Amber Armstrong, Shihab Sinnalebbe, Antonia Villalon, Iris Karina
Preview Rating: 1 out of 5 screams
Preview Effectiveness: I got nothing out of this preview. It was slightly creepy, but it never really went anywhere. The cuts at the end were so fast, I could barely tell what was going on and the synopsis doesn’t offer any compelling reason to rush out and see it. The strange, grammatically incorrect title doesn’t help either. It’ll probably be on DVD before summer.

THE LAST EXORCISM PART II
iTunes Synopsis: Continuing where the first film left off, Nell Sweetzer (Ashley Bell) is found terrified and alone in rural Louisiana. Back in the relative safety of New Orleans, Nell realizes that she can’t remember entire portions of the previous months – only that she is the last surviving member of her family. Just as Nell begins the difficult process of starting a new life, the evil force that once possessed her is back with other, unimaginably horrific plans that mean her last exorcism was just the beginning.
In Theaters: March 1, 2013
Director: Ed Gass-Donnelly
Cast: Ashley Bell
Preview Rating: 1 out of 5 screams
Preview Effectiveness: While most people might find this preview horrifying, it doesn’t do anything for me. I don’t find possession movies to be scary at all. I even laughed all the way through The Exorcist the one time I saw it. What does upset me most about this preview is the bone-cracking sound effect they use when Nell is about to contort herself into what looks like really painful body positions. Seriously, you just have to pinch a nerve in your back just one time to fear the kind of pain that would result from that awful sound.

MOVIES NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD

THE BARRENS
iTunes Synopsis: It’s known as the Jersey Devil, the winged beast spawned 400 years ago by Satan himself. Some say this creature still inhabits the dense pine forests of southern New Jersey, where Richard Vineyard (Stephen Moyer) takes his family for a rustic weekend camping trip. As the Vineyard family ventures further into the woods in search of the perfect campsite, Richard teeters on the edge of sanity. And it seems that the blood-crazed demon called the Jersey Devil may no longer be just a myth.
Director: Darren Lynn Bousman
Cast: Stephen Moyer, Mia Kirshner, Allie MacDonald, Erik Knudsen, Shawn Ashmore
Preview Rating: 2 out of 5 screams
Preview Effectiveness: It looks like it has potential, but having spent plenty of time in the real Pine Barrens, I was more interested in critiquing the accuracy of the locations than I was in what was going on in the preview. Wherever this movie was filmed, it seems to be far more mountainous than the real Pine Barrens. And I’m not sure the whole “dad looking like he’s going crazy” thing is a plot device I would enjoy. I suspect that would just irritate me more than anything else. But it might be novel to watch it anyway and see if I get scared silly the next time I find myself in the Pine Barrens.

THE BAY
iTunes Synopsis:
Two million fish washed ashore. One thousand blackbirds dropped from the sky. On July 4, 2009 a deadly menace swept through the quaint seaside town of Claridge, Maryland, but the harrowing story of what happened that Independence Day has never been told – until now. From Oscar-winning director Barry Levinson and the producers of Paranormal Activity and Insidious comes this nerve-shredding tale of a small town plunged into absolute terror. The Bay unfolds over 24 hours through people’s iPhones, Androids, 911 calls, webcams, and whatever else could be used to document the nightmare in Claridge.
Director: Barry Levinson
Cast: Will Rogers, Christopher Denham
Preview Rating: 3 out of 5 screams
Preview Effectiveness: This one was losing me because I couldn’t help but wonder how much more mileage director Barry Levinson was going to try to get out of movies built around supposedly live footage. But I have to admit there were a few moments in this preview that got me … like when the parasite came rushing out of the fish’s mouth. And when they showed the person with the swollen stomach and you could see the little critters moving around inside. Creepy crawlies are always good for a few scares, especially when they’re looking to get into your body and eat all your organs.

THE CITADEL
iTunes Synopsis:
Tommy Cowley (Aneurin Barnard) lives a quiet life in a decaying apartment complex with his pregnant wife. The couple is attacked one day by a group of hooded young thugs, and after the shocking act of violence, Tommy is left to raise his newborn daughter alone. So shaken by the events that he’s developed extreme agoraphobia, Tommy alternates days hiding out indoors in his new flat from imagined threats and intense therapy sessions aimed at bringing him back to normalcy. When the same hooded gang, seemingly intent on kidnapping his daughter, begins terrorizing his life again, he’s torn between his paralyzing fear and protective parental instinct. With the help of a vigilante priest who has uncovered the genesis of this ruthless, potentially supernatural gang, Tommy must overcome his fears and venture into the heart of the abandoned tower block known as the CITADEL to save his family.
Director: Ciaran Foy
Cast: Aneurin Barnard, James Cosmo, Wunmi Mosaku, Amy Shiels
Preview Rating: 4 out of 5 screams
Preview Effectiveness: Creepy. Creepy. Creepy. This preview was like watching a poor guy and his baby being chased around town by a mutated zombie version of the Children of the Corn. The fact that he’s scared and that is what attracts them makes it all the more spooky. It looks like a very intense film with lots of scares. It also looks like it has an interesting story and some strong acting by Bernard. I might actually buy this one.

iTunes Synopsis:
After a “Bigfoot Hunter” claims to possess the body of a dead Sasquatch, a disgraced investigative journalist stakes his comeback – and the lives of his documentary film crew – on proving the find to be a hoax.
Director: Corey Grant
Cast: Drew Rausch, Rich McDonald, Ashley Wood, Noah Weisberg, Frank Ashmore
Preview Rating: 5 out of 5
Preview Effectiveness: Bigfoot has always scared the hell out of me. The growls, the footprints, the ability to rip people’s arms off. All of it terrifies me to no end. Even the dumbest Bigfoot movie on the Sy-Fy Channel with the cheesiest computer generated Sasquatch is enough to freak me out. I was even afraid of Chewbacca when I was younger, so the title of this one alone is enough to age me 5 years. It looks like it would be a pretty scary movie… for me, anyway. Sort of like the Blair Witch Project, only with Bigfoot. The preview doesn’t show any more of Bigfoot than a glimpse of a passing shadow, which is incredibly effective because the Bigfoot I’m imagining is probably a lot more frightening than the one they came up with for this film. But does the preview make me want to rent it? Hell no! I like being scared… but not THAT scared!

Being that this is the horror genre, you know that something is going to wrong in every short story, but the way things transpire never seem to be the way that seems obvious when first diving into each story. Each tale brings you into a new setting and new mysterious place where, as the reader, you know the panic and screaming ... Read More »]]> Jeremiah Cress is a name to keep a lookout for in the mix of great horror authors. Cress’ new book “Seven Slightly Sadistic Stories” is a collection of short stories that keeps the hairs on the back of your neck standing at full attention in anticipation of what is next. Each story makes you as a reader realize just how horrific this world can be and the ease at which anyone could turn a great night into your last night.

Being that this is the horror genre, you know that something is going to wrong in every short story, but the way things transpire never seem to be the way that seems obvious when first diving into each story. Each tale brings you into a new setting and new mysterious place where, as the reader, you know the panic and screaming is soon to follow.

In “Seven Slightly Sadistic Stories,” by Jeremiah Cress you as the reader dig deep into the minds of killers to see how they plan out their gruesome, murderous ways. Also revealed at times is the satisfaction that comes with each kill and what leads them to do such things. This is a must buy for any fan of the horror genre. It will keep you enthralled throughout the short stories which total seven in all. This book is currently available in digital format and a print version is soon to follow.

Here’s a list of 10 stupid things that horror movies teach us we ... Read More »]]> If you spend any amount of time watching scary movies, you know they are packed from beginning to end with stupid people who do stupid things that get themselves killed. You usually can identify these horror movie morons quite easily because they are the ones who make you stand up and start yelling at the screen. Of course, what you should and should not do in a scary, crisis situation always seems so obvious when you’re sitting in the theater and the creepy music starts to play and you suspect something is about to happen. But, without that creepy music to warn you of impending danger, are you still vigilant enough to avoid doing the things that would get you killed if you were in a horror movie?

Here’s a list of 10 stupid things that horror movies teach us we should never do if we want to avoid walking into a potentially disastrous and frightening life-and-death situation, and what you should do instead if you want to increase your chances of staying alive.

• • • • • • •

Never listen to the guy who suggests you split up! (Cabin in the Woods)

1. Splitting Up The Group
Splitting up your group in the woods, a cave, a haunted house, a dark space station, or some other creepy location, is a sure sign that you and your buddies are going to be picked off one by one by some creature of the night. It might be an alien. It might be a vampire. Or, it might be some unstoppable killing machine, like Michael Meyers (Halloween) or Jason Voorhes (Friday the 13th). Even if you split up into teams of two, one of those teams is probably going to start making out and they’re going to wind up getting pitch-forked to a wall. It’s a fact of nature: the sheep that walks off from the herd is the one the wolves go after first.

Do this instead: There is safety in numbers. Stay together and find whatever weapons you can find and then circle the wagons! Form a human circle with everyone facing out. That way you can’t be surprised from any angle. Don’t forget to look up and down, too, because creatures of the night like to fly in from above and grab your feet from the ground down below.

• • • • • • •

Your bathroom door isn’t going to protect you in a real crisis!

2. Running Upstairs To Escape
When something attacks you in your own house, you should never run up the stairs. What are you going to do up there? Sprout wings and fly out a second story window? No, of course not. And don’t think your flimsy bathroom door is going to save you either. An angry old lady with an irritatingly small bladder could easily beat down most bathroom doors. It’s not going to offer you much in the way of protection from something meaner and stronger that is trying to kill you. Unless you happen to have a solid steel bunker where your linen closet is supposed to be, running upstairs is always a bad idea. By running upstairs, you’re just going to wind up getting cornered in your bedroom by a masked serial killer who is going to throw you out a window and you’re going to get impaled on your white picket fence. The whole “getting impaled on a picket fence” thing will just hamper your chances of getting away safely.

Do this instead: Run out the back door or run to the kitchen and grab some large knives. Just like the mother in Gremlins, two knives will help you defend yourself if a creature hiding in a Christmas tree decides to attack you. The alternative is to run into the basement. Chances are good that you’ll have much better options for weapons in your basement than you will in your clothes closet. You can do more damage with a bottle of bleach and a lawn mover from the basement than you can with a sweater vest and a pair of old sneakers from your closet. And, it’s easier to crawl out of a basement window than it is to leap from a second floor window.

• • • • • • •

Take this poster’s advice when you suspect hauntings!

3. Staying In A House You Suspect May Be Haunted
Yes, I know you paid a fortune in closing costs for your own little Amityville Horror. But when inanimate objects start floating across the room and doors start slamming on their own, it’s only going to get worse. Pretty soon, you’re going to start hearing voices and your daughter’s head is going to start spinning around while she pukes up pea soup all over her new Hunger Games comforter set. You can call the team from Ghost Hunters on the Sy-Fy Channel to come investigate your house, but why take the chance that some unseen evil force is going to fling your good China across the room or spew up dead bodies in your pool?

Do this instead: Cough up some cash for a few nights at the nearest Super 8 motel while you talk to your real estate agent about getting the house re-listed. If it doesn’t sell right away, call the Sy-Fy Channel and see if they would be willing to film a new reality series in your haunted house. If they turn you down, set up some cameras, capture some ghost activity, put it on YouTube, get a million hits, and turn the house into a tourist attraction while you live peacefully somewhere else off the proceeds.

• • • • • • •

Do you really think you can outrun something that big?

4. Trying To Outrun A 50-Foot Monster
When you see King Kong or Godzilla stomping down the street, it’s never a good idea to try to get away from them by running straight down the same street they’re currently stomping down. The bigger the monster, the fewer steps it’s going to take for him to catch up to you and squish you beneath his feet. The same goes for rampaging dinosaurs and large, renegade robots. You won’t ever be able to outrun them.

Do this instead: This one is a no brainer. Run down a side alley or street that runs perpendicular to the direction the monster is going. Then when he passes you, start running in the opposite direction he’s headed. And don’t scream, because then he might hear you and change directions just to keep you from getting away.

• • • • • • •

How do you not see something that big hiding in your back seat?

5. Getting In A Vehicle Without Checking The Back Seat

When you are all alone in a dark parking lot, there is no question that something is probably hiding in your back seat, waiting for you to get in the car so it can bite you in the neck. There could very well be a giant amorphous blob or some escaped serial killer hiding back there.

Do this instead: Open the door and let the light come on. Check and make sure the back seat is empty. If you have any bags back there, grab your tire iron and beat them furiously. If you hear any screams, moans, squishes, or growls, then something is hiding in your back seat. Slam the door closed and run.

• • • • • • •

6. Having Sex During A Crisis
When you’re being chased by aliens, monsters or killer robots, it’s usually a good idea to keep your clothes on and not waste precious get-away time by rolling around naked with someone on the floor. Monsters love killing people just before they reach the height of passion. And why shouldn’t they? The whole “being a monster” thing kind of precludes them from having a fulfilling love life. If they can’t be happy, then neither can you. And the only thing that could make being killed by a monster worse is having someone find your naked body in a compromising position. Where is the dignity in that?

Do this instead: If the urge somehow strikes you in the middle of a horror crisis, go online and rent a room in a location that is at least 2000 miles away from where you already are. If you can get there alive, then you can stop for sex. But just keep in mind that if you’re a guy and you impregnate the woman you’re with, that means the mother of your unborn child just increased her chances of surviving by transitioning from an average booty call to a radiant mother-to-be. You, on the other hand, just doubled your chances of getting killed by whatever is chasing you. The only people who are more likely to die in a horror movie than two naked co-eds are men who just passed on their seed. But don’t worry. She’ll wind up giving birth to your son and he will one day avenge you.

• • • • • • •

“Mommy! Mommy! There’s a dead boy floating outside my window!”

7. Ignoring The Kids
When your kid says he saw something outside his window, don’t assume he was dreaming and don’t run outside to check. Whenever people ignore warning signs from their children, that’s when they wind up being eaten by monsters or targeted for death by creatures that only their kids can see.

Do this instead: When your kid reports monsters in the yard, post a Curb Alert on Craigslist, saying you have a new 56″ HD-TV out on the curb for anybody who wants it. Within 30 minutes, you’ll have at least 50 people outside of your house looking for the free TV. If one of them gets eaten by a monster, then your child was right. You might also be able to get in the car and escape while the monster is chowing down on one of the people who came looking for the free TV.

• • • • • • •

This isn’t how you want your vacation videos to end!

8. Going Into The Water
The best way to ruin a good summer vacation is to be floating around on an inner tube when a hungry school of piranhas attack your butt and pull you through the center of the inner tube. Just imagine screaming and flailing your arms and legs in the air while something bites chunks out of your back side before you get sucked through a cheap, inflatable piece of plastic. What a humiliating way to go! It doesn’t matter if the body of water is a pool, a lake, the ocean, or a foot of water in a dark sewer. Chances are there is something in the water that isn’t supposed to be there and it’s going to try to eat you. You can’t assume you’re safe standing near the water either because that’s when you’ll come face to face with the one giant mutant shark in the world that figured out how to hop on land to secure a meal. Crocodiles can snap off your leg while you’re on shore and a giant octopus can grab you off a boat and drag you down to the murky deep.

Do this instead: Plan your vacation to a location that is a safe distance away from any large bodies of water… like Kansas. Keep your pool water crystal clear and check it for alligators before jumping in. If you simply must hit the shore on your vacation, make sure you only swim surrounded by people who look more appetizing to a shark than you do. That includes anyone wearing shiny objects that would attract the attention of a shark or anyone wearing a black swim suit that makes them look like a tasty seal. Make sure you never approach water or leave dry land without first stopping by the nearest sporting goods store to buy a harpoon or a crossbow. It could save your life.

• • • • • • •

9. Throwing Your Empty Gun At A Villain
If you empty a 9 mm into the chest of an approaching inhuman creature and it doesn’t do a thing, don’t expect to do much more damage by hurling the gun at the creature. Let’s do the math. If a bullet fired out of a gun traveling over 600 miles per hour isn’t going to harm an inhuman creature, then chances are you’re not going to be able to hurl the gun hard enough to do any damage. Even if you were a major league baseball pitcher, at best, you’d be able to throw that gun up to 105 miles per hour. That won’t do more damage than a bullet.

Do this instead: Keep the gun and when the creature grabs you, use it to poke the creature in the eye. Then he’ll likely recoil in pain and drop you. That’s when you run. It’s much easier to escape a creature with only one good eye because he’ll have no depth perception and may likely run right into a tree while chasing you.

• • • • • • •

“Hell, no! Put it back, you creepy child! I’ll buy you a Furby instead!”

10. Bringing Strange Antiques Into Your Home
Whether you inherit the strange relic from your sweet, blue-haired granny or stumble upon it on the $1 table at a yard sale, it’s best to assume that anything old with strange writing on it is probably going to cause you nothing but grief, especially if it’s a mysterious old box with no key, some type of weapon from the Dark Ages, a creepy old baby doll, or a dusty book written in hieroglyphs. Any of the above will probably bring screaming horror into your life. The last thing you want to do is read any books anyone left you in their will because doing so will undoubtedly raise a zombie army hungry for brains. And if you inherit an entire house, it’s a safe bet that it sits on a doorway to some nether dimension that opens once every 100 years and that 100 years just happens to fall on the date you set for your housewarming party.

Do this instead: Avoid yard sales at all costs. Whenever someone leaves you anything in their will, have the lawyers liquidate it and send you a check for the value instead. If they can’t sell it, call in some snooty university expert to analyze it. That way, if the object is going to release evil upon the world, it will get the expert first and you’ll have plenty of time to get out of town when you realize he is no longer returning your calls. If you decide to keep any dolls or puppets, lock them in a cage until you are sure they aren’t going to come to life and attack you.

The film opens with Julia Denning, played by Jessica Biel, as the town nurse who works for the local free clinic and is ... Read More »]]> Released August 31st was the suspense thriller The Tall Man, starring Jessica Biel (Texas Chainsaw remake, The Illusionist) and co-starring Stephen McHattie (Pontypool, Exit Humanity). The film is about a small mining town called Cold Rock that is suffering from more than the loss of jobs after the mine shuts down. A dark secret is harbored among the community and amid the depressed citizens and bleak attitudes, children are being taken from them vanishing almost instantly. A legend spawns about a mysterious figure called The Tall Man, a name that was mutually given by the parents of Cold Rock. Some claim to have seen a dark hooded figure coming in and out of the dense forests at night…

The film opens with Julia Denning, played by Jessica Biel, as the town nurse who works for the local free clinic and is respected throughout the community. Her presence in the town along with the contributions of her recently deceased husband, have helped Cold Rock to thrive and as she plainly puts, “has brought dignity to the town”. She is mother to a small boy David who is kept sheltered in her isolated mansion amidst a vast enclosure of forest. During the day, he is watched by family friend Christine.

The film builds up to a creepy and heartbreaking montage of news clips revealing grief-stricken parents who demand answers followed by an overhead shot of the town surrounded by lush woods, jagged mountain ranges, and a thick foggy atmosphere. One of the creepiest intro scores I’ve ever heard accompanies scenes of this small mountain town showing how cut off it was from the neighboring cities leaving me with a feeling of helplessness and dread.

After awakening from a drunken slumber, Julia glimpses the bloodied up and restrained Christine and immediately starts looking for David. She catches a hooded figure carrying him out of the house into the forest. The next few segments to follow were some of the most suspenseful and action packed in this film as Julie chases the mysterious being down. Grasping onto his getaway vehicle, she is brutally tossed around the road as she fights to get her son back. She is met with nightmarish consequences as she tries to tango with the Tall Man.

Her efforts are however put to an end as she crashes and is left to once again chase David into the forest suffering physical and emotional trauma along the way. Biel did a decent job as Julia transitioning from the humble caregiver and mother, to a woman fighting tooth and nail to rescue her son from the grasp of a shadowy monster. Around midway into it, there’s a pretty insane direction that the movie twists to especially when the inhabitants turn on Julia in a most surprising way. By the end of the film, I was left feeling like I needed to watch it again to really understand the secrets surrounding the Tall Man.

Stephen McHattie did an excellent portrayal of the hardened and stoic Lieutenant Dodd, so drastically different from his role as shock rock D.J. in 2009’s Pontypool. Jodelle Ferland of Silent Hill plays the mute and abused girl Jenny who coincidentally becomes the last of Cold Rock’s missing brood. Pascal Laugier whose previous films include 2004’s House of Spirits, and 2009’s Marytrs, wrote and directed. The Tall man takes Pascal to a new place as a filmmaker trading a steady paced and atmospheric suspense thriller for his previous venture Martrs which was a high tension, bloody, and some may even say taboo horror. In the Tall Man, isolation and despair with a dark majestical landscape set the tone for the town’s urban legend and fueled my desire to understand the mysteries plaguing Cold Rock.

Laugier’s pension for a good twist seems to be his signature and he follows through but with subtle differences. A clear message underlines this movie about poor society and the prejudices that come along with their day-to-day living. It speaks about the struggles that people can endure that may be brought upon themselves, by the choices that are made.

So don’t pay attention to naysayers, as I came across a few, and instead immerse yourself in this town. Be the grief-stricken parents and feel the horror of not knowing that your last step may just be right around the corner.

For originality and a creepy score I give Tall Man 4 out of 5 Blood Drops.

Slaughter Daughter, directed by Travis Campbell and written by Lauren Miller, tells the twisted story of former beauty queen Farrah (Nicola Fiore). Agoraphobic and increasingly mentally unstable, Farrah commits an act of heinous self-mutilation and is dragged kicking and screaming to Bellevue by her overbearing mother (Leesa Rowland). Once there, she begins writing to a serial killer on Death Row (Tim Dax). Obsession overtakes her, thoughts of murder become her only solace and love, blood and gore soon collide!

If you live in or near ... Read More »]]>

The incident took place on the morning of September 7, when the 20-year-old allegedly drove his car off the road, got out, stripped down to his underwear, and then tried to break into a local house on Hudson Street in Hawley, a small town located in Wayne County in Pennsylvania.

The Doylestown Patch reported that he woke an occupant in the house, but was not able to make it inside. Police said the homeowner yelled at the man who refused to leave at ... Read More »]]> Richard Cimino Jr., of Doylestown, PA, was arrested for stripping naked in the street, breaking into a house, jumping through a second story window, attacking a woman in the street, and then biting her on the head in what is being described as “another naked cannibalistic zombie-style attack” presumed to be linked to the drug known as “bath salts”.

The incident took place on the morning of September 7, when the 20-year-old allegedly drove his car off the road, got out, stripped down to his underwear, and then tried to break into a local house on Hudson Street in Hawley, a small town located in Wayne County in Pennsylvania.

The Doylestown Patch reported that he woke an occupant in the house, but was not able to make it inside. Police said the homeowner yelled at the man who refused to leave at first, but then fled down the street.

“Cimino stopped about 900 feet away, at a house at 521 Hudson St.,” according to the Doylestown Patch. “He stripped off his underwear on the way, police said. The naked man then broke into the home, which was vacant, and made his way up to the second floor.”

Reports say he then he jumped out a second story window he seriously injured his arms and legs which caused profuse bleeding.

But, that didn’t stop him.

He then allegedly approached two women walking down the street. The women were identified as Ann Monaghan and Nancy Dean-Corino by GlobalGrind.com. Cimino allegedly knocked Dean-Corino to the ground.

State Trooper David Aulisio told the Doylestown Patch that Cimino began drenching her in his blood, held her, and “gnawed at (her) head, screaming like an animal.”

According to the Huffington Post, “the women escaped and called police, who found Cimino lying on the road, severely injured and displaying ‘delusional behavior.’”

Cimino was injured but still full of fight. The Doylestown Patch reported that he lunged at police as they approached, and they had to fire a taser at him to subdue him.

But, even that didn’t stop him.

After they thought he was finally subdued, emergency medical personnel tried to help him, but he was still putting up a fight. Reports conflict as to whether he punched one of the state troopers or one of the emergency medical personnel, causing a “minor injury,” according to The Doylestown Patch.

“Police in Hawley were not sure whether Cimino was high, drunk, crazy or some combination of the three, and so [they] had his blood tested when he was admitted to a Scranton hospital.” reported truTV.com.

Cimino’s alleged behavior is eerily reminiscent of several other recent, bizarre attacks that have inspired some websites like ZombiePrepNetwork.com to conclude that these events are the beginning of an “impending zombie apocalypse.”

But, many of these attacks are presumed to be linked to a synthetic stimulant drug known as “bath salts,” which is being blamed for the horrific, zombie-like behavior. However, because there is no way to currently test for the drug, it can’t conclusively be linked to these attacks.

“The woman Cimino attacked in Hawley was not seriously hurt,” reported truTV.com.

But the Doylestown Patch reported that “Cimino is expected to be transferred to a hospital in the Philadelphia area to have plastic surgery to repair some of his injuries.”

The GlobalGrind.com, says that Cimino “has been charged with two counts each of aggravated assault, simple assault, indecent exposure and criminal mischief, plus three counts of burglary and one count each of criminal trespass and defiant trespassing.”

Other recent attacks which are presumed to be related to the bath salts drug:

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One of the main reasons December 2012 is linked with a number of doomsday predictions is that many people believe the “Mayan calendar” ends in December of 2012 and they think that was the Maya’s way of predicting the end of the world.

By now, most people have probably heard that the Maya didn’t believe the world was going to end in 2012. But, if the Maya didn’t believe doomsday was coming with the end of their calendar, then why do so many people think they did? What is the origin of this doomsday belief?

The origins of this myth read like an academic soap opera and a conspiracy to manipulate the public for profit that has been building up for over 1,000s of years. Several factors throughout history have perpetuated the myth. To understand them, we need to go back to the ... Read More »]]>

One of the main reasons December 2012 is linked with a number of doomsday predictions is that many people believe the “Mayan calendar” ends in December of 2012 and they think that was the Maya’s way of predicting the end of the world.

By now, most people have probably heard that the Maya didn’t believe the world was going to end in 2012. But, if the Maya didn’t believe doomsday was coming with the end of their calendar, then why do so many people think they did? What is the origin of this doomsday belief?

The origins of this myth read like an academic soap opera and a conspiracy to manipulate the public for profit that has been building up for over 1,000s of years. Several factors throughout history have perpetuated the myth. To understand them, we need to go back to the year 3114 B.C.

But first, scholars have determined that the correct term for referring to the “Mayan” people when not referring to their language is “Maya.” So the proper way to refer to their calendar would be the “Maya calendar,” not the “Mayan calendar.”

The Maya Long Count Calendar

The calendar causing all of this confusion is only one of many used by the ancient Maya people. Some of their calendars lasted 260 days, 365 days, 584 days, and 780 days. The calendar linked to the 2012 myth measured approximately 1,872,000 days, equal to about 5,125 years, and is known as the long count calendar.

By comparing ancient Maya writing with the modern Gregorian calendar and the Maya’s long count calendar, American archaeologist Joseph T. Goodman decided in 1897 that the beginning of the Maya’s current long count calendar was probably August 11, 3114 B.C. Using that calculation, scholars who agreed with him were able to determine that the long count calendar would likely end in December of 2012 A.D.

Although some experts in the field disagree with Goodman about the beginning and end dates of the long count calendar, Goodman’s conclusions endured and set the stage for later authors to select December 2012 as the timeframe for the Maya’s doomsday.

The specific date of December 21, 2012 became attached to the doomsday myth because that date coincides with a solstice (one of two days during the year when the sun reaches its highest or lowest point in the sky at noon, producing the longest and shortest days of the year). But some scholars believe the calendar actually ends on December 23, and some believe it could end on some entirely different date altogether, since there isn’t unified agreement as to when the long count calendar actually begins.

The Maya chose to start their long count calendar in 3114 B.C., the year they believed their gods created humanity. This, in some ways, is similar to the subjective decision to begin our modern Gregorian calendar in a year of Christian religious significance – the year Jesus Christ was born. The Maya also believed that the gods tried four times to create beings that would worship them – first with animals, then beings made of mud, then beings made of wood. Because the animals, mud people, and wood people could not worship them the way they wanted to be worshipped, the Maya believed their gods allowed the mud people to dissolve and they turned the wood people into monkeys and then proceeded to create humans in their current form.

According to Maya myth, the second and third creations (the mud and wood people) were essentially destroyed or transformed when the Maya’s last long count calendar ended. That led some authors to erroneously conclude that the Maya must have expected the fourth creation (humans) to either be destroyed or transformed at the end of the current long count calendar, even though there is nothing recorded in Maya history that suggests they thought the fourth creation would realize a similar fate as the second and third failed creations.

What Did The Ancient Maya Expect Would Happen In December 2012?

Even though the long count calendar eventually comes to an end, the Maya didn’t expect the world was going to end along with it. At the end of the calendar cycle, they would have started the count over again, much like our modern-day calendar goes from December 31 back to January 1 at the end of every year. Just as with their many other calendars that reset many times during their history, there was no expectation that a global cataclysm would take place at the end of the long count calendar. It was simply their equivalent of the beginning of a new calendar, or what modern scholars refer to as a “Great Cycle.”

According to the article “2012 in Mayan Mythology” on Ancient-Mythology.com, the end of the Maya long count calendar was “celebrated as the completion of a cycle and was not seen as a doomsday event by Mayan culture.”

In fact, the Maya actually had dates recorded to celebrate the anniversary of the crowning of one of their kings that was supposed to take place in the year 4772 A.D. So clearly, they expected someone to be around on the earth to take part in those celebrations.

“Despite the cries of doomsayers, the Mayans themselves don’t expect that the world will end,” write authors Ryan Johnson, Jessika Toothman and Clint Pumphrey in the article “Will the world really end in 2012?” on HowStuffWorks.com. “In fact, they believe it’s a time of great celebration and luck when the planet lasts through a full Great Cycle. Think of it this way: To the Mayans, a Great Cycle is just a really long year. For them, worrying about Dec, 21, 2012, would be like us worrying every Dec. 31.”

If the Maya actually did believe in a doomsday, it didn’t survive in any of their temples, art, or writing, much of which was tied to pagan religious beliefs and therefore destroyed by Catholic missionaries and conquistadors during the Spanish conquest of South America in the 16th century. This caused part of the problem. Not having sources that described what the Maya believed in detail opened the door for some “Maya experts” to publish wild and often unsubstantiated speculation about the Maya and their beliefs.

What Do The Experts Say?

“There are a number of new-age theories surrounding 2012, which predict anything from galactic alignment and solar flares, to alien invasion, to global consciousness,” according to Ancient-Mythology.com. “However, these predictions are not based in or accepted by science, or even the so-called predictions of the Maya themselves.”

John W. Hoopes, Ph.D., an Associate Professor in the Anthropology Department at the University of Kansas, is an often-quoted source in the discussion of the 2012 Maya myths. He is the author of a paper titled, “A critical history of 2012 mythology,” and has been cited as a source on many websites and in at least three documentaries related to the Maya calendar.

“The ‘prophecies’ about 2012 are best considered a kind of folk mythology of the digital age,” writes Hoopes, “a collection of myths and legends that are spreading via commercial publications, television, and especially digital computer networks. The attention being given to the Maya date (December 21, 2012) is largely the result of persistent folk beliefs about astrology, numerology, mysticism, and revelation.”

“Promoters of the 2012 mythology tend to ignore current academic scholarship and the opinions of professional Mayanists (archaeologists, epigraphers, art historians, linguists, etc.) about what ancient Maya people actually believed,” continues Hoopes. “Their interpretations are based on outdated and antiquated ideas of the late 19th and early 20th century, ideas that are useful for the construction of mythology and ideology but do not reflect contemporary academic knowledge. Mainstream scholars and scientists also view this movement as the source of a great deal of pseudoscience, ignorance, credulousness, and incorrect thinking because it privileges subjective over objective knowledge.”

(Photo: The Aztec Sun Stone – Often Mistaken for the Maya Calendar)

Notably, the photo above that is commonly used in stories about the Maya calendar isn’t even a Maya artifact. It’s the Aztec sun stone, which has nothing to do with the Maya’s long count calendar. This illustrates how inaccuracy with regard to the Maya culture and their beliefs is widespread in the media and goes largely unchecked, even though such a simple error would have been easy to verify. Yet, even Scientific American made this mistake in an article published about NASA debunking 2012 Maya apocalypse claims. (See Scientific American Article.)

“There are currently over 1500 books in English about the ’2012 phenomenon,’ of which only a handful represent the beliefs of academic experts,” adds Hoopes. “Most are written for an audience that is seeking sensational interpretations.”

What Is The Origin Of The Maya Doomsday Myth?

In his article, “What You Should Know About 2012: Answers to 13 Questions,” Hoopes traces the origin of the 2012 doomsday myth back to the late 1800s, when German historian Ernst Förstemann attempted to decipher the Maya hieroglyphs in the Dresden Codex, one of the few existing books of the Maya, believed to date back to anywhere from the 11th to 14th centuries.

According to Hoopes, Förstemann determined that some of the hieroglyphs in the codex were warning of the world ending in a catastrophic flood.

(Photo: The Dresden Codex – The Source of the Original Maya Calendar Predictions?)

“Mayanists disagree about these interpretations,” writes Hoopes, “with some suggesting that the image [originally interpreted as a world-destroying flood] represents the annual arrival of the rainy season, not a cataclysmic flood.”

But Förstemann’s ideas took on a life of their own and inspired many writers since to repeat them, adding their own embellishments.

Hoopes added that in 1915 and again in 1946, archaeologist Sylvanus Morley published works that echoed Förstemann’s findings. And in 1966, Yale University archaeologist Michael Coe published a book that linked the hieroglyphs with the end of the long count calendar, the end of the world, and the Christian Armageddon.

“In the mid-1970s,” writes Hoopes, “Michael Coe’s speculation became associated with pseudo-scientific speculation by bestselling Swiss author Erich von Däniken through a popular made-for-TV program called “The Outer Space Connection,” which claimed that “the ancient Maya had been contacted by ‘ancient astronauts’ or ‘ancient aliens,’” who were expected to return to earth on December 24, 2011.

But the morphing of the myth didn’t stop there.

Hoopes continues:

“In the late 1960s and 1970s, the Maya calendar also caught the interest of counterculture hippies who were using psychedelic drugs such as LSD, DMT, psilocybin, and cannabis and who were also interested in astrology (including the ‘Age of Aquarius’), numerology, Tarot, and the Chinese divinatory practice of the I Ching (Yì Jīng). These included authors Terence McKenna and José Argüelles (one of the creators of the Whole Earth Festival in 1970), who wrote books, taught workshops, and gave lectures describing mystical experiences based on their use of psychedelics. They saw similar patterns in the Maya calendar and the I Ching that suggested to them the 2012 date would be associated with a spiritual ‘transformation of consciousness,’ an idea that became popular among people interested in New Age beliefs.”

From that point on, many other New Age authors hijacked the December 21, 2012 date and changed it from a day of destruction, to a date of spiritual transformation, similar to the Harmonic Convergence, an event held in 1987, during which participants believed that an alignment of the sun, moon, and several planets in our solar system would cause a shift in the world’s energy, leading to a period of universal peace.

The year for the event was selected because it began a 25-year countdown to the end of the Maya’s long count calendar and what organizers believed was the “transition into a new age of peace, harmony, solar energy, spiritual enlightenment, and galactic convergence with other civilizations, all to begin in the year 2012,” writes Bron Taylor, in the Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature.

(Photo: Harmonic Convergence - New Age Philosophers Linked With Some December 2012 Myths.)

Reporter G. Jeffrey MacDonald highlighted the range of wild and conflicting expectations various authors proposed for 2012 in an article for USA Today when he wrote, “Journalist Lawrence Joseph forecasts widespread catastrophe … Spiritual healer Andrew Smith predicts a restoration of a ‘true balance between Divine Feminine and Masculine’ … [and] Daniel Pinchbeck anticipates a ‘change in the nature of consciousness,’ assisted by indigenous insights and psychedelic drug use.”

These theories, according to Ancient-Mythology.com, “are at best misinterpretations of science and myths, and at worst total fabrications. There is simply no evidence that December 2012 will be any more important than the average month, other than the Y2K-like hysteria that has developed since.”

“Since the 1970s, sensational and popular TV programs, movies, books, and magazines have taken advantage of the public’s general ignorance about the ancient Maya to promote nonsense, myths, and folklore that has little basis in academic scholarship,” writes Hoopes.

Hoopes blames several other groups for also perpetuating the doomsday myth and trying to capitalize off fear and misinformation, including New Age book publishing companies, the survivalist industry, mystics, musicians, filmmakers, and even pioneers of the computer industry.

“Since the 1960s, interest in astrology, Tarot, the I Ching, and the Maya calendar had been widespread among programmers associated with the new personal computer and software industry in what was to become Silicon Valley in northern California,” he writes. “So it was only natural that early digital social networks of the mid-1980s … played a role in spreading the word about the Harmonic Convergence and 2012 among psychedelic and computer ‘hacker’ subcultures that frequently overlapped.”

What Do The Maya Believe Today?

Despite popular belief, the Maya people were never wiped out. There are as many as six to seven million people living in Mexico and South America today, who are descendants of the Maya and still speak a version of the Mayan languages.

Today, Maya religions are made up of an amalgam of Catholicism and ancient Maya religious beliefs and traditions.

In an article for Archeology magazine, Smithsonian Institute anthropologist Robert M. Laughlin, who has lived among a Maya community for more than 30 years, was quoted as saying, “Modern Maya see little conflict in merging the two faiths. It is common on feast days for a procession to begin at the Church of San Lorenzo with a mass for Christ the Sun God and his mother the Moon Goddess, and then proceed to a nearby hill for the veneration of ancestors and Maya gods, including Chauk, an earth and water deity.”

But few, if any, modern-day Maya believe the world is going to end in December of 2012.

When asked by NBC News about the 2012 doomsday beliefs, Guatemalan Mayan elder Apolinario Chile Pixtun was quoted as saying, “I came back from England last year and, man, they had me fed up with this stuff.”

But the lack of credible evidence to link documented Maya beliefs with the Maya calendar myths hasn’t stopped many South American governments from trying to capitalize on the 2012 doomsday craze.

“Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador are pulling out all of the stops for promoting tourism of Maya sites and other destinations for 2012,” writes Hoopes, “including a government-sponsored documentary on the theme.”

The Consequences Of The Maya Conspiracy

Even though the belief is widespread and the end of their calendar has caused many to question whether they will live to see 2013, the notion that the Maya predicted the world would end in 2012 is totally groundless. The myth is being used by people to sell doomsday bunkers, books, trips to South America, and tickets to Hollywood blockbuster movies. But the source of the myth is not the Maya, their beliefs, or their calendars. It comes from inaccurate interpretations of Maya hieroglyphs, New Age authors who get their inspiration from drug-induced hallucinations, and book-publishing companies eager to make a dollar by scaring the public with false information.

But their desire to cash in on the 2012 doomsday phenomenon is already having serious consequences. Although there are many people who dismiss the Maya calendar doomsday myths, there are many who still believe them, and many of those people are frightened children.

David Morrison, Ph.D., is the senior scientist at the NASA Astrobiology Institute and the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. According to the NASA website, his “Ask an Astrobiologist” website page has received an influx of questions about the Maya calendar and the 2012 doomsday. Questions like this one:

“Is the Mayan Calendar right the world is going to end on Dec 21? I keep on asking my mom this question. She keeps on telling me no but I think she’s lying. I’m so scared that the world is coming to an end. And I am really scared and have watched a lot of videos on Youtube. The Mayan calender videos say they have predicted the end of the world. Is it really going to happen?”

“I am especially concerned about children,” Morrison said in an interview with Rebecca Riffkin from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. “Parents write saying their child can’t eat, can’t sleep, and cries all the time out of fear that the world will end. It is worth trying to help these victims of the doomsday fear-mongers.”

In a 2009 article for National Geographic News, titled “2012 Prophecies Sparking Real Fears, Suicide Warnings,” Morrison told writer Brian Handwerk, “I’ve had two teenagers who were considering killing themselves, because they didn’t want to be around when the world ends. Two women in the last two weeks said they were contemplating killing their children and themselves so they wouldn’t have to suffer through the end of the world.”

As December 2012 approaches, if fear and panic lead to any mass injuries or losses of life, it won’t be because the Maya predicted it. It will be because of the end-of-the-world doomsayers and the New Age philosophers, who intentionally perpetuated an unsubstantiated myth in order to make a profit at the expense of other people’s lives.

Interesting Facts

The term “Maya” is used to represent several cultures in Mesoamerican history, many of whom spoke different languages and likely believed different things. So there is no one unified Maya culture.

Sources:

1. Van Stone, Mark. “2012 FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions).” Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies.

   http://www.famsi.org/research/vanstone/2012/faq.html

2. Johnson, Ryan. “Will the world really end in 2012?” HowStuffWorls.com.

   http://history.howstuffworks.com/central-american-history/world-end-in-2012.htm

3. “2012 in Mayan Mythology.” Ancient-Mythology.com.

   http://www.ancient-mythology.com/mayan/2012.php

4. Hoopes, John W. “What You Should Know About 2012: Answers to 13 Questions.” Psychology Today. December 30, 2011.

   http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-check/201112/what-you-should-know-about-2012-answers-13-questions

5. “Maya Calendar” 2012Hoax.org.

   http://www.2012hoax.org/maya-calendar

6. Vergano, Dan. “Newly discovered Mayan calendar goes way past 2012″ USA Today. May 10, 2012.

   http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/story/2012-05-08/maya-apocalypse-calendar-2012/54879760/1

7. Stevenson, Mark. “Even the Maya are getting sick of 2012 hype.” NBC News. October 10, 2009.

   http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33261483/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/even-maya-are-getting-sick-hype/#.UEKwko5WYw4

8. Wolchover, Natalie. “NASA Crushes 2012 Mayan Apocalypse Claims” Scientific American. March 9, 2012.

   http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=nasa-crushes-2012-mayan-apocalypse-claims

9. MacDonald, G. Jeffrey. “Does Maya calendar predict 2012 apocalypse?” USA Today. March 27, 2007.

   http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2007-03-27-maya-2012_n.htm

10. Schuster, Angela M. H. “Rituals of the Modern Maya.” Archaeological Institute of America. Volume 50 Number 4, July/August 1997.

    http://www.archaeology.org/9707/etc/maya.html

11. Taylor, Brom. “Harmonic Convergence.” Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature. London & New York: Contunuum, 2005.
12. Handerwerk, Brian. “2012 Prophecies Sparking Real Fears, Suicide Warnings.” National Geographic News. November 9, 2009

    http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/11/091106-2012-movie-end-world-fears-maya-predictions.html

13. Riffkin, Rebecca. “David Morrison fights fears of the 2012 doomsday.” American Association for the Advancement of Science MemberCentral. September 12, 2011.

    http://membercentral.aaas.org/blogs/member-spotlight/david-morrison-fights-fears-2012-doomsday

The stabbing comes less than two weeks after Camden mother Chevonne Thomas decapitated her 2-year-old son Zahree before stabbing herself in a murder/suicide that rocked the small town.

This time, ABC News reports that the two children were asleep in their home when, before 2:20 Sunday morning, the attacker entered the home and cut their throats, leaving their 14-year-old sister unharmed.

NJ.com reports that another 9-year-old girl was also in the home at the time, but was also uninjured.

After the attack, reports say that the 12-year-old, identified as Amber, was able to leave the home and go banging on neighbors’ doors asking for help. Police arrived at the scene and found her at a neighbor’s house with her ... Read More »]]> Neighbors in Camden, NJ are once again devastated by a brutal stabbing that left one 6-year-old boy dead and his 12-year-old sister in critical condition.

The stabbing comes less than two weeks after Camden mother Chevonne Thomas decapitated her 2-year-old son Zahree before stabbing herself in a murder/suicide that rocked the small town.

This time, ABC News reports that the two children were asleep in their home when, before 2:20 Sunday morning, the attacker entered the home and cut their throats, leaving their 14-year-old sister unharmed.

NJ.com reports that another 9-year-old girl was also in the home at the time, but was also uninjured.

After the attack, reports say that the 12-year-old, identified as Amber, was able to leave the home and go banging on neighbors’ doors asking for help. Police arrived at the scene and found her at a neighbor’s house with her throat slashed.

Neighbor Nakyta McCray, who called 911, told ABC News, “She kept crying about her little brother and sister was still in the house. I ran down the street to get them. When I got down there, there was blood everywhere. So I told one of the cops and he came down the street and went into the house and that’s when he radioed in that there was another victim.”

The other victim was Amber’s 6-year-old brother, identified as Domenic, reports ABC News. His throat had also been slashed. Both children were rushed to Cooper University Hospital, where Domenic was later pronounced dead.

In spite of her injuries, ABC News reports that Amber was able to tell police that she knew the attacker and he was a local man who goes by the name “Papi,” who police believe injured himself in the attack and left a trail of blood leading to a nearby railroad track and into a junkyard.

NJ.com reports that Camden Police are searching for a Hispanic man who is “bleeding profoundly due to an apparent laceration to one of his hands” sustained during the incident.

“The children were being watched by their 14-year-old sister, who was asleep upstairs” says ABC News reporter David Henry. “Their mother has been in the hospital recovering from surgery.”

“This was to have been a celebration day for Amber,” adds Henry. “It is her 12th birthday, but instead of celebrating, she’s in the hospital in critical condition, fighting for her life.”

Breaking the unspoken male-dominated boundaries in film making, Rowland teams up with Robinson as they tell the boys to step aside as they roll up their sleeves and, with their team of DangerBitches and create a story designed to show viewers that true terror is something women face every day. As evidenced by the newly released teaser trailer, After Birth is going to be a bloody, scary, monster-filled ... Read More »]]> Those who think they know what to expect from a low-budget horror movie are re-thinking their perception after the latest endeavor from producer/actress Leesa Rowland and writer/director Tara Robinson. The duo is testing the very limits of horror film making as it’s known in “After Birth,” a movie that promises to offend, disturb, and disgust even the avid horror fan with its antagonizing supernatural twist to social issues like homelessness, drug abuse, and abortion.

Breaking the unspoken male-dominated boundaries in film making, Rowland teams up with Robinson as they tell the boys to step aside as they roll up their sleeves and, with their team of DangerBitches and create a story designed to show viewers that true terror is something women face every day. As evidenced by the newly released teaser trailer, After Birth is going to be a bloody, scary, monster-filled gore fest.

“It’s amazing to be a woman kicking ass in the horror genre,” Robinson said. “It’s definitely still a boys’ club, but the industry is changing. It’s exciting to be part of the revolution.”

What makes After Birth a must-see:

- Edgy cast includes Nicola Fiore (Slaughter Daughter), Leesa Rowland (Class of Nuke ‘Em High 2 &3 , Slaughter Daughter), Peter Stickles (Shortbus), and Willam Belli (RuPauls Drag Race Season 4)
- A five-minute-long horrific demon birth scene that has to be seen to be believed
- Super-creepy SFX that will leave women everywhere trembling at the thought of pregnancy
- Written, directed, produced and shot by groundbreaking women in the industry.

About After Birth:

After Birth is a gritty and heartbreaking story of a young homeless woman who births a flesh-eating demonic baby that she must battle for her own survival. Produced by Leesa Rowland, the film goes into production early September 2012. Principal photography is taking place in downtown Los Angeles and surrounding areas with an expected release date of February 2013.

Visit After Birth online at http://www.afterbirththemovie.com

Follow After Birth on Twitter at @AfterBirthMovie

Like After Birth on Facebook

I’m sure by now you have all heard of the legend of Slender man, the tall faceless abductor of children and nightmare to many. Slender man was created back in 2007 by Victor Surge for a paranormal creature contest for Somethingawful.com. Since then, Slender man has circulated over the internet having people actually debating on his existence even though he was supposedly a creation of man. Old world legends will tell of a different story however and if you look into it, which you may not want to, you might also find yourself questioning where he came from. Many articles are written about the legend including this one: Slender Man. However, his existence is not the topic of discussion at ... Read More »]]> Phew, let me just take a minute to catch my breath and regain my senses. OK, that’s better. Let me explain.

I’m sure by now you have all heard of the legend of Slender man, the tall faceless abductor of children and nightmare to many. Slender man was created back in 2007 by Victor Surge for a paranormal creature contest for Somethingawful.com. Since then, Slender man has circulated over the internet having people actually debating on his existence even though he was supposedly a creation of man. Old world legends will tell of a different story however and if you look into it, which you may not want to, you might also find yourself questioning where he came from. Many articles are written about the legend including this one: Slender Man. However, his existence is not the topic of discussion at this time.

Slender man has made a big comeback in the recent months following word of films coming out like The Tall Man starring Jessica Biel and a film called Sinister starring Ethan Hawke set for release this October. Both movies portray a dark, mysterious figure who likes to go after children and prefer to remain in the dark. Following this are numerous videos on Youtube about him such as documentaries, parodies, even songs. A series from Marble Hornets, a channel on Youtube, that follows a boy being stalked by Slender man and is set up in entries. I wouldn’t recommend watching these at night.

Now, back to what I was whining about before. The reason for my dramatic entrance was from the Slender man game created by Mark S. Hadley, of Parsec Productions who released the game in August. It’s a first person experimental horror game that takes place in the woods at night. Your objective is to walk around in the dark with only a dimly lit flashlight and you must collect eight notes that are randomly placed in ten locations, so they switch up on you. If that weren’t bad enough every time you find a note, Slendy gets more persistent in stalking you. Honestly, I really suck at video games or any kind of PC game. So basically it took me a few times to get control of my movements.(Don’t laugh) But after I did it was really simple and horrifying from the minute I started playing.

My heart was pounding throughout the entire game and after you find that first note, which happens to be scribbled with threatening messages and creepy drawings, you hear the awful beatings of a heart making your journey just a bit more intense. As you collect them the mood and the music become more urgent and at this point you want to haul some ass around those woods and grab that paper before he gets you. After a few attempts, which I dreaded more with each play, I could only get a whopping 3 of them. I’m not sure that I can try again because this game is too unnerving! So yeah, I was shrieking like a little girl but the most terrifying aspect of this game, was Slender man’s ability to just teleport at any point in time making it difficult to even look at the screen sometimes.

That being said, I loved it! Anything that can scare me that bad and resonate with me in such a way deserves my respect for being genuinely nerve shattering. The game is easy. You just use your mouse to look in any direction including up giving a view of an ominous nighttime sky, and W,A,S,D to move around. If you need to run you press left shift which I highly suggest doing as much as your fingers can stand. Slender man can be downloaded for free at: Slender.

The game is so popular that it spawned the equally as terrifying Shadow of Slender man – Sanitorium The objective is the same as the original Slender game but, this time you search for the notes inside of an abandoned sanitorium with labyrinth style hallways. You have eight notes to find but the tall man always has a way of sneaking up on you just when you’re making progress. On August 22nd Hospice was released taking you to another maddening level with two new maps one being set for released later in August, Elementary(shutter), and Classified in October.

Overall, this is becoming a great series and definitely do what they set out to, scare the hell out of everyone and make even the manliest dude scream in fear! Check out the reaction video below:

The 33-year-old mother of two reportedly called 9-1-1 around midnight and NBC10 News in Philadelphia reported that she hysterically told the operator that she had done something to her child.

Police arrived at the scene on the 1400 Block of Kaighns Avenue around 12:30.

Upon entering the residence, the police immediately found the decapitated body of a child on the first floor, according to Jason Laughlin from the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office.

“They were aware that there was somebody ... Read More »]]> Residents of Camden, NJ, are mourning another tragic murder/suicide in a town that has consistently been ranked one of the top 5 most dangerous cities in the U.S. This time, prosecutors say the victim was 2-year-old Zahree Thomas and the gruesome murder was committed by his own mother Chevonne Thomas in what investigators are describing as “one of the most horrific crime scenes they’ve seen.”

The 33-year-old mother of two reportedly called 9-1-1 around midnight and NBC10 News in Philadelphia reported that she hysterically told the operator that she had done something to her child.

Police arrived at the scene on the 1400 Block of Kaighns Avenue around 12:30.

Upon entering the residence, the police immediately found the decapitated body of a child on the first floor, according to Jason Laughlin from the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office.

“They were aware that there was somebody else in the home,” Laughlin said. “They could tell that there was somebody else upstairs. So police withdrew from the house.”

After realizing the person was the boy’s mother, prosecutors say police reentered the home and found the mother dead from an apparent self-inflicted stab wound to the neck with a kitchen knife.

After decapitating the boy, Thomas allegedly placed her son’s severed head inside the freezer where police found it.

Someone claiming to be a friend of the family, who did not want to be identified, told NBC10 that Thomas was a “wonderful” and “great” mother who took care of her kids.

However, NBC10′s Marisa Brahney says the 33-year-old mother had been arrested in the past on a child endangerment charge.

Police are continuing a large-scale death investigation into the incident and what may have led up to it, but are now labeling it a murder/suicide.

It is unknown at this time if the incident was the result of some form of mental breakdown or a drug-induced episode similar to other recent, grisly attacks across the country. Although unconfirmed, some of those attacks were linked to the synthetic stimulant drug known as “Ivory Wave,” “Purple Wave,” “Vanilla Sky,” “Bliss,” “Cloud Nine,” or simply “bath salts,” which is being blamed for horrific, zombie-like behavior. But, because there is no way to currently test for the drug, it can’t conclusively be linked to recent attacks.

According to a WebMD.com interview with Zane Horowitz, MD, an emergency room physician and medical director of the Oregon Poison Center, the effects of the drug include “agitation, paranoia, hallucinations, chest pain, and suicidally.”

“It’s a very scary stimulant that is out there,” says Horowitz. “We get high blood pressure and increased pulse, but there’s something more, something different that’s causing these other extreme effects. But right now, there’s no test to pick up this drug. The only way we know if someone has taken them is if they tell you they have.”

This murder is especially hard on the citizens of Camden because it comes on the heals of a recent announcement that Camden’s City Council plans to fire the entire local police force and fire department in favor of participating in a county-wide shared service program, a decision supported by NJ Governor Chris Christie, which shocked and angered some residents in the town of less than 80,000 people.

Residents claim a county police force would ignore the crime-infested city, while neighboring cities claim county police would be forced to spend a disproportionate amount of their time fighting crime within the city at their expense.

The town has already seen 40 murders this year, 13 alone in the month of July, making it the city’s worst since September 1949, according to The Daily Mail. The highest number of murders recorded in a single year for the town was 58 in 1995.

Independent film-making group Fighting Owl Films is planning a new short film project and needs your help to make it happen! Fighting Owl Films was founded in 2007 by Thomas Smith and, in addition to producing numerous short films in the intervening years, produced the feature film The Night Shift in 2010. The low-budget feature received favorable reviews from media outlets across the country, was named Best Fantasy Feature at Shockerfest International Film Festival, and released on DVD by distributor R-Squared Films in October 2011. Since completing The Night Shift, the filmmakers have been busy producing C.U.P.I.D, a short romantic comedy currently in post-production.

The new film, Night of the Krampus, features a running time of around a half hour and revisits key characters from The Night Shift on a whole new adventure. The holiday-themed ... Read More »]]>
Filmmakers to Raise Funding for Krampus Project:

Independent film-making group Fighting Owl Films is planning a new short film project and needs your help to make it happen! Fighting Owl Films was founded in 2007 by Thomas Smith and, in addition to producing numerous short films in the intervening years, produced the feature film The Night Shift in 2010. The low-budget feature received favorable reviews from media outlets across the country, was named Best Fantasy Feature at Shockerfest International Film Festival, and released on DVD by distributor R-Squared Films in October 2011. Since completing The Night Shift, the filmmakers have been busy producing C.U.P.I.D, a short romantic comedy currently in post-production.

The new film, Night of the Krampus, features a running time of around a half hour and revisits key characters from The Night Shift on a whole new adventure. The holiday-themed story delves into the mythology of Krampus, a legendary creature said to travel with Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. While Santa rewards the good girls and boys of the world, Krampus punishes the naughty. But that’s just a myth…or is it? When the naughty kids of a suburban neighborhood vanish in the weeks leading up to Christmas, evidence points to the creature’s existence. It’s up to supernatural investigators Rue Morgan, Claire Rennfield and Herbie West to solve the mystery, save the children and face-off against the deadly Krampus.

Writer/Director Thomas Smith is passionate about the project. He loves the characters created in The Night Shift and is anxious to revisit them and reunite with the actors who brought them to life. The germination of the project began with the Alpine legend of the Krampus. Since first learning of the myth many years ago, Smith has been fascinated by the creature, primarily because it represents such a dark side of what is perceived as a bright, festive and happy holiday season. “I’m excited to explore the Krampus folklore because it isn’t a creature that’s been done to death on film,” Smith said. “There are very few portrayals of Krampus in media, not to mention many people are unaware of the creature and its connection to the holiday season.” Smith hopes the film introduces the legend to a whole new audience. “And, if it encourages kids to be a little nicer, that’s just an added bonus!”

Smith hopes to raise funds for the film through the crowd-funding website Indie GoGo, a Kickstarter-like site with greater flexibility. The short has been budgeted at $4,000, which covers the rental cost of high-definition camera gear, the creation of the Krampus creature suit and makeup, props, general costumes, on-set meals for cast and crew, and post-production work, including color correction, visual effects and sound design. The filmmaker hopes to reach the full goal for funding within the 45 day time frame provided by Indie GoGo. After that time, the project page expires. However, if the full amount is not raised, the funds that are received will still go toward financing the project. Smith commented, “We’ll get as far as we can with what we raise, then try another funding effort to complete the next phase. Every little bit helps!” For those who support the project, several exciting rewards packages have been created as a way to thank patrons for their help. Whether people give a little or a lot, every cent is appreciated and we believe these packages show that.

The filmmakers understand that not everyone will be able to contribute, but that doesn’t mean they can’t still help. Spreading the word about the project, telling friends and family, or posting about the project on websites or social media is another great way to bring attention to the project and spread our reach.

Once funding is in place, Smith hopes to have the project in production by December of this year.

For more information or to support the project,visit www.indiegogo.com/krampusnight.

For more information about Fighting Owl Films, visit www.fightingowlfilms.com

or, like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/fightingowlfilms for the latest developments.

When I was twelve, I decided I wanted to check out this collapsed bridge at the bottom of a river. I wanted to explore this forbidden zone to see what hidden treasures I could find down by the river.

On the other side of this bridge was another small town called Villa Rica. During the civil war, this bridge was under constant attack. The two cities had chosen opposite sides of the war. My town, Euless, had chosen to support the Union troops, while Villa Rica had chosen to support the Rebels. ... Read More »]]> When I was a boy, there was a bridge on the west side of town. Euless was the name of the town. The bridge used to cross the Red River and connected Euless to the banks of Grant County. This river was also the boundary of our county, Hood County.

When I was twelve, I decided I wanted to check out this collapsed bridge at the bottom of a river. I wanted to explore this forbidden zone to see what hidden treasures I could find down by the river.

On the other side of this bridge was another small town called Villa Rica. During the civil war, this bridge was under constant attack. The two cities had chosen opposite sides of the war. My town, Euless, had chosen to support the Union troops, while Villa Rica had chosen to support the Rebels. So, this bridge was under constant attack, always being observed and guarded. It played a major part in the war in this area.

It was called the Red River which ran under the bridge. Some say it got the name because of the red clay that tints all the water in the south and some say because of all the fishermen who disappeared in its torrent of rocks and waves. Also, some say it’s because of all the Union and Rebel soldiers who died protecting this bridge, or attacking it, whatever the case maybe. One day during a very fierce attack, the other side blew up their side of the bridge in order to protect the town it served. The bridge’s back was broken and the bridge fell into the river in one solid piece, still attached at our side.

The other side of the bridge had been torn down, and walled up, leaving no trace of the bridge on their banks of the river Our side just left it and let it rot, slowly sliding into the river, a tunnel into the river’s depth.

So there we had it, an opening to a bridge that went down into the river. It was quickly forgotten about after that and the area was quickly overrun with nature and forgotten about. That happens a lot in the deep south, where nature is a lot more aggressive.

All the adults told us never to play up there because the river was violently rapid and many a fisherman had been lost due to the angry white waves of the Red River, never to be seen again. But, Rocky and I had been scouting up by the bridge lately and we didn’t think it looked all that vicious.

“C’mon boy!” I called to my dog, “Let’s go on an adventure! Good dog!”

The year was 1979, and the world was sitting on the edge of a very scary time. The middle east was a hot bed of problems. Due to the crisis in Iran, oil prices increased around the world and the public begin to panic, buying things in bulk and making matters worse. Hoarding food and water

A mob attacked and destroyed the US Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan.

The USSR invaded Afghanistan and Three Mile Island was glowing brightly off the coast of our very own U.S. of A.

But, none of that affected me. I had just seen Superman and I had my red cape as well as my shirt with an “S” on it and thought I was invincible. My dog Rocky and I were on our way to find adventure, glory, riches and fame.

At least in my mind.

So I packed my tent, filled my Mork and Mindy backpack with everything I thought a plucky young adventurer would need, then told my mother that I was going camping and that I would see her in the morning.

I kissed her good-bye and Rocky and I took off and headed down the train tracks towards to the “forbidden zone” of the bridge and the Red River.

I walked for what seemed like hours, hard to tell in retrospect. But, Rocky and I were having a good time. Fighting pretend enemies and beating communists and terrorists with my mighty sword of judgment that I found lying on the tracks.

As dusk began to come over the trees, I decided to put up camp for the night. I remember the sky seemed to have more stars back then and the night was more alive with life.

I remember a symphony of wild life outside my tent and not being afraid. That was one of the last times I wasn’t afraid of the dark, as well as the last time I didn’t wonder what else could be out there in the dark, other than crickets and frogs.

The worst thing I had to worry about was gators and wolves; you would think that would be enough. But that’s nothing compared to what I fear in the dark now.

I woke the next morning, a little stiff from the hard ground, but excited about the day’s coming adventure. Today I would reach the edge of the Red River and the collapsed bridge that held untold glory and riches, at least to my twelve year-old mind it did. I packed up my gear and took the trail down to the river. Rocky bounced around me, barking at the squirrels in the trees above us. He was a big black lab, very friendly but also very protective of me. Apparently, those squirrels were saying something he didn’t like because he was really letting them have it and they barked back in anger. I wished I could understand just what they were saying.

Just then I heard it… the rushing, crashing sound of the river traveling its path that it carved out millions of years ago, raging its way towards the gulf.

“Come on boy!” I said to Rocky, “We’re almost there!” We picked up the pace and, with excitement and anticipation, I imagined what I might find laying on the shore or trapped in the half of the bridge that I could reach.

Maybe a dead fisherman. Maybe some bank robber hid some money there a long time ago and forgot about it. The possibilities were endless. I topped a small hill and there it was. It didn’t look as exciting as I had hoped, but you never can judge a book by its cover, my mom always said.

I walked down the dirt road that led to the bridge. Horses, and people used to take this same path a hundred years ago to get across the river, until the bridge was blown up towards the end of the civil war to protect the small town, Villa Rica. Population of eight hundred and seventy-four.

The wooden bridge was broken, with the broken part hidden under the murky water of the river. But, the entrance was still exposed and grew more and more fragile over the years.

The red paint that used to cover the sides and roof was all but gone, flakes of it all over the ground. Vines covered nearly everything. Something about that Georgia vine, it grew everywhere unless it was hunted down and killed.

Suddenly, Rocky perked up his ears, barked low, and looked towards the shoreline.

“We can’t go down there Rocky! If we fall in that river, we’re goners!”

But Rocky insisted, so I carefully walked half way down the very slight incline towards the bank of the river, and the opening of the long since dead covered bridge.

I took a step just inside the opening of the bridge on the part that was still on the ground. Not even over the water and I was terrified. But at least I had crossed the boundary, in was in.

The shambles of a left-over two-hundred-year-old bridge groaned even under my slight weight. Rocky did not care for this sound and took a step back with a slight whimper, sniffing the air around us.

We walked a little further into the chasm that lead only to a raging torrent of water and rocks.

I turned my flashlight on.

The cold fall air smelled like rotten leaves and water with a hint of something unbearably foul. I remember that smell. It was something I had never smelled before, but something very…unique, distinctive.

Like once you have smelled the odor of a rotten egg, it burns a spot in your brain so deep that nothing will ever grow there again.

That is what was in the air that night. Rocky smelled it before I did. I could see it in his eyes. His legs tightened, the fur on his neck stood up, and he growled slightly.

“Shh…Rocky. Let’s see what it is first, boy.” I held my hand up to him and he stopped.

“Good dog.” I have never owned a dog since, because I knew none could compare.

I took one more step into the opening of the tunnel and the wood creaked and screamed at my touch.

My foot smashed through the rotten wood of the floor, splashing into the icy river below it. The wooden teeth of the broken boards ripped through my jeans and dug deep into my shin.

My flashlight went flying to the other side of the room covering most of what I could see in shadow.

I felt my shoe being ripped away by the fierce tide of the current below. The river pulled my foot, dragging the wooden boards further down my leg, as I could feel the water pulling on my foot, cracking my bones.

I screamed in pain. Rocky began to bark and crawl towards me. He was terrified of something but determined to help me.

Then came that odor.

I heard the sound of something bump the bridge to my left. Growing up in southern Georgia near a river, one learns to fear the great lizard under the water. The Everglades Alligator was a very real, and very serious threat.

I made a quick judgment call and chose life over limb. I pulled at the boards where my legs were bound and pushed as hard as I could. Chunks of my leg meat grabbed the boards , and bones snapped.

My ankle snap sharply at a ninety degree angle, the bone peeking out as the compound fracture tore through my flesh.

I turned to hop, crawl, whatever I had to, no matter what it took to leave this wooden mouth. I looked for Rocky, the faithful companion who had been barking his dog heart out trying to save me.

Only he was not barking at me. This was not, little Timmy was trapped in the well. This was something was a threat and he was defending himself and his pack leader…me.

And he was not barking at an alligator. Alligators did not smell like this thing hunched back shadow I saw in this rolling lights of my flashlights glare.

Something was hiding behind some rubble of the cave in from the original cave in of the explosion that forever broke this bridge into the rotting remains of its former glory.

I could see a pair of yellow cat-like eyes glowing, staring at Rocky. Then they glanced and took a few steps towards me, and Rocky attacked, jumping into that dark shadows at whatever was giving off that horrid stench.

I watched as he disappeared into the darkness and attacked whatever it was. I immediately heard the sound of the creature growl and attack. Then I heard Rocky dying being ripping to pieces and the crunch of his bones as the creature ate his body.

I sat frozen in pain and terror for a moment, as the beast and I just sat gazing into each other’s eyes. It tore off pieces of my best friend as I crawled away.

From what I could see, there were two large, yellow eyes the size of dinner plates but with cat like pupils thin and pointed built for the night. Not rounded like most mammals. A wide thing mouth like the Cheshire cat, but filled with razor sharp teeth, however stuck in an eternal grin. Everything else was fur, except for the thin, three-fingered arms that held on to the body of my dog. The dark shadows hid the rest of the beast.

I crawled past the bloody scene and watched the eyes as they watched me, never wavering from my lock, as they watched me crawl slowly back out the opening as my own blood was mixing with the blood of Rocky’s in the muck.

It let me pass.

As if it was satisfied by Rocky, it let me pass unharmed.

Well, I was unharmed except for my leg, which I injured myself.

I tied a tourniquet from my shirt and crawled down the road for the better part of the day, when finally I saw a car coming down the road.

I hopped and waved my arms. The car stopped and it was Ms. Jefferson, the third grade teacher at the Hood County Middle School.

“My Lord son! What happened to you?!” she screamed.

“Bridge…..fell in hole………Rocky………eaten……….monster!!! Monster!!!” I muttered as I passed out in her back seat.

I remember fading in and out at the hospital. So many faces; doctors, nurses, cops, even my mother…then I would pass out again.

Sometimes I would wake up just long enough to remember my dog and the beast under the bridge. I would start to panic, so they would shoot me up with something and back to sleep I would go.

Finally, I came to and my mother was there holding my hand and looking very concerned.

“Ethan! Ethan honey! Can you hear me?” I heard my mother’s voice as if from a tunnel far away.

“Ethan. Ethan!” That was a strong male voice. My vision was blurred but I could make out that he was a doctor.

“Ethan! Do you know where you are? Do you know what has happened to you?”

“Ethan, can you hear me?” He shined a light in my eyes, exactly what they needed after being closed for so long.

Thanks Doc.

“Mom?” I managed to get out hoarsely.

“Ethan!” She cried and hugged me close. Crying all the while, rocking me back and forth.

“You had me so scared. I couldn’t lose you too….” she trailed off.

Another man spoke but it was not the doctor but I could tell he was a man of authority. “Son, can you talk about what happened?”

“Yes, sir. I think so.” I said sitting up a little in bed, “Do you mind shutting the blinds a little. My eyes are a little sensitive.”

“No problem. Of course.” He turned the blinds closed and took a seat near my bed.

”Son, Ethan, can you remember what happened last night?”

“Yes, sir. But you won’t believe me.” I could barely keep my eyes open, and my leg hurt so bad.

“Oh, I’ve seen a few things here and there. Why dontcha give me a chance?” the police officer smiled at me, his teeth all stained with coffee and cigarettes.

“It was a monster. Rocky protected me when he attacked it.”

I tried to sit up and failed miserably. Knocking what I think was supposed to be my breakfast all over the floor. A nurse came in quickly without saying a word, clean it up.

“Easy, easy now. Heh heh… don’t cha think it was prolly more likely a ‘gator?”

“‘Gator’s don’t have eyes like that. And when it was done eating Rocky, it let me pass. Gators don’t let food go. It let me pass.” The world was starting to phase out. Everything began to lose focus.

“What happened to your leg?” His sweaty, unshaven face seemed to bulge in and out as he talked.

“Fell in a whole… broke it.” I was floating in a haze of painkillers and shock of the events. So I giggled at the absurdity of the words I had just spoken, and promptly passed back out.

When I woke up again, I was more in control, more together. It seemed like a lot of time had passed. The flowers on my bed side were showing signs of decay.

“Mom”, I said before even opening my eyes. I was not even sure if she was in the room, but all I knew was I wanted to see her as soon as I opened my eyes. Fortunately, a second later, I heard her voice and felt her hand and knew she was there.

“Are you ok now honey?” She said softly, rubbing my forehead.

“Yeah. I’m ok now, mom. I feel a lot better.” I gave my mom the look, the one she always knew meant I was serious.

The same police officer came over and sat in the chair again to my left, much less sweaty and he had shaved his face….made me wonder how long I had been out that time.

“Hi there, Ethan. You doing ok?” I nodded. “You mind if ask you a few questions about what happened to you that night?”

So now it’s not last night anymore. It’s ‘that’ night.

“Well sir. Me and Rocky went down to go exploring by the Hood County Bridge. Poor Rocky didn’t stand a chance. That creature tore him apart and ate him in no time flat before I had time to even get away because of my leg and all. After it ate Rocky, it just watched me and let me crawl away.”

My mother inhaled deeply in a gasp of horror as I described my ordeal.

“Now, son you know there is no such thing as monsters. What you saw was prolly just a ‘gator.” The policeman tried to reassure me, my mother, or himself. I was not entirely sure. “I’m sure after he…killed yer dog… he was just full.”

“You didn’t see it, sir. Weren’t no ‘gator.” I said as I took a sip from my plastic cup of ice water. The water tasted like a faucet probably would in any hospital and it smelled like plastic.

“It smelled like something I have never smelled before. And it let me go after it ate Rocky. No ‘gator gonna let wounded, bleeding meat crawl away.”

I could feel my mother’s hand tighten up on my own as I referred to myself as bleeding meat.

“How long has it been?” I asked my mother.

“You were out of it for three days son. You would come to every once in a while and scream, or talk about your leg or dog. I was so scared honey!” She held my hand to her face. I could feel the tears run down my hand.

The policeman scraped his chair on the floor to get a little closer to me. “You up for going back there?”

“What?!!” I screamed back, “I barely made it out alive and now you want me to go back!?” I was very insistent.

“See, the thing is… since the last time we talked, I lost two officers down by bridge. First one I sent down there that very night to look for the ‘gator that did that to you.”

He leaned in to make sure that I was sure he was serious.

“He started barricading it off so no one else would go around there. Sorry about your dog, Ethan. Anyways, Jerry never came back. So I had to send Tomas down there to look for Jerry, and then he never came back. So, it seems you, my boy, are the only one who has been down to that bridge and made it back alive.”

“Now, we only ask that you go there to help and observe only. You will stay in the car and talk to the officer on the walkie-talkie while he walks around outside and you direct him to where you saw that…thing. And he’s going to have a real big gun to take care of everything.” He smiled and patted me on the shoulder lightly.

“This ain’t no ‘gator officer.”

“Oh, I know, I know … it’s a monster.” He said trying to make me feel better, but he chuckled lightly and I could tell he didn’t believe me.

I looked at my mother, “Mama, what do you think?”

“I think if you stay in the car, you’ll be safe. But it’s up to you sweetie,” she sighed.

“Yes, sir. I’ll go.” I nodded to the policeman.

“Good, good. So tomorrow around noon, I’ll have a guy come around. He’s gonna be dressed in full riot gear. We wanna try to get this one back to his family. He’ll have lots of body armor, so don’t let that freak you out. And, he’ll have some big guns in the trunk. You and him will drive down there in the Police Heavy Vehicle, so there is no chance of getting stuck in that river. He’s gonna find it, and take it out. You just sit in the Truck and watch the show from way up there. Ok?” He stood up and stuck out his hand for me to shake.

“That truck is nearly a story tall on its tires. Unless that ‘gator or monster or whatever it is can jump six feet, if you stay in the car you will be safe. And we will be in contact with you on CB radio. Worst case scenario, you call us on it and I will come in personally and get you. Deal?”

“Yes, sir.” I grabbed his hand and we shook on it like men. “Deal.”

There was no way I was going to get any sleep that night. That thing that killed my best friend and I were going to meet up again tomorrow and this time, I was bringing a guy with guns. Rocky would have his revenge.

I laid there most of that night trying to remember the smell so that I would smell it quick enough to help the cop who was going to drive back down to the bridge where I broke my leg and lost Rocky. He was a good dog.

But, most of all, where I lost my innocence. I lost my belief in the “real” world. I could not count on anything anymore.

If monsters were real, than anything was possible. If that creature that I saw was I thought it was, then what else goes bump in the night that we think is just the wind.

I did manage to sleep but it was a restless and tumultuous slumber, like trying to sleep during on a long bus ride. Horrid dreams were bouncing me in and out of slumber and reality until, at last, a nurse came in with breakfast. I was glad to be done with trying to sleep.

“Well, good morning, little man. How are we feeling today?” She said not really expecting an answer and walked over to the window and jerked the blinds open. It sent needles of pain into my head, as I covered my eyes.

“Fine,” I lied. I was terrified of what was going to happen today and had no wish to go back to that bridge. But something had to be done, for Rocky and for those cops that went down there.

“Jor mum and them will be in to see jew in a few ok?” she said in a slaughtered version of the English language.

I nodded and reached for orange juice on the tray she had placed in front of me.

“Enjoy your breakfast,” she called out as she left as quickly as she came. I was just another number on her rounds this morning. She had no idea what I had been through, no idea what I had seen, and no idea where the rest of my day might take me.

I ate my powdered eggs, something that smelled a bit like sausage. And no southern breakfast would complete with grits. When I was done eating, the same nurse came in and took my tray without saying a word this time.

The policeman came in shortly after with a doctor pushing a wheelchair.

“You ready to do your duty, son?” The officer said, obviously trying to play on my patriotism.

But, I still said “Yes, sir!” And gave him a salute. It seemed appropriate.

They helped me into the wheelchair and we started down the hall towards the elevator.

“So, you know what’s going on today, right son?” I really hated it when he called me son.

My dad died in Vietnam. They say defending freedom, but I never really understood it. How some tiny little country on the other side of the planet could affect democracy and freedom everywhere. But, everyone kept telling me my daddy died protecting freedom.

Except some people were calling the men who did come back “baby killers” and all sorts of horrible names. I know my dad only did what was right, and never killed any babies.

As we rolled out of the hospital, I saw a huge vehicle with tires taller than me. It was painted blue and grey in the police colors, and had red and blue lights on the roof, the hood. This truck looked like it was built to be a monster truck, a truck to eat other trucks. The engine was on, and it growled and spat smoke and fire.

Standing in front of the monster truck was a man dressed all in black Teflon armor. He had a helmet on, covering his entire head and face. A chest piece that made him swell out like a Greek warrior. His legs were covered in padding, both front and back. Top it all off with knee-high boots, elbow-high thick leather gloves and a double barrel shot-gun he held in his hand to his chest. This was a very imposing image.

My fear of the thing at the bridge subsided a little at the sight of the warrior who was to escort me, and the ride in which I was remain. I would feel pretty safe in the cabin of that truck.

My mother was standing by the door of the hospital exit looking very concerned. “Are you sure you are up to this?” she fretted.

“I’ll be ok momma. I won’t even leave the truck. Nothing can get me way up there.” I squinted and pointed to the top of the truck. Like the sheriff said, there’s no monsters and no ‘gator can get me in that thing, unless they can fly. I poked my mother’s sides, tickling her slightly.

She giggled and said, “Please, be careful.” looking very somber after a giggle.

“I will momma.”

Only the ticking clock broke the silence in the room.

“Ok,” said the heavily-armored policeman waiting for us. “Let’s get moving.” He walked behind my chair and began to push me towards to the truck where there was a ladder waiting and the passenger door was already open. He carried me up the ladder, secured my chair in the back, and he was driving off before I had to time to even notice.

“You know how to get to the bridge, I’m guessing?” I asked.

“Yes.” he barked without looking my direction.

“You need to know something….” I said, trying to sound as serious as I could.

“What?” I could already hear the smirk in his voice.

“This…ain’t…no…’gator, ” I said, pointing each word into his arm as if trying to tattoo it on his brain.
He made a noise like he knew that I was going say that.

“Look, kid, just show me where you saw this thing hiding so I can kill it, ok? Those other redneck hicks didn’t know what they were doing. They went down there under armed, uneducated, and unprepared. An Alligator is an ambush predator. He waits and hides. He sees you but you don’t see him. Then, when you’re close enough, it attacks and it’s like a train covered in teeth that runs into you as he drags you down and tears you to shreds.”

Nice pep talk, I thought to myself.

It might have scared me if I thought what we were going after were a giant reptile who will eat anything that moves. But, what we were after was much worse.

“I can handle this” He said.

“I hope you are right.” I sat back in my seat, and looked out the window.

We took a right on old Concord Road, which meant we were close. This was middle of nowhere, mainly the rich people area. Yes, there were very few houses and not much else around but every house was a mansion on massive acres of land, and there was no shortage of trees in Georgia. So, you never saw the houses.

But I could tell this was the road. Once we hit the dead-end where everyone was supposed to stop, I could see that there used to be a road that lead to the Hood County Bridge that crossed the red river into Denton County. Once the bridge was destroyed, the road that direction was no longer important, so this four-way intersection became a dead-end. If you have a massive monster of a truck like we were in now, or were walking, then you still had a way down to the old bridge these days.

“Ok, hold on. I don’t know how bumpy this is going to be,” the warrior said to me. I don’t think he ever looked at me once.

I tightened my seat, grabbed the best “Oh Shit Grip” by grasping onto the handle on the door, and we started down the inclined slope towards the river basin.

This truck was built for things like this. It was in its element. We were pushing over dead trees, running over smaller trees, and it was very fun. Even with my throbbing leg, and with the impending dread and fear that ran through my veins, I managed to forget all about that for just a few seconds and enjoy myself by letting out a small laugh as the little boy I was came out.

My mysterious driver did not even acknowledge I was in the seat next to him. We made the last turn to the left and I knew the river and the washed out bridge were close.

That meant whatever killed Rocky and those other policemen was there, too. This time, I had a bigger escort, and my escort was well armed, well armored, and expecting something big and powerful. What that was I was not quite sure, but it was not what they thought it was.

Poor Rocky never had a chance and I didn’t think I did either at the time.

I prayed a little prayer as we made the final turn and the headlights of the truck fell on the roof of the bridge.

“Dead God, please let this man kill this monster before anyone else gets hurt.”

The truck came to a stop, and the man turned off the engine and, along with it, every light. My heart skipped a beat. “Why did you do that!?” I screamed.

“Don’t want to be attracted to the truck, we want in to come after me. This thing’s a man killer. We can’t let it get away.” He said, finally turning his head towards me. All I saw was my own reflection in his jet black, mirrored faceplate.

“And a dog killer. He killed my dog. Give him some for Rocky, will ya?” I asked. “And Mr? I hope you kill it before it gets you.”

He slowly nodded at me and said, “You bet, kid. So, where did you walk exactly that day?” He hit a switch on the dashboard and a spot light lit up from the top of the truck. He was controlling the spotlight with a handle coming from the ceiling. “Just point me in the direction.”

I carefully looked over the opening of the bridge, trying to recall what happened that night. As if my body knew something was wrong, my leg began to ache were the bones had been set.

“Rocky and I had come up the trail where the truck was now parked.

The office shined his spotlight on the area and traced it where I pointed. “Is that the way?”

I nodded.

“Here, grab this handle,” He put the spot light grip in my hand. “Try it out. It’s pretty easy to move, right? So, I’m going down there and I want you to keep that light a little bit in front of me. Not on me, now,” he laughed. “We don’t want this….’thing’ knowing exactly where I am. So, shine it ahead of me so I know what’s in front of me. Try and catch it be surprise. Can ya do that for me? Your name is Ethan, right? Well my name is Norman.”

I nodded. “Hi, Norman.”

“Now, here’s a walkie-talkie,” as he handed me one. “So, you hold down this red button when you want to talk to me, and let go so I can talk to you. When you are done talking you say ‘over’ Have you seen that in cop shows?”

I nodded up and down.

“If you don’t let go of the red button then I can’t talk to you, ok?”

“Yes, sir. I understand. It’s like a CB for truckers.”

“Good. Perfect. So, you are my look out. If you see anything moving other than me, shine that light on it as fast as you can and tell me on this walkie-talkie what you see. I’ve got about six guns, a knife, mace, and my mask is infrared. Don’t you worry, Ethan.”

“I’ll be fine.” Those were the same words my dad used when he shipped out 4 years ago. The war ended six months later. My dad was possibly one of the last American troops to die in Vietnam’s war. Wonder if they ever thought about giving a posthumously awarded medal for that.

Norman opened the driver side door quietly and slid out ever so carefully, barely making any noise. He shut the door and began walking towards where I told him I came from. It seemed a little harder for him to slide down that river side than it was for me, although, he did have all that armor and weaponry on him.

I was not going down there that day hunting what they think is an alligator. He will find out soon enough, neither is he.

I could see him moving the plants as he moved slowly towards the shoreline where Rocky and I had chased that duck back to the river. He was wearing all black, so soon, he disappeared into the night, all the while the spotlight pointed brilliantly at the shoreline near the partially collapsed bridge. Norman walked down the coastline with his shotgun held at waist level, armed and ready to go. The moon light glinted off the shiny black metal of the barrel. His training showing through with his caution and in his careful steps that carried him forward.

What was that? I looked sharply to the left. Did I see something move?

I opened my eyes as wide as I could to see through the dark for a sign of movement.

Sweat was dropping off me like rain. Fear filled my every nook and cranny. There was not one part of me that did not radiate fear. Shadows formed shapes that took on movement as the wind played among them.

I turned to look back at Norman and he had stopped moving forward. He was looking at something that was in the brush off to the right. I could see the leaves moves as well, Norman and I stared at this green spot in the thicket as it shook.

I turned the spotlight to the spot where he was looking. There was a quick commotion of movement and then, whatever it had been, it was no longer there to be found.

Norman started slowly walking forward again, the same place I had seen the movement. He slowly crept ahead and held a large handgun pointed forward instead of the shotgun. Intent on something he saw moving, I swung the light to where I saw the movement in the bush. It was thick and covered in leaves, but something was moving under that canopy of leaves, of that I was certain.

Norman saw something too, because he stopped moving again, and I could see him tilt his head slightly to the left as if trying to hear better. I am not sure that would help with a helmet on, but a couple of seconds later he had repositioned the gun in his hand and had taken definitive aim on something.

I pressed my hands and face against the driver’s side window to see the whole area. My breath kept fogging up the window and, every few seconds, I would have to wipe it away. As I was wiping away the fog, I hear Norman give out a loud whistle. Followed by the sounds of something running through the brush. Norman’s gun rang out two crisp and clear shots within perfect spacing of each other. I screamed and jumped back from the window. Only moments before I had been pressing against the glass for dear life and now I had backed up all the way to the other side of the cab of the truck.

Slowly, I got up and inched to the other door, terrified but unable to stop myself from looking. It was like when you pass a car wreck. You are worried you may see something terrible, but unable to overcome the urge to look.

As I got to the other window I looked out to where Norman had been standing, but he was gone. Nothing moving in the bushes. No blood. What had happened? Had that thing gotten him already and without a sound?

I thought “I’m next…”

That thing is going to come up to this truck, tear open a door and rip me to pieces like he did Rocky. Suddenly, I felt something heavy land in the back of the truck, it shook the car like two hundred and fifty pounds dropping out of the sky.

I screamed, then started praying. I was frantically looking back and forth at each window, sweat burning my eyes as it poured into my eye sockets. My hands gripped the steering wheel so hard my knuckles ran white.

I saw something out of the corner of my left eye. I turned and screamed!

Norman stood there beside the driver door. “Easy, kiddo. It was just a deer. I killed it and tossed it in the back. I’m going to get it cleaned and have me some deer meat for a while.” The temporary gain of meat seemed to have lightened his mood considerably. For the first time I saw his face, he was about thirty years old, but with older eyes. Eyes that that had seen more than they should have in their time. He smiled at me, closed his visor, and said.

“Ok, I’m headed back down. Put the spotlight back where it was right on the entrance to the path. Seems clear to there, so I’m just going to head there from here and go in ready to start shooting.”

Meanwhile, I had pissed my pants and I was no closer to a resolution on what killed my dog, or what I assumed was about to kill this man, Norman, who would have no chance to eat that meat, as far as I could tell.

“If you think so, sir,” I said, rolling down the window a little to talk.

I did not smell that smell from that night, so my hopes rose slightly.

“Shine that light right at that opening on the side there,” he said over the walkie-talkie as he pointed to the top of the rock where there was a hole in the underside of the two-hundred-year-old bridge. This is where I saw Rocky leap to save me, where I saw those eyes and teeth, and where I lost my innocence, where I learned monsters exist.

I did as he instructed and put a spotlight on the very thing that had inspired so many of my nightmares. The nightmares of this place kept attaching to my memory, temporarily distracting me from my job.

The sound of gunfire brought me out of my dream memories. My nightmare recollections had now turned into a very real terror. My light was still shining on the opening, but it was obvious the thing had moved to where Norman was and was attacking. I could hear Norman screaming and the occasional gunshot, but I was too terrified to move the light to where Norman was obviously getting the bad end of a beating. I could see the shadows roll back and forth as the flash light he had hit the ground and rolled back and forth. I could see claws tearing and ripping. I could see blood flying against the stone wall. I could see shadows of Normans legs and arms being ripped off and this foul creature devouring them like French fries.

One of Normans arms flew out of the sky and land in the hood of the truck I in.

The this eating machine’s shadow seemed to be of a short, thick man with an abnormally large head that was mostly bulbous eyes and an extended mouth. It had three long fingers on each hand, each with very thick nails at the end of thin hairless and grey arms. There was lots of hair covering the rest of its body.

Soon enough, Norman stopped screaming and the thing just sat there and ate. I was frozen in terror and could not move or speak. I knew my time was up and I made my peace with the Lord and waited to die. I was going to be killed by a creature that lived under a two-hundred-year-old bridge. There was a word for something like that… a troll. No one would ever believe it, I didn’t even believe it.

After a short time, the shadow of the troll stood up and I saw him make a mighty leap straight up.

It sounded like a branch fell out of a tree next to the truck. Then, I saw those yellow finger nails, two fingers and a thumb, as the open palmed right hand of the troll hit the driver’s side window. It shattered into millions of worthless pieces of diamond glass. I could hear the thing breathing as it crawled up the side of the huge army Hummer I was hiding inside of. It was using it’s claws to climb up the side.

My heart, however, was trying to climb out of my mouth. My limbs were numb, and the sides of my vision were going black. I hoped that I would pass out before it started eating me. I sat holding my knees to my chest, rocking back and forth. I was crying, laughing, and saying the Lord’s prayer off and on, back and forth. Then I sat up and was holding on to the walkie-talkie like a weapon. Like a sword, I was not going down without a fight after all. It reached the top and stood opposite me in the driver’s seat. It was short enough to stand with not much of a stoop on the seat of the truck. Its entire body was soaked in blood, Normans blood dripping from it wife gaping maw. It breathed heavily from the effort. Its huge yellow eyes made eye contact with me and it took one blood soaked footstep towards me and tossed something at my feet.

I picked it up and it was a jewel, a diamond, small and uncut. It looked as if this thing had torn it from the very earth itself. Those claws it used to rip people to pieces would be great for digging as well.

“I not get man meat anymore since war stopped. I give shiny rock. You bring man meat.” He tossed two more small stones at my feet. I saw him notice my broken leg. “No more dogs.” he made a face that clearly he did not like dog meat Human only. One at a time,” the troll said, his huge gaping mouth of teeth seemed to be stuck in a permanent grin. Then, it turned and climbed back down the way it had come and, after it hit the ground, I could no longer hear it. Leaving behind it’s horrible smell and blood everywhere, I sat in shock.

I could see Norman’s arms on the hood of the truck. I just kept staring at it. I kept waiting for it to move. It looked so alive, so life-like. I suppose something can be life-like and not be alive. I remember odd details, like his watch. I remember thinking I was glad to have a way to tell time until my rescue got here. I watched as the blood seeped out of the stump and run down the hood. It slowly coagulated through the night. As I was too afraid to move an inch, Norman’s arm was my only friend through that long hard night of sitting in my own piss, and the smell of blood  surrounded by pieces of Norman, too afraid to move, much less sleep.

I sat there in the cab of that truck until sunrise, listening to the crickets. Then, I reached for the radio and called into the station and had someone come get me.

My encounter with the troll had left me in a state of shock. Quite a jump to go from accepting death to having a small fortune in your pocket and first-hand knowledge of creatures that are not supposed to exist.

I did not even bother trying to tell anyone what I saw as I knew no one would believe me and this would get written off as a ‘gator attack. No one believed me the first time, so I figured this time would be no different.

I never got to think about taking the troll up on his offer. The town ended up building an un-climbable wall of concrete and razor-wire, making it impossible to get to the den of the troll. They wanted to keep the ‘gator in, supposedly, and keep any more people away from that area.

No more death would happen in the riverbed.

Sometimes I would go down there by the wall and just try to smell it. I never did smell the creature again. I think it finally moved on, found another bridge, I guess, where it could take people now and again and not have anyone notice and live on, maybe eating deer and other wild life in between. Maybe it found someone who would be able to take him up on his bargain. But, at last the troll was out of my life.

My life was never the same. I waited a few months and pretended to “find” the diamonds laying in the middle of the road. We cashed those stones in and got nearly a million dollars. Me and my mother moved out of that small town, and moved to just outside Atlanta, a suburban paradise. We paid cash for a house and we lived there until I moved out when I got married. She lived there until the day she died.

I never told anyone about the troll, at least until now, but bridges have always made me nervous since then.

We had enough to take care of me and my mom pretty well. My mom had quite a head on her shoulders for business it turns out and she opened a few clothing stores, records shops, and made quite a living for herself and the family she left behind. What she did not know was that I kept one of the stones, the smallest stone. The one he gave me for Rocky. My own little piggy bank if anything went wrong. It was to be used only in emergencies. We lived well, but we were not millionaires.

By the time I was twenty-five, my grandmother said they had closed up that river completely. Dammed the river upstream mowed down all the trees, covered everything in pavement, and turned it all into a popular mini mall. My mother even opened a record shop there.

So, everything was gone. The place where my life had changed forever was now gone.

Sometimes I wonder if I would have taken him up on his offer. A life for a diamond? Could I allow a person to be killed and eaten alive before my very eyes by this thing in exchange for unending wealth?

That’s a hard question to answer sometimes. There are some bad people in this world, there are some people that would never be missed, and all I would have to do is bring the “food” to the troll. He would have handled all the dirty work. My hands would have stayed clean as a whistle…more or less.

Would I have been willing to help murder for riches. All thanks to one hungry troll, three dead men, and one dog I loved named Rocky.
He sure was a good dog.

Written By: Skot Six
Edited By:  Ray el

What is Armageddon? The concept of Armageddon originated from Christian theology, so the details of its meaning are inseparable from the Christian prophesy that inspired it and must be considered within that context. The term comes ... Read More »]]> The terms “Armageddon” and “apocalypse” have become synonymous with the end of the world. They have been used to describe various earth-destroying events brought on by some form of natural disaster, or an interstellar object colliding with the earth, or even a horde of rampaging zombies. The term apocalypse, however, is derived from the Greek word “apokalupsis,” which doesn’t mean global annihilation, but instead means a prophetic disclosure or a “revelation.” The source of the term Armageddon reveals that its intended meaning is tied to a specific set of circumstances that lead not to end of the earth itself, but to the large-scale destruction of mankind.

What is Armageddon?

The concept of Armageddon originated from Christian theology, so the details of its meaning are inseparable from the Christian prophesy that inspired it and must be considered within that context. The term comes from one single mention in the Bible book of Revelation, which reads: “And they gathered them together to the place that is called in Hebrew Har–Ma·ged´on.” The term was translated in some English Bibles as Armageddon.

The literal meaning of Har–Ma·ged´on is “Mount of Megiddo.” Megiddo was located in Israel on a strip of land located between Egypt and Assyria and its strategic location made it the site of many major, decisive battles in history. But, since there is no actual mount at Megiddo, it’s likely that the mount referenced in Revelation was figurative and meant a global situation or condition in which those “gathered” will find themselves, rather than a specific location.

Who is the “they” that is supposed to be gathered together at the figurative mount at Megiddo? Revelation explains it’s the “kings of the entire inhabited earth” that are gathered together to the “war of the great day of God Almighty.” So Armageddon isn’t a manmade catastrophe or natural disaster, but it’s specifically the final confrontation between the Judeo-Christian God and the “kings of the earth,” or the earth’s political authorities.

However, the war of Armageddon is only one link in the chain of events that is supposed to lead to the end of the world as we know it. Revelation offers additional details of what is supposed to happen prior to the war of Armageddon when it gives details about the ride of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (said to represent conquest, war, famine and death), which are supposed to bring pangs of distress to mankind in the “last days.” Revelation also refers to a harlot riding on a wild beast with seven heads and ten horns. Prior to the war of Armageddon, Revelation states that the harlot will be devoured by the wild beast and then the wild beast will be destroyed by a warrior with flaming eyes riding on a horse, leading an army to fight the war of Armageddon.

Though some sects of Christianity believe the details of Revelation are literal (assuming the events pertain to an actual prostitute riding on the back of a seven-headed Godzilla monster), others choose to avoid explaining the complex imagery of Revelation altogether and label them a mystery that mankind is not supposed to understand. But some, most notably the Jehovah’s Witnesses, have used similar symbolism throughout the Bible to decipher a more metaphorical meaning of the prophesies in Revelation.

The book, “Revelation: It’s Grand Climax At Hand,” published by the Watch Tower Bible And Tract Society, notes that there are many instances in the Bible where animals and various beasts are used as metaphors for governments and world powers and uses that as the basis for its interpretation of the prophesies in Revelation.

According to the publishers, the description in Revelation linking the harlot riding the wild beast with “spiritistic practices” and “Babylon the Great” reveals her to be a global empire made up of the world’s “false religions” and the wild beast itself represents the combined efforts of the world’s political powers. The book links those political powers to the United Nations. Later in Revelation, the warrior with the flaming eyes is also referred to as “the king of kings,” a title which links the warrior’s identity to Jesus.

Therefore, using that explanation of Revelation’s symbolism, the world’s governments (the wild beast) have to turn on and destroy the world’s false religions (the harlot), an act that leads directly to Jesus (the warrior with the flaming eyes) descending from the heavens to destroy the world’s governments during the war of Armageddon in an effort to keep them from going after those he identifies as God’s people.

When it comes to defining the false religions, Revelation indicates that they are any religion that commits “fornication” with the “kings of the earth” and is responsible for shedding the blood of “prophets, holy ones, and of all those slaughtered on the earth.” This means any religion that worked in association with political powers and caused the deaths of people throughout the world. That description casts a large net that would include the majority of the world’s religions, even many Christian ones.

Because many Christian religions have a history rich in corruption, scandals, wars, atrocities, and political dealings that led to the deaths of countless people across the globe, some of them would fit the description in Revelation of a false religion and would be included in the destruction of the symbolic harlot. Their checkered history becomes a death sentence in light of the condemnation their actions receive from their very own holy book.

Once these false religions are wiped out, Revelation states that the war of Armageddon will begin and then all of the kings (or nations) of the world will be destroyed. Ironically, there are no exceptions mentioned in Revelation for politicians, political parties, or governments that claim to support a Christian agenda. In fact, claiming allegiance to any political authority from any country could essentially paint a bullseye on your forehead during the war of Armageddon, since its stated purpose in Revelation is to wipe out all human governmental authorities and replace them with a single theocratic government ruled by “the king of kings.”

Who is supposed to die during the war of Armageddon?

Revelation indicates that first the nations will destroy all false religions and then all national and political systems and those people “influenced” by them will not survive the war of Armageddon.

That could amount to several billion people, depending on how much or little influence by national and political systems it takes for someone to be marked for death. But, it also states that the war of Armageddon isn’t intended to destroy all of mankind. Later chapters go on to mention a dragon (Satan) being bound and hurled into an abyss for 1,000 years, which is supposed to herald an unprecedented era of peace for mankind. So clearly, despite popular misconceptions, the war of Armageddon is not intended to end with the extinction of all human life on earth.

What indicates that Armageddon will take place in December of 2012?

Even though world conditions do match those of the last days mentioned in Revelation (plagues, earthquakes, starvation, and war unlike any that have ever been seen), and as volatile as the situation is with the world’s political and religious powers, it seems unlikely that all of the prophesies that lead to the war of Armageddon will be fulfilled between now and December of 2012. This prophesy means that all of the influence Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and all of the other world’s religions have on politics would have to be completely wiped out or severely handicapped prior to the war of Armageddon taking place.

Considering how closely linked many current political powers are with various religions, it would take an enormous wave of anti-religious sentiment on a global scale to fulfill this prophesy by December 2012. While anti-religious sentiments do seem to be growing quickly worldwide, particularly against Christianity and Islam, it just doesn’t seem possible that the flames would be fanned enough to wipe out any of the world’s major religions, much less all of them, in just 5 months. Although, events like the September 11 attacks have shown how rapidly the world scene can change overnight. So, if tomorrow the United Nations starts supporting bans on all of the world’s religions, then there could be serious cause for immediate alarm.

Additionally, some of those who claim to believe what the Bible says about the war of Armageddon seem to ignore that the Bible also states that nobody, not even “the son” (or Jesus), will know when the war of Armageddon will come. The only hints to its timing are the sequence of events that lead into it and several references that its arrival will be unexpected, like “a thief coming in the night.” With that in mind, it’s unlikely that the Bible is full of hints or hidden codes that point to December 2012 or any specific date being God’s chosen time to start the war of Armageddon. In spite of the claims of some religious leaders, like Christian radio broadcaster Harold Camping, who became infamous in 2011 for his highly publicized and failed Judgement Day predictions, the actual day when the war of Armageddon is set to begin is supposed to remain unknown until it actually arrives.

How do you survive Armageddon?

Chances are that if the son of God decides to come after you during the war of Armageddon, you’re probably going to die. But Revelation does offer some clues as to who will be part of the “great crowd” that survives the war.

One way to survive is to “flee from Babylon the Great,” or, in other words, to not be associated with any organization determined to be a “false religion.” Since Revelation is written from a Christian perspective, obviously that means any religion outside of Christianity.

But, being Christian alone doesn’t guarantee survival. Revelation warns that “false prophets” misleading their congregations will also be destroyed. With all of the conflicting beliefs within varying sects of Christianity, undoubtedly, some of them will be seen as misleading their congregations, so not all of them would survive. In fact, they will be disposed of before the war even begins.

However, the Bible also does not guarantee that being considered a “good” Christian would keep someone from dying during the war of Armageddon or as a result of the calamitous events that are supposed to lead up to it. But since Revelation describes events taking place with humans on earth after Armageddon, it’s clear that some humans are expected to be alive, if not by surviving the war itself, then by means of one of the mass resurrections of humans mentioned later in Revelation, in which the dead shall rise.

These resurrections have often been cited as evidence that the Bible supports the notion of a zombie apocalypse annihilating mankind during Armageddon. However, Revelation doesn’t speak of the dead rising to feast on humanity, and these resurrections are not supposed to take place until AFTER the war of Armageddon. So they can’t be the means by which humanity is wiped out DURING the war of Armageddon. And since Revelation paints a picture of its post-Armageddon world as having happy and peaceful living conditions for the newly resurrected humans along with the rest of humanity, it’s improbable that such a world would include people eating other people.

Although some erroneously believe Armageddon is the same thing as Judgement Day, the two are different events prophesied to take place in Christian theology. In Revelation, Judgement Day doesn’t occur until after Armageddon and doesn’t happen all in just one day. Instead, the “day” of judgement represents the 1,000 year period during which Christians believe all “righteous and unrighteous” humans will be resurrected and judged against a new set of scrolls (or rules) presented to mankind during that 1,000 years. At the end of that 1,000 year Judgement Day, Revelation says Satan will be released from his abyss “for a short time” and will successfully manage to mislead an unknown number of humans into fighting a final war against “the holy ones.” But that success will be short-lived, as Revelation states that Satan and those he misleads will be destroyed by a fire that “came down out of heaven.”

At that point, the meek are said to inherit the earth and will get to live without fear of death for the rest of eternity… which leaves no room for zombies before or after Armageddon.

According to NBC chairman Bob Greenblatt this is going to be a “cool new version” of Dracula. The show is going to be set in the 1890′s with Dracula being an American entrepreneur in London to try to bring modern science ... Read More »]]> It has been a few years since Dracula has made an appearance. Vampires themselves are still big in movies and shows, but Dracula himself has been rather quite as of lately. This is all about to change thanks to NBC. NBC gave the green light to produce 10 episodes of ‘Dracula’ based on a script written by Cole Haddon and produced by Colin Callender, Tony Krantz, and Gareth Neame who have brought you such shows as “24″, Downtown Abbey” and “The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby”. The role of Dracula is going to be played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

According to NBC chairman Bob Greenblatt this is going to be a “cool new version” of Dracula. The show is going to be set in the 1890′s with Dracula being an American entrepreneur in London to try to bring modern science to Victorian society. However, his main goal in London is to get retribution on the people who centuries earlier ruined his life. Potentially ruining his plan of revenge, Dracula falls in love with a woman who appears to be the reincarnation of his dead wife from long ago.

It is nice to see a fresh new take based on the Dracula from Bram Stoker’s classic novel instead of the vampires such as the ones from “Twilight,” “Vampire Diaries,” and “True Blood.” There is no news on when the premiere date will be or who else is going to be cast in this series so stay tuned!

The legend of Tall Man in this movie is similar to the popular urban legend called Slender man, who is also a mythical tall and dark creature who steals ... Read More »]]> Released today was the trailer for the upcoming film The Tall Man, a suspense thriller about a mysterious figure that is the cause of missing children surrounding a small town called Cold Rock. The film is starring Jessica Biel (Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, The Illusionist) who plays a nurse living in the town with her young son. Dismissive of the Tall Man legend, she comes to be a believer when upon coming home she finds that her boy’s room is empty. Rushing downstairs she catches a glimpse of a dark figure holding him and chases after it desperate to find out where her child was taken and what this legend really is.

The legend of Tall Man in this movie is similar to the popular urban legend called Slender man, who is also a mythical tall and dark creature who steals away children in the night.

Tall Man is directed by Pascal Laugier, who also did the gruesome revenge masterpiece Martyrs. While this one isn’t nearly as bloody and graphic, it has the same effect of Martyrs in the sense that you are completely drawn in and mesmerized by the story which keeps you guessing until the very end. Little has been released about the film to avoid spoilers that might take away from the overall experience. Usually though, that’s for the best.

Also starring in the film are Jodelle Ferland (Silent Hill, Case 39), and Stephen McHattie (Exit Humanity, Watchmen, Pontypool) adding some horror veterans to the mix.

The Tall Man is set for theatrical release on August 31st 2012 and is rated R for violence and terror.

In my research I have come across the urban legend/myth of shadow people, a phenomena that seems to plague many people. These creatures, or whatever they are, look like shadows or silhouette’s of humans and are usually seen out of the corner of your eye and sometimes appear on walls in your house. When you try and look at them head on, they will dart past and disappear into a wall or another room.

One of the most misunderstood entities to be seen, they seem to come out mostly at night and usually hide in dark corners of hallways. They are similar to the legend called Slender Man, an unusually tall dark suited figure that stalks humans and is purported to steal children, according to ancient myths.

But unlike ... Read More »]]> “The world we live in exists only in our denial of the real world” -anonymous

In my research I have come across the urban legend/myth of shadow people, a phenomena that seems to plague many people. These creatures, or whatever they are, look like shadows or silhouette’s of humans and are usually seen out of the corner of your eye and sometimes appear on walls in your house. When you try and look at them head on, they will dart past and disappear into a wall or another room.

One of the most misunderstood entities to be seen, they seem to come out mostly at night and usually hide in dark corners of hallways. They are similar to the legend called Slender Man, an unusually tall dark suited figure that stalks humans and is purported to steal children, according to ancient myths.

But unlike Slender man, which claims to be a legend born through forums on the internet, shadow people are more believable only in the sense that so many individuals of all ages that have claimed to come in contact with this anomaly.

Descriptions of the entities range from a dark dense form taking the shape of a human, to dark hooded figures, whispy or smoky orbs, and even shapes of animals. The main factor is that they are a mass of dark matter that standout as a solid object in the darkness itself. It is said that flashlights cannot penetrate through their shape.

From countless stories that have been told, they hang around humans but do not wish to be seen. That is why they hide behind doors and furniture and why they rush out of sight when spotted. Other times they like to watch as we sleep and have been caught standing over people’s beds or even watching from the ceiling.

It is not certain what exactly the shadow people are. Sometimes, they are explained as spirits that are earth-bound who refuse the light afraid of what waits for them on the other side. Others have described them as inter-dimensional explorers who have found a way into our realm to study us. Some have been seen with red or yellow eyes.

Most are benevolent creatures who, like insects, are more afraid of us than we are of it. But there are also shadow people who carry more hostile personalities and give off a feeling of dread right before being seen, and many people have told of being paralyzed while being conscious and awake. These types of entities have been reported as speaking to their human targets saying things such as “come with me” or “here we are”.

I myself have had personal experiences with these beings. One night I felt myself wake up, but for some reason couldn’t move or even open my eyes. I felt conscious but could only see dense blackness and feel a heavy pressure like there was something on top of my chest holding me down. I had to use every ounce of will power I had to physically move out of the invisible restraints and was finally able to wiggle my finger. This seemed to break the spell and I shot out of bed gasping for air and confused as hell. This has happened to me only a few times in my life, thank God. As far as physically seeing one, I can attest to that too. One night I was standing outside my house having a smoke when I spied a dark figure way down the street. He crossed to the other side, walked down a bit, then did a zigzag to the other side. He walked fast back to the side he came from then crossed again, this time down a sidewalk on the adjacent street. After about 30 seconds he walks back up the sidewalk and crosses the street at a diagonal. This time he was almost running down the sidewalk right in my direction. I threw my cigarette on the ground and booked it into the house in a cold sweat. Just writing about this gives me goosebumps and to this day I can’t explain what the figure was. What stuck out the most, and leaves me questioning my sanity, was that the dark figure was just that. A dark outline of a tall man with no distinguishing features and absolutely no detail. Needless to say, I stopped going outside my house at night.

So many descriptions and tales from all around the world have been reported on this phenomena but with no conclusive evidence. I mean, how could there be. Everyone has a different story about where these beings come from or what they could be. Spirits, inter-dimension entities, alien entities. So many possibilities.

There is even a website dedicated to shadow people where you can read the countless testimonials of people and their experiences. Link to website: Shadowpeople.org

If you have any stories of your own, please feel free to tell them in the comment section below. In the meantime, if you see a shadow person walking in your direction, I would suggest running the opposite way.


Clint Peters stood in his front yard and watched as it traveled into the path of the sun staring as long as he could. Squinting into the light, Clint wondered where those people were going and if they were looking down at him. He was looking up from his huge farm,  his place in the country where he had everything he needed including food, water and electricity. There was no need to ever leave. He was content in his isolation and only went to the city to get the occasional entertainment. He wondered if they looked down at his home in the middle of nothing and thought of peace and quiet.

This made him grin a little on one side of his wide yet thin-lipped mouth. He ... Read More »]]> A plane flew overhead, it chopped the clouds behind it as passed.


Clint Peters stood in his front yard and watched as it traveled into the path of the sun staring as long as he could. Squinting into the light, Clint wondered where those people were going and if they were looking down at him. He was looking up from his huge farm,  his place in the country where he had everything he needed including food, water and electricity. There was no need to ever leave. He was content in his isolation and only went to the city to get the occasional entertainment. He wondered if they looked down at his home in the middle of nothing and thought of peace and quiet.

This made him grin a little on one side of his wide yet thin-lipped mouth. He always looked like a frog about to catch a fly when he did that.

When he looked back down, the girl he had clamped in his massive hands had finally stopped kicking and wriggling so he could get down to business. The sunlight blinded his vision so he could not see her face but she was not moving anymore and was quiet which was a good sign.

This is just the way he liked them. He had hoped to kill this one slower.


Maybe next time.

He tossed her finally limp body over his broad left shoulder and headed down to the basement. There was a few things he could only do to her while her body was warm and soft. He wanted to do those quickly. He rubbed his crotch in anticipation.

The cellar door slammed shut behind him, leaving only the sound of crows and the echo of a dying girl screaming between the rows of corn.

Clint had lived in this farm his whole life. His parents bought it before he was born. He had killed them at the age of 12, on his birthday.

Mom and Dad were singing happy birthday and Clint was holding the knife ready to cut the cake when suddenly, something snapped in his brain and he raised the knife high above his head and plunged it deep into his mothers throat. Her eyes bulged  in surprise and fear as blood-shot out of the gaping hole that ripped out her throat. He yanked the knife from her throat, and stabbed it right into his father’s heart ripping it right out. His father fell face first into the birthday cake, his hair catching fire from a candle.

His mother stood there holding her neck with blood being pumped through her fingers with every heart beat. She reached out in shock to her son that held the knife used to kill her and her husband. She was mouthing his name as she began to collapse with her last breath. She saw her son curiously turning his head to the left and grinning, seemingly enjoying the view.

That was the night Clint discovered his taste for blood by dipping his birthday cake in his mother’s blood before taking a bite.
Since then, Clint ran the farm alone with the occasional dinner guest.

                                                                 ***

“I told you we should have asked directions.” Betty said poking Terry in his side while he drove.

“We don’t need to ask directions, we got her!” Terry said and pointed at the GPS he had attached to the windshield in front of him. “Besides, who are you going to trust, some back woods hillbilly or a good old American, or maybe Chinese, piece of technology?”

“After twenty feet…turn left” the GPS interrupted.

The couple looked ahead at the long winding road, with nothing on either side but miles of corn fields and cow pastures. The surroundings were flat and treeless as far as the eye can see. There were no turns, not even wide enough to turn around, anywhere for miles.

“Chinese, must be.” Terry said turning the voice down on the device.

“I think I’ll take that back woods hillbilly now please.” His wife joked.

“Unless we are supposed to turn into a cow pasture to get to the lake…” Terry sighed.

“Who knows where these crazy Texans put their lakes. You know I read that 90% of all lakes in Texas were man-made. So maybe someone thought it would be a good idea to put one way the hell out here in the middle of, ” Betty flung her arms open wide,” all this lovely…nothing!  My point is, there is no one here to use it. Why didn’t they build a lake closer to more people, closer to –oh I don’t know— civilization maybe?”

“Turn left here.” The voice on the GPS interrupted again.

“Oh shut up you bitch!” Betty said and turned off the device. ”You are the one that got us lost in the first place.”

Terry patted his wife lightly on the leg, as if to say “there now  everything thing will be fine” and he turned up the CD player and the sounds of Black Sabbath filled the rental car as he sped up to try to make some time. He lit a cigarette and inhaled deeply, rolling the window down a little to let the smoke out.

There was forty five miles to the next city. He hoped that lake showed up before then or they might have to cancel this trip.

“Why don’t you take a nap, and when you wake up we’ll be there.” Terry said calmly.

“Ok honey.” Betty curled up in a tight little ball in the passenger seat and drifted off to sleep.

Terry drove for several more miles with nothing but the same sights until the sun began to set, all while Betty slept quietly beside him.

They had been married five years tomorrow and were out here to come to this lake house they read about on the internet to spend a week of doing nothing but enjoying each others company in the woods.

Terry had been working a lot lately with his new job. He worked at a hospital in an emergency trauma ward and has recently got his tenure at New York’s finest hospital. He was in charge of keeping people alive –no matter what, this took a lot of training and a lot of time.  But, Terry was the best at what he did, he could keep a man alive, almost no matter what damage his body had taken.

Betty and Terry had not been able to spend much time together lately. So, this week was going to be exactly what they needed.

The new job did come with a pay raise so they could afford things like this, so this week no laptops, no mobile phones, no XBOX, just man, his wife, water, and woods.

Sometime around seven o’clock Terry saw a light way in the distance on this seemingly never-ending road. A shining beacon in the darkness that might help them find their way out this black of nowhere, and back on the road to Lake Stillness.

Terry pulled in to the gas station slowly as to not to wake his wife. He pulled the emergency brake, locked the doors, and walked into the store.

Clint Peters sat in front of the store and waited until the man walked in and then he snaked over quietly. He could move very quietly for a man of his size and looked in the passenger window at Betty sleeping quietly.
He watched her breasts move up and down as she breathed, longing to touch the curve of her waist. Her dark hair fell slightly.

He wanted to hear her scream.

He wanted to know what shade of purple her liver was, and if her lungs tasted soft or chewy.

Clint Peters heard the men talking inside about directions and a lake, so he thought he would go in and see if he could be of any “help”.

Time to put on the mask, he thought as he opened the door. He turned his Texas Rangers ball cap a little sideways, slightly untucked his shirt, and put the act on.

He had lived in this town since he was born and ever since his parents murder by that horrible robber on his birthday so many years ago, everyone in this town has thought he was just right in the head, just “simple” polite and quiet. He kept to himself, and was a loner. And only came to the general store once or twice a month for some supplies.

Of course, they didn’t know about his occasional drives to the city to acquire his dinner companions. Or, the torture chamber, the meat processing plant, and storage facility in his cellar.

But tonight, a normal trip to the local store may have saved him a trip to the city for a dinner guest.

Clint Peters opened the door to the store, the bell rang out its cheery tone as the owner of the establishment turned to see who was coming in.

“Clint Peters!” He said. “Well how are you today boy? Haven’t seen you in a few weeks. You been busy up there on yer farm?”

“Heh…yea. Large farm, lots of work” Clint Peters said looking down to not make eye contact with anyone and keep his mask on as tight as possible. “I need ant killer please Joe.” He followed. “Them ants are murder this year.”

“Sure no problem son. I’ll get that right for ya,” said Joe. Then he turned to Terry and said “If you don’t mind mister?”

“Yea, go ahead. I’ll wait,” Terry said flipping through the magazine rack.

“That yer girlfriend in that silver car out front?” Clint Peters asked putting on all his practiced and charm and my innocent face.

Terry looked up at the hulking man in front of him, easily twice as wide as himself with hands as big as frying pan.

He stammered in spite of himself, “um…uh…no it’s my wife. Married five years tomorrow…were going to celebrate up at the lake.”  he managed a grin in spite of himself as well.

“That’s nice, “ Clint Peters said looking down at the floor “She’s awful purdy .” He said kicking a bottle cap around with his shoe.

Terry did not know whether to be flattered or terrified.”Thanks, I thought so. That’s why I married her.” he attempted to joke to lighten the mood that seem to be darkening in the room. But there was no reaction from the big man who loomed before him like a giant.

“I know a short cut to the lake. I can show you?” He put on his best smile considering how many teeth he was missing.

“But I think we got the directions to the lake now, ” Terry said waving his soon to be purchased map.” We’ll be fine, thanks anyways.”  Terry said taking a step back.

Luckily the owner of the store, who judging from the sign out front was named “Jimmy”, came out with the ant killer and the giant man standing in front of Terry grabbed the spray and walked out with a “Thank ya, Jimmy, y’all have fun at the lake it’s real purdy up there this time of year.”  Clint Peters grinned at Terry.

Inside he was thinking: ”I’ll be seeing you and that hot ass wife of yours soon.” as he shuffled out the door.

Terry stared after him to make sure he went nowhere near their car.

“Don’t pay him no mind, “Jimmy tried to reassure Terry,”he’s big but nice. He has a farm his parents left him around the other side of the hill there. Keeps to himself a lot, keeps quiet, he’s a little slow, but harmless”

“If you say so…” Terry said without taking his eyes off the man walking down the road. “So you say to left out of the parking lot here, go down about 3 more miles and then turn left at the mile marker sixty-seven sign?  Twenty minutes later we’ll be at the lake?” Terry repeated  as placed his handful of snacks on the counter with the map just in case.

“Yes sir. That’ll be twenty-six fifty-two for the gas, drinks  and chips. Thank ya kindly. Have fun at the lake!” Jimmy said smiling his good-bye to the out of Towner.

“Yea thanks” Said Terry mindlessly staring at the rental car out front  as he could not get the look of Clint Peters out of his head.

Clint Peters walked down the dirt road leaving the store with the bag full of ant killer. Those damn ants had found their way in to his basement and apparently they liked human flesh as much as he did. They were covering the tables, the drain in the floor, and anywhere else blood may have splashed that he had missed or didn’t feel like cleaning up yet, the ants found it…fast

It was getting so bad that the girl he started chopping up yesterday morning was covered in ants by night fall. He had not even finished “cleaning” the body yet to get it ready to freeze to eat later. Because of this, he got the garden hose out to wash off the ants and give the cellar a good cleaning, point of fact it was due for one anyway. Now that it was clean, the latest body was all carved up, wrapped up, and put away for later. Now he was going to poison the hell out of those ants.

He wondered if ants felt pain. Did they scream? He decided this job would be a lot more fun if they did, so he was just going to pretend that ants could scream in pain.

After all he had a pretty good imagination.

So now he was walking home with his ant killer, hoping for something to use to take pretty little brunette away that skinny little four eyes. When he saw a rotten tree barely standing on the side of the road his imagination kicked into gear again. This was the road that couple would be taking to the lake. That tree looked like he might be able to push it over.

Clint Peters shut out his thoughts of screaming ants, and put down the bag full of ant poison as he walked over to the dead tree and gave it a shove. The tree cracked and groaned like an old man getting out of bed in the morning. Pieces of wood fell to the ground like dirt.

Yes, he could do this. He picked up a rock and began to dig out the earth on the side of the tree by road the help guide the tree as it fell. This would hopefully cause the car to crash, take out the husband and let Clint take the girl home to play with. So, now he just waited for them to drive by.

Terry and Betty were back in the car and driving down the beautiful country road. Betty had woken up and Terry had decided not to even mention the run in with the locals. She sat next to him munching on chips and singing along to the Led Zeppelin songs Terry had playing on the CD player.

“I can’t wait to get to that lake, ugh, I’m so cramped from being in this car so long!” Betty said rubbing her neck.

“I hear ya baby. It will be nice to get this over with.” he agreed.

“I wonder if they will have jet skies to rent, I’ve always want to try those.” She said looking out the window. “Hey whats that guy doing…”

That was as far as she got when Clint Peters gave the rotten tree a mighty shove, as hard as he had ever pushed. The tree snapped at its base like it was made of glass and flew down through the air hitting the car hood with the power of a mighty hammer.

The small car stopped dead it place , the back of the car shot up in the air, Terry and Betty’s heads slammed into the airbags so hard they both were instantly knocked unconscious.

The sound of metal scraping against the dead tree filled the woods, sending every living creature but one, running in fear from the noise. That creature was Clint Peters. He stood and watched, waited for the commotion to end, and for the last pieces of metal and rubber to hit ground. The smell of exhaust, gasoline, and shredded metal filled his nostrils as he walked determinedly towards the passenger side door of the car.

Everything glass was broken and all of the air bags had been deployed. The smell of a car wreck, there was nothing else quite like it. Clint Peters stood outside the door that he had looked through a little earlier in the day when the window was not broken. The girl was just sleeping not unconscious at that time and all he thought he was going to get to kill today were ants.

The car door would not open so he just reached in, unbuckled her seat belt, moved the air bag out of the way, and drug her through the window opening. Terry sat with his face dug deep into the folds of his own air bag, unaware and unable to stop as the love of his life was taken away from him.

Clint Peters walked up the hill towards his farm.

No more worrying about the ants today. He had something now he knew was going to scream.

Terry was somewhere black, he could not hear anything because the ringing in his ears covered everything. His head pounded and pierced at the same time. The coppery taste of blood in his mouth seemed to bring him to consciousness more than anything else. Then the pain of his body, the ache grew as he started to realize the damage done to it when the car was violently stopped.
By–was it a tree? Did he hit a tree? Or did a tree hit him!?

“Betty!?” he managed to speak word that was muffled by the air bag. He lifted his head and focused his eyes on the seat next to him.

The empty seat next to him!

Where was Betty!?

Terry’s head swung and spun as he tried to get the car door open and the seat belt undone. He held on to the car to steady himself, and looked around. There was no sign of Betty.

He screamed her name, it echoed around the hills. Only the birds answered with their wings.

Terry spun around to look at the car. A massive tree lay across the hood of the car as if it fell from the sky. Steam and smoke poured from the crushed car, but no sign of Betty. Terry began to spin in circles screaming her name, but never heard any reply.

Then he saw something white and red  by the side of road. He ran to see what it was.
A bag of ant killer!

That giant white trash freak at the gas station! That’s where he saw that last. He must have his Betty. But where was he?!

He grabbed the bag of bug spray and started to run back down the road towards the gas station where he thought he could find some clue as to where Betty might be.

Betty woke up blindfolded and tied down hurting everywhere and unable to hear anything but water dripping somewhere in the room.

There was no gag in her mouth, but she chose to remain silent for a while until she had time to think.

She was listening, trying to remember what happened. Her and Terry were driving to the lake,  she saw a man standing behind a large tree beside the road, and then shades of a car wreck.

Then she woke up here. She could feel that she was tied to a mattress spread eagle with her arms above her head, blindfolded, and in a strange room. She knew this was not a good situation to be in. Screaming would only get the attention of whoever did this to her, so there is no point in screaming for help.

The longer she remains quiet the longer she has to think and make her peace if need be.
So, she breathed slowly and remained calm and strong trying to get her hands free as quietly as possible.

Clint Peters stood quietly in the room and watched her. He decided not to wait for her to speak.

“What are you doing?” he said through his maw of teeth, as he chewed on a sandwich made from his previous kill.

She jumped, startled by his voice, “You better let me go, my husband will find me and he will kill you if hurt me.” She tried to sound strong.

“He wont find you.” Clint Peters said. “He was unconscious when I left. Besides, I’d break him like a twig.”

“He’s a doctor, he’s smarter than you. You fucking hick. He will find me!” She spoke through her own teeth.

“Maybe,” he said in return,” But not in time.” He laughed to himself, threw down the meat sandwich, pulled out a knife, and walked towards the helpless girl.

He made a mental note to himself to clean this up fast, because he knew that he forgot the ant killer, and she may be right that the husband might come looking. So, he needed to get to business. “Sorry we don’t have time for some loving. You sure are a purdy thing.”

Now she began to kick and scream, trying to free herself. And hoping Terry would hear her where ever he was. She knew things where getting bad.

“Oh good…scream.” Clint Peters said closing his eyes, taking it all in. This one was a fighter so he was going to enjoy this.

Terry was no one where near her to hear the screams. He had run back to the store with the bag of ant killer trying to find out where the giant man he saw with this bag might have taken his wife.

Terry was not close enough to his wifes first scream as Clint plunged the knife into her flat stomach and began to pull out pieces.

Clint Peters always felt the first real scream in pain was always the best and much different from the screams before any actual pain had been handed out.

It was like someone turned the radio volume up to eleven that you thought only went to ten.

Terry didn’t know that the psychopath tore her open like a fish and gutted her.

He could not hear the power tools the twisted man used to take his wife down to small, easy to handle pieces and put her in the walk in freezer. Everything except the head and handswent into the freezer, those went into a box that would be fed to the pigs in the morning.

No intact body, no murder.

By the time Terry had Clint’s address and was running up the hill to his house, Clint Peters had washed away the blood the keep the ants out of his basement for the night. He would have to go buy more ant killer in the morning.

The ants on his little corner of the mountain were bad every summer.

But, this summer was the worst Clint Peters had ever seen.

Terry saw the lights of the cabin far up the side of the hill off in the distance like a giant fire-fly. Or, the gateway to hell. This made him quicken his pace.

Terry still held on to the box of powdered ant killer as he ran up the slope of the small mountain. His eyes fixed on the cabin, like the unflinching eyes of a shark going in for the kill. He had no idea what he would do when he got there, he knew the large man would easily best him psychically.

So, he had to use his wit.

The cabin snaked closer as Terry tried to rush and be quiet at the same time.

Off in the distance a coyote  howled, giving Terry a battle trumpet as he felt the limbs of the trees slapping him in the face, adding to his drive. A little pain to make the muscles alert and the mind awake. He had to think.

At last he reached the cabin touching the outside walls to see if he could feel anything “wrong” pulsing from the house. Could evil be felt?  Could horror and bad behavior be felt through the wooden walls of the run down and shabby cabin he now had his ear and hand pressed to? A light on in the first floor seemed to be coming from the main living room and the flicker of the shadows told Terry it was a television that was illuminating the first floor. That means the monster man was there, watching television which gave him time to investigate.

Terry walked around the back of the house and saw two cellar doors leading to the basement. Terry quickly moved over to the doors, but they were padlocked shut. The padlock looked like was one hundred years old.

Suddenly, Terry had an idea and pulled out his lucky scalpel he always had it with him. Any trauma doctor knows you need to know the piece of metal in your hand when you are working under severe conditions when there may be too much blood to see what you are using to cut.

I bet they didn’t make very good padlocks back then Terry thought. So, Terry tried to pick it with his scalpel. Suddenly, he heard a click and the locked popped open. Terry’s heart dropped. Time to go.

Everything in him told him Betty was in there. Every part of him said do what must be done.
Terry zipped his coat, cracked his neck and walked like the man on the mission that he was. Nothing could distract him, he had but one goal and only one purpose. He saw movement, a shadow passed the window, then dissapeared after coming to a chair.

Now was the time.

He opened the cellar door and rushed down into the basement not knowing what to expect. But, he was trying to prepare for anything, even the worst.

He could not have known what he would find in that dark, dank room that smelled of bleach and gasoline. Against the wall to the left of him was a wooden rack carrying every manner of bladed and pierced weapon that had ever been imagined in the sickest of minds. In the center of the room was a table that had handcuffs at each corner.

Terry’s face ran white with terror and fear as he noticed a bloody bag sitting on the floor beside the table. He walked slowly over the table, his hands trembling and sweat falling from his face in huge drops. The heavy burlap sack sagged in his hands when he picked it up and his eyes starting to sting as the sweat poured into them.

The blood dripped from the bottom off the bag and made a slap as it hit the concrete floor.

He opened the bag slowly as the light of the moon shined in the cellar door and down into the bag, Terry looked into the eyes of his wife. Her severed head and both her hands were in the sack. Their wedding ring still on her finger, covered in blood. Betty’s eyes were frozen open in a death stare. Her mouthwas stuck in a forever scream.

Terry lost himself after that.

Unable to make a sound for fear of attracting the attention of the very large man…no not a man, a monster…the very large monster up stairs that did this to the love of his life. Tears welled up in his eye and his face swelled with anger and hate. His heart iced over with a block so thick his feet and hands went numb.

Death was too quick for this monster. Jail was to kind for this thing. This beast had to suffer.

Terry closed the bag containing his wife’s head and hands. He held them close, silently swearing to avenge her. Her blood covered his chest. He let it remain there as it was his uniform, his battle gear. He reached down with two fingers and covered the tips in her blood and made war paint under his eyes.

Terry lost himself completely after that.
Terry was gone.
Nothing remained but vengeance.

He would find a way to capture that beast upstairs and make it suffer like no one in history has ever suffered. Death will come slow, and crawling over him like a wet blanket being pulled by turtles.

But, first things first, he had to catch and subdue the beast before he could make it suffer. It was upstairs watching television. He couldn’t tell what, but he could hear the beast laughing at the show. That was good, during the beasts loud bursts of laughter Terry could move and be sure to know where his target was in the house.

Terry had no weapons and he could not begin to best that monster in strength. He needed to use science. He began to look around him in this torture chamber, this den of death, there had to be something he could use against the unsuspecting animal above him. His hate helped him focus as he saw every object only for how much pain it would cause without being lethal instead of its actual use.

“Sometimes, you gotta think outside the box when it comes to surgery,”
His dad used to say before a drunk driver took his life on Saint Patrick’s Day two years ago. Terry’s father was a brilliant surgeon.

So, now Terry was going to think outside the box, something non-lethal that would wound again and again. He wanted to heap pain upon this creature and make sure it suffered for a long time. He sat quietly squatting on the basement floor, inspecting everything around him. There were no guns, not that he would want to use one –that would be too quick. But he was willing to bet there were guns upstairs since they were in backwater Texas after all.

As his eyes panned across the scene, the darkness in him began to come up with a plan. Tears came down his eyes again, tears of joy at the torment he would put this vile creature through for his wife.

Clint Peters was blissfully unaware of the demon he created that now plotted his torment and eventual death in his basement. He was watching his favorite show and even though this was a re-run, it one of his favorite episodes. His eyes were glues to the television set as the cast of Jersey Shore bounced across his screen. Oh the pleasures he has envisioned with those Yankee sluts. He had always wanted to know what a fake boob looked like from the inside. Those fake tanned bimbos would make for an entertaining weekend if he ever got hold of them. He wondered if their over cooked skin would taste different.

Terry dug through the implements of torture and death, trying to find what he needed to capture the beast. Betty’s name constantly on his lips, her blood covered his chest and ran in drops from the lines he drew under his eyes as he waited for another wave of laughter from upstairs to open a closet.

Inside he found exactly what he needed. A blow dart gun with several darts loaded with a liquid. Judging from the boxes on the shelves in the closet, that liquid was none other than M99, Etorphine Hydrochloride! Even the antidote “Revivon ” was there in case of over dose.  Apparently the foul thing upstairs was not as slow as the towns folk thought, it was all just to help cover up his extra-curricular activities.
This thing was smarter than he thought. This was good to know. Never under estimate your foe.

But, luckily Terry was pretty smart too. He knew exactly what it was, and knew it would knock out the monster he was after for hours allowing him time to prepare. A twisted smile curled under Terry’s nose, and the darkness shone brighter in his eyes as his plan began to blossom. He took three darts and the blow gun and began to walk up the stairs to his target.

He cracked open the door leading to the upper part of the house, and peeked out side. All he saw was a hallway. The creature he had come to torment let out another hail of laughter.

“Good, now I know where you are,” Terry thought.

Terry sneaked down the hallway with the blowgun loaded and ready to go slowly making his way to the living room where he could see the shadows bouncing off the walls. He peeked around the doorway and saw the back of the monsters head, like a target ready to be shot. Terry pulled the blowgun up to his mouth, inhaled quietly, took careful aim, filled his lungs, and exhaled as fast as he could. The dart shot out of the blow gun like a bullet and shot straight and true hitting the man’s head just above his neck.

Clint Peters felt a sharp pain in the back of his head, he reached back with his hand and pulled out a dart! Not just any dart, HIS dart. The ones he used to capture his playthings from time to time. But, he did not go out, he pulled out the dart and stood to his feet and turned around to see the man he left in the car earlier in the day holding his blow gun. Clint felt a little dizzy but not like he was about to pass out, so he grabbed the chair he was sitting in and threw it at the man who shot him.

The chair missed and hit wall beside him, plaster and wood chips went flying through the air like shrapnel. Clint roared in anger and lunged towards the man.

“What are you doing in my home!!??” Clint bellowed through the haze of the M99.

“I’ve come for revenge, for my wife.” Terry said calmly loading another dart.

“Hah! I will kill you and feed you to my pigs!” Clint screamed and raised his arms to smash the small man like a bug.

Terry fired the second dart hitting Clint right in the chest, but, this did not stop his momentum and both of Clint’s large hands landed squarely on Terry’s shoulders sending him collapsing to the ground like a rag doll. Terry could hear something crack as the fists hit their mark.

Both men now lay on the floor. One in pain and the other so drugged he can barely move, but still moving towards the other man mumbling “kill you, kill you, kill you”  Clint reached out his hand and grabbed Terry’s foot, while Terry took the third dart and jammed it right in the hand. Clint did not even have time to scream before the etorphine finally took effect and he blacked out, passing out asleep on the floor while Terry sat beside him breathing heavy and in shock that it took three doses to put this large man down. His shoulders ached from where his huge hands made contact.

But, now he had work to do. He grabbed Clint by the hands and with much effort drug him down the stairs to the basement. A pity the man did not feel his body hitting each step on the way down, but there was plenty of pain coming.

Clint felt himself coming from somewhere very dark and very far away…the light hurt his eyes, and he found himself staring at something he had never seen before, at least not from this angle. His basement ceiling. His entire body hurt. Running down the length of his arms and legs, and something was gagging him. He tasted plastic and blood. He tried to move, but found that he couldn’t. He was not tied down, but his arms just seemed to be attached to the table.

Every tiny movement hurt. He lifted his head up as far as he could and saw the small man who  shot him with a large needle sewing something down by his leg, he started to kick and move his arms. But, not only could he tell his legs were hand cuffed on his very own killing table, but also the pain in his arms was keeping him from moving at all. He could still move his left leg and most of his right leg. But he could tell they were handcuffed.

“Oh you woke up a little early!” Terry said stopping his task and turning to the table  behind him. “I can’t have you ripping your stitches. You are a very sick man, and I am here to cure you. Don’t worry, I’m a doctor, you’ll be fine.” Terry patted Clint on the forehead.

Terry got up very close to Clint’s face and stabbed his throat with another dart. “See you in a few.” He said as Clint’s eyes began to lose focus and he passed out again. Terry waved good-bye

The next time Clint woke up he found that the linear pain ran down both arms, his sides and all the way to his feet and movement was impossible. He could tell there was a tube in his mouth and tasted the plastic hose running down his throat. As his vision slowly became more in focus he could see that same man standing over him grinning sadistically.

Terry walked closer to the table when he noticed the beast was awake smiling happily at the justice about to be handed out.

He pulled out another dart and jammed it in Clint’s arm with a sadistic smile on his face.
Clint’s eyes widened in fear at going to sleep and waking up in a worse situation, obviously if this man wanted him dead, he would be dead by now.

“Oh don’t worry. This is the antidote to the M99. Can’t have you going and dying early on me.” Terry smirked as he walked around the table.

Clint tried to talk, but the tube down his throat was too big to allow his vocal chords to move.

“You might feel some pressure, ” Terry grinned at his own joke, “if you try to move. That is because I covered your table with leather from your shed and you are sutured to your table through that! I want to thank you for the use of your…operating room. I promise I’ll make good use of it. Soon your treatment will work. As I said, you are a very sick man and you need to be treated for your illness.” Terry grinned deeply and pulled up close to Clint’s face.

Clint could feel pain over his entire body, his arms and legs we’re stitched to the table which he could tell was now covered in leather.

“You won’t be able to move as I have completely covered it in leather that I took that from your barn. I hope you don’t mind. Eventually your skin will grow into the leather and if you survive long enough you and the table will be one. Isn’t that exciting!” Terry said slapping Clint in the face.

“Just like those really morbidly obese people who can’t move, and have to be surgically removed from their beds when they die?  That’s YOU!” Terry hit Clint in the stomach, knocking the breath out of him.

“Oh imagine the headlines you will make when they find your body.” Terry stared off into space for a moment.
Clint tried to threaten and swear at the small man but the hose in his mouth only made him mumble and the movement of the tube triggered his gag reflex and he now began to throw up all over his own face. Vomit ran up his nose, and stung his eyes. Down lower where his stomach was sewn to the leather covering the table his skin ripped a little more. Pain ran up and down his body as the smell and taste of vomit overwhelmed his senses and his body convulsed pulling on the leather stitch that was used to sew him down to the leather table.

“Oh…yea. You better get used to that. You see I used a garden hose for your feeder tube, and it’s pretty big. So it’s bound to trigger quite a few vomiting episodes. So just be sure you keep your head turned to the side or you might drown in your own vomit. And wouldn’t that be awful?” This time it was Terry’s turn to laugh and laugh he did.

“I have arranged that the General Store will come and deliver just enough food for you to survive every three days. They will drop it in a shoot I have made on your porch. Once they dump it in there, you will hear a bell go off. This means you have twenty seconds before the food starts pouring down that garden hose in your throat. Once the delivery boy droops it in the slot, it will travel down a shoot into a wood chipper, which I also borrowed from you…hope you don’t mind. This will grind it into a paste and pour it down that tube directly to your stomach. Packaging and everything. I’m sure it wont taste very good, but it will keep you alive so you can suffer longer sewn to this table day after day.”

Vengeance came full force and took Terry’s body and claimed it this day.

“You also might feel some pressure in your penis and anus.”  That joke will never get old he decided.

“That’s because I fitted you with an enema and a catheter, we gotta keep it clean down here so that the party guests won’t be ran off by your filth. What guests you ask? I know you can’t talk, so I am just going to assume by that look on your face that’s what you want to know. Why…these visitors? Something else you killed on this property, but they were here before you were.”

Terry held a small wooden box over Clint’s chest. He opened it, turned it upside down, and twenty or thirty fire ants fell out onto Clint’s chest. The angry little bastards began to attack Clint’s open wounds, neck, and chest immediately.

“You see, I have created a trail from the two rather large fire ant mounds nearby. If you could lift your head you could see they are already building paths to your cellar and these little guys will get the party started. I have also pierced items into you several places that are not lethal, just painful, and am using those pain points to keep you still. The blood caused from this will attract even more ants. Every time you struggle, hell every time you barely move those pierced points will rip and tear a little more at you. Never enough to bleed to death, I was very precise.”

“The food stops in a year. If the ants don’t kill you by then, starvation will take over at any point. You may notice the three needles hovering above your chest. Those are my guarantee that you never get out of this basement alive. Once I leave and set the traps, if anyone opens either the door at the top of the stairs, or the cellar door, the needles will pierce your evil flesh and you will be dead in five minutes in a very painful way. A little something I concocted together using your m99 and ant killer.”

Clint began to try to beg, a hard thing to do with a garden his in your mouth.
Terry just said “Shut up!” and slapped him in the face again.
Clint began to cry.

“You may have noticed the camera?? Or not, fucking rednecks prolly know nothing about technology.” Terry pointed to a blinking light in the rafters, then slapped Clint again.

“Betty and were going to film our vacation up by the lake, and now it is my eternal link to you! It’s solar-powered and I can see you on that camera anytime I want from my phone or my computer. See? Look!”

He held up his smart phone to Clint’s face and Clint could see himself tied to the table. He was naked with tubes running everywhere as Terry had promised. He was bleeding and crawling with ants. He could see the blood dripping down the sides of his body where he had been sewn to the table.

“And I will be keeping an eye on your…treatment.  You can’t move since you are nailed and sewn to this table, you can’t scream, hard to do with a one inch garden hose down your throat, and you won’t starve to death, at least not for a year. My hopes are that the fire ants kill you sooner, saving me a little money paying for your food every 3 days. And, if anyone tries to rescue you, not likely, the only that will happen is you dying a little sooner by those darts filled with poison. Plus, I know where you live; I might just come here on vacation just to pull a finger off or cut a piece out of you. You see, I know one hundred places to stab you that will hurt like hell but won’t kill you. Hell, I might just fly all the way down here just to do this.” Terry cleared his throat and spit a huge wad in Clint’s eye.

“You have given birth to a monster today. You better pray I decide to end it in a year, I may begin to like this and keep you alive to continue your treatment. You better pray I let you starve to death in a year.” Terry laughed. “I might enjoy torturing you too much and make it last longer than a year. I’m kinda starting to like this. In fact, I’m starting to like this state. I bet I could get a job in Dallas, that way I could come see you more often.”

Terry slapped Clint as hard as he could three times, and giggled a little. Even his own hand began stinging.

With vengeance, Terry turned and left his target nailed and sewn to the table as an army of ants headed his way. This was the slow torture he deserved, a death that could even be prolonged to Terry’s liking.

Death is too quick.

Jail is too humane.

Torture and humiliation, along with a slow carefully planned death, is the way of true vengeance.

END
-by Skot Six
© 2012

This time, the attack came from a drunken bus driver named Dong in Wenzhou City, China. Dong was having lunch with friends while allegedly drunk when all of a sudden he rushed out into traffic stopping a woman in her vehicle. He jumped on the hood and began beating at the windshield.

The vehicle’s driver, a woman named Du, ran from her car and was chased down by ... Read More »]]> All across the United States, stories of people biting or even eating one another before going into fits of uncontrollable violence have been popping up. It all started with the may 26th attack on Ronald Poppo, whose face was eaten off by Rudy Eugene, in Miami. A string of milder forms of people eating other people soon followed causing rumors of a zombie apocalypse approaching. Now, it seems the invasion has moved to China.

This time, the attack came from a drunken bus driver named Dong in Wenzhou City, China. Dong was having lunch with friends while allegedly drunk when all of a sudden he rushed out into traffic stopping a woman in her vehicle. He jumped on the hood and began beating at the windshield.

The vehicle’s driver, a woman named Du, ran from her car and was chased down by Dong who then tackled her to the ground and began gnawing on her face. Horrified onlookers tried to pull him off but for some reason couldn’t stop the crazed bus driver.

They must be pumping steroids through the A.C. ducts of the busses now because from what I’ve seen, a crowd usually trumps one drunken psycho.

Police arrived finally ending the feast of flesh, although in this case, it seemed more like an appetizer.
Du was then rushed to the hospital where doctors say she will need plastic surgery to fix her nose and lips where most of the biting had occurred. Dong was arrested and taken into custody. No word yet on the cause of his behavior.

People must be asking questions by now as to why this is happening. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have given an official denial to the Huffington Post that there is not a zombie apocalypse drawing near.

The desire to know what caused a man in Miami can eat another man’s face.
Miami Face Eater

Or, how a man can seemingly without reason slaughter his roommate and proceed to munch on his heart and brain.
Kenyan Student Eats Roomate

Theories circulating the internet range from a wide array of possibilities for the cannibalism including new street drugs, modified foods, pathogens in the water, vaccines, and even chemtrails. Maybe all the poisons they pump into the environment are finally catching up to our bodies and those of us without proper immunities will slowly begin to drawn into a state of feverish rage feasting on those who are unfortunate enough to get in our way.

Just a thought. At this point your guess is as good as mine.

After all…it’s only a game. But, the Dead Space franchise is truly terrifying. The creatures you fight come out of nowhere and are very hard to kill. Unlike most games, head shots do not help.

The undead monsters chasing you may look dead at first, but then they pop up and scare the crap out of you at the last second, or jump at you from a dark corner, or bust through a wall. This is seriously one of the scariest games I have ever played. The monsters are mutated dead humans that have been twisted into horrid spiked shapes that do not die easily.

After playing the games I then, just recently, watched DEAD SPACE Aftermath which is supposed to take place between DEAD SPACE 1 and ... Read More »]]> There are very few games that can make me jump and yell in terror while I am playing.

After all…it’s only a game. But, the Dead Space franchise is truly terrifying. The creatures you fight come out of nowhere and are very hard to kill. Unlike most games, head shots do not help.

The undead monsters chasing you may look dead at first, but then they pop up and scare the crap out of you at the last second, or jump at you from a dark corner, or bust through a wall. This is seriously one of the scariest games I have ever played. The monsters are mutated dead humans that have been twisted into horrid spiked shapes that do not die easily.

After playing the games I then, just recently, watched DEAD SPACE Aftermath which is supposed to take place between DEAD SPACE 1 and DEAD SPACE 2. And explains what happens to the crew aboard the O’Bannon between the games.

This is an animated movie. It jumps back and forth between computer animation and normal animation depending on the time …past or present. This is very handy to keep track of the timeline.

This movie is just as scary as the game. You never know when something horrifying is going to jump out at you from the dark corner just out of your line of sight.

You never know who is going to lose it mentally and start shooting guards, and no one one is quite sure what the “corporation” is really up to…but whatever it is it’s not good. I can tell you that much.

Also, there are lots of very cool references and throw backs to the game. For example, the life bar on everyone’s back and the helmets people wear. As well as, lots of name dropping from the first game and plenty to tie it to the story line, as well as building on the story line for the second game. Unfortunately, I played both games before I watched the movie….but I wish I could have seen the movie between the games, it really made sense of quite a few things…..dropped a few names and hinted as to what is to come in DS2.

But, even if you have played DS2 it WELL worth the 44min to watch “DEAD SPACE Aftermath.” It’s on Netflix’s Watch Now, and I HIGHLY recommended it, it’s gory as fuck and helps introduce characters that will appear in the seconds game. This movie also gives you a little back story to the second game, because if these games lack anything it is a bit of explanation. You are dropped on a dying ship filled with monsters that are damn near impossible to kill armed with nothing but a pistol for quite a while.

This is a TRUE HORROR GAME! It WILL scare you, even if some of the scares are just “boo” scares, you WILL be frightened.

Play it with the lights of, and if you smoke pot…blaze up first!

What about the red stuff you ask? Oh, there is PLENTY. The blood sprays in gallons on your screen. With a very interesting plot pushing the red red groovy substance right into your face. The blood in the movie falls like rain, both on peoples heads and all over their bodies. The movie is as gory as a slaughter house from start to finish. Which, in my book is a very good thing. The more blood the better!

Necromorphs begin to rise from the coffins they were laid to rest in as the ship rapidly becomes out numbered by the undead compared to the living things which start to make things get very tense.

I wont give away the ending but keep in mind this is a movie that fit between the two games. So obviously, the people in the movie don’t completely succeed…or there would be no second game. And the second game is WAY better the first.

The scares and terrors are much more often, so be sure you have the lights OFF.

Two very horrifying, and very entertaining games. If you have played the games, then you should watch this movie. It fills in a few gaps and takes you a few places you didn’t know existed between the two games.

So this is a really unique mix of game/movie/game.

But, they all stand very well on their own, even if you never played the games you should be able to watch the movie and still enjoy and understand it.

I have played both games, and now watched the movie and I feel like I am whole, I am complete!

The Dead Space epic horror series is set to continue in early 2013 with Dead Space 3 the Video Game.

The Necromorphs are still out there somewhere…

In the meantime, visit the Official Dead Space 3 website

To learn more make sure to check out these websites!

Official Website for Don’t Go On The Trail

Official Website for Sickafyed Films

YouTube for Sickafyed Films

I know what you’re thinking. Another crappy P.O.V. (point of view) horror movie fully equipt with a shaky lens and bad zoom. That is precisely what kept me from watching this on Netflix. I would casually pass over it thinking it was just another Ghost Hunters rip off type of show having not paid attention to the length which is 92 mins, about the time of a feature film. But, after I caught the trailer on my Facebook feed it all became clear. I was intrigued while viewing the goosebumps inducing preview which doesn’t do the movie justice, so don’t skip out due to any preconceived notions you may have about the “mockumentary” genre.

The premise of the film surrounds a group of amateur ghost hunters who are trying to make it big with their show ... Read More »]]> Directors: The Vicious Brothers
Release Year: 2011

I know what you’re thinking. Another crappy P.O.V. (point of view) horror movie fully equipt with a shaky lens and bad zoom. That is precisely what kept me from watching this on Netflix. I would casually pass over it thinking it was just another Ghost Hunters rip off type of show having not paid attention to the length which is 92 mins, about the time of a feature film. But, after I caught the trailer on my Facebook feed it all became clear. I was intrigued while viewing the goosebumps inducing preview which doesn’t do the movie justice, so don’t skip out due to any preconceived notions you may have about the “mockumentary” genre.

The premise of the film surrounds a group of amateur ghost hunters who are trying to make it big with their show Grave Encounters. The film opens with a “producer” who explains about the found footage of what would have been episode 6 of the show. His mood changes as he tells the camera that nothing has been edited or changed then goes to present the footage which was “lost” for 7 years.

Episode 6 of Grave Encounters takes place at Collinwood Psychiatric Hospital which had been closed for half a century and rumored to be haunted. The host of the show, Lance Preston, takes us on location starting with the usual interviews from staff and groundskeepers giving a bit of the hospital’s sordid history. A history full of patients who have been severely tortured by way of neglect, electroshock, and unnecessary lobotomies. Lance and his crew have agreed to be locked in the hospital overnight after being shown the paranormal “hotspots” of the place. The outtakes show a very skeptical crew of investigators most of which don’t even believe in the paranormal and proceed to make wisecracks about it. This I found to be quite amusing and refreshing giving a stronger sense of foreshadowing for the night to come.

The disbelieving crew set up their equipment and the first few hours give little proof of the paranormal. Then a door slams next to Lance and soon after Sasha, the occult specialist of the group, feels a presence brush her hair up. After catching this amazing footage on camera, Lance convinces the now freaked out crew to stay and finally get the evidence they need to get their show off the ground. But, soon they see that the spirits around them are of a hostile nature. After deciding that they have sufficient evidence, they send a crewman to pack up the cameras so they can get the hell out. They wait and when he doesn’t return, things go from bad to just plain horrible as the crew fights to make it out alive with their sanity intact.

I have to tell you I have been a lifelong watcher of horror movies and have a special fondness for the haunted house/paranormal sub-genre. This film had me on the edge of my seat and actually covering my eyes at certain points! In a sea of recent P.O.V. movies, this one stands out as one of the most original I have witnessed to date. So take a chance with this one and toss any former ideas about this genre out the window as this one may surprise you. My advice, forget it was ever intended to be fiction and let it be real.

The writer did well for a genre that’s been beat to death.

Four out of five blood drops!

Lundgren posted the following image from the set in Singapore on his Facebook wall.

In Battle of the Damned, Lundgren plays Max Gatling, a private military soldier who is sent into an abandoned city to find the daughter of a rich industrialist.

On his official website, Lundgren says, “he gets more than he bargained for.”

Lundgren adds, “This time I’m up against virus-infected human zombies, ‘Eaters’ as we call them. … Fortunately, I enlist some kick-ass run-away robots to help me in the battle.”

The following has appeared on several websites as the official plot synopsis for the film:

“On the outskirts of civilization, a remote test facility lays in ruin following a catastrophic security breach. All that remains is a handful ... Read More »]]> Dolph Lundgren began filming in Singapore for Battle of the Damned, which will feature the action movie star facing off against zombies and robots.

Lundgren posted the following image from the set in Singapore on his Facebook wall.

In Battle of the Damned, Lundgren plays Max Gatling, a private military soldier who is sent into an abandoned city to find the daughter of a rich industrialist.

On his official website, Lundgren says, “he gets more than he bargained for.”

Lundgren adds, “This time I’m up against virus-infected human zombies, ‘Eaters’ as we call them. … Fortunately, I enlist some kick-ass run-away robots to help me in the battle.”

The following has appeared on several websites as the official plot synopsis for the film:

“On the outskirts of civilization, a remote test facility lays in ruin following a catastrophic security breach. All that remains is a handful of survivors, their small armory of weapons, and a fleet of the infected. The breach lead to a viral outbreak that left hundreds dead or mutated. Now the infected walk the land, stalking the few that stayed alive.

“Led by private military operative Max Gatling (Dolph Lundgren), our heroes have learned to fight against the infected, in hopes that rescue will soon come from the outside world. What they weren’t expecting, though, was the emergence of another deadly threat.

“The breach also gave way to the escape of a band of malfunctioning prototype robots. Armed and incredibly dangerous, the robots could either be an indomitable force… or an unexpected ally in their battle against the infected masses.”

One of the film’s producers, Ehud Bleiberg, has been quoted as saying, “It’s going to be so intense and thrilling and it’s never been seen before! Humans versus zombies versus robots. Having Dolph on board just takes it to a whole new level. He brings so much to the table and he’s looking forward to digging into this role.”

Lundgren, who rose to fame as Rocky’s Russian opponent in Rocky IV, has appeared in over 50 films, including Masters of the Universe, Universal Soldier and The Expendables. He is also featured in two sequels this year, with Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning and Expendables 2 slated for release in the fall of 2012.

I don’t have anything against video games, I just don’t have the time to play them. But, I have found that most movies based on video games are a detestable waste of time. That’s why I had no interest in seeing any of the previous Resident Evil films. That is until September 2010, when I saw the previews for the fourth and most commercially successful film in the series, Resident Evil: Afterlife. It looked like it actually might be worth seeing.

Since I hadn’t seen any of the previous films, I decided ... Read More »]]> Resident Evil: Retribution stars a model-turned-actress and is the 5th installment in a zombie film franchise based on a popular video game that I never played. So what could possibly explain why I was so excited to come across the trailers for the upcoming September 2012 release of this film?

I don’t have anything against video games, I just don’t have the time to play them. But, I have found that most movies based on video games are a detestable waste of time. That’s why I had no interest in seeing any of the previous Resident Evil films. That is until September 2010, when I saw the previews for the fourth and most commercially successful film in the series, Resident Evil: Afterlife. It looked like it actually might be worth seeing.

Since I hadn’t seen any of the previous films, I decided to watch the original to get caught up on the story and see if it would be worth watching any of the others before the release of Afterlife.

In Resident Evil, a virus is unleashed inside the Hive, a genetic research facility run by the Umbrella Corporation, and the building’s artificial intelligence (the Red Queen) puts the entire company on lockdown trying to contain the virus. Unaware that the virus has mutated all of the employees into zombies, a team of commandos brings Alice (Milla Jovovich) and several other Umbrella employees back into the facility to attempt to figure out what happened. Suddenly, all hell breaks loose, and people start getting killed by laser defense systems, zombified office workers, and mutated monster animals. The survivors have to find a way to escape the Hive before the Red Queen permanently seals them inside of it, while also trying to find an anti-virus to cure one of the commandos (Michelle Rodriguez) who was infected by the mutating T-virus.

Resident Evil’s surprising mix of action, science-fiction, and horror, along with tough likable characters, large-scale apocalyptic storytelling, and really cool special effects distinguishes it from most run-of-the-mill zombie movies which made it exactly the type of movie I tend to like. It’s underlying anti-corporate theme is one that fans can easily identify with in light of the recent global economic climate and that adds just another element to give fans a reason to root for Alice against the evil Umbrella Corporation.

Despite enjoying the first film, by the time I bought and watched the first 3 live-action movies (Resident Evil, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Resident Evil: Extinction), as well as the animated Resident Evil: Degeneration, Resident Evil: Afterlife was no longer showing in theaters. I wound up buying it and watching it on my laptop after it was released on DVD in December of 2010.

My excitement for Resident Evil: Retribution comes from the fact that it will be the first film in the franchise that I actually get to see it on the big screen. But, in addition to that, the film also features Michelle Rodriguez (Lost, Avatar, Fast & Furious) returning as Rain Ocampo, who died at the end of the first Resident Evil film. How is she alive? Is she a clone? Who cares! It’s Michelle Rodriguez, who is making a name for herself by playing strong action roles like her character Ana Lucia on Lost. Between Rain and Alice, you know there will be plenty of butts, both living and undead, kicked in this film.

Each film also ends with a set-up for the next film. When we last saw Alice in Afterlife, she was on board a cargo tanker with other survivors and was about to be attacked by a squadron of Umbrella Corporation assault helicopters led by one of her former allies, Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory), who was wearing an Umbrella Corporation mind control device.

After 4 movies, the series is still holding up remarkably well and, despite being panned by most critics, it’s showing no signs of slowing down. Afterlife made $295 million dollars at the box office worldwide, more than twice as much as any of the previous films. Combined, the series has generated close to $700 million in ticket sales worldwide.

The films are as unapologetically visceral an experience as you’d expect from a first-man shooter zombie video game, with loads of gunfire, exploding heads, and creative carnage. The R rating is attributed to violence and language. Unlike many other horror films, where people stuck in life-and-death situation somehow manage to find the time to grope each other, you won’t find any nudity or sexual situations in the Resident Evil films. All the characters are usually too busy trying to stay alive.

In conjunction with the official website for Resident Evil: Retribution, Sony Pictures has also launched a website for the Umbrella Corporation, complete with a recruiting video, and a few unexpected surprises.

Umbrella Corporation Website

Founded by Missouri Pharmacist John Francis Queeny in 1901, almost every non-organic food product available has a connection with Monsanto. GMOs, or genetically ... Read More »]]> Do you ever stop to question what’s in the food you are eating or perhaps who is producing it? In my experience, the answer is more often than not a resounding no. Well, something to consider regarding this is that unless you eat organic foods all the time, most of what we eat comes out of a company that has been accused by many as being one of, if not the most, evil corporations on the planet. Does the name Monsanto ring a bell? If not then I urge you to read on and learn a little bit about what is lurking in your food pantry and why Monsanto is blamed for poisoning humans for over a century.

Founded by Missouri Pharmacist John Francis Queeny in 1901, almost every non-organic food product available has a connection with Monsanto. GMOs, or genetically modified organisms, appear in 70% of all processed food products in America and are used on 80% of crops. According to Wikipedia, ”genetically modified organisms are an organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. These techniques, generally known as recombinant DNA technology, use DNA molecules from different sources, which are combined into one molecule to create a new set of genes. This DNA is then transferred into an organism, giving it modified or novel genes.” So why were GMO’s created? Well, the official answer is for the purpose of prolonging the shelf life of produce and the production of herbicide resistant seeds which make crops pest and disease resistant.

Those two things may sound beneficial to farmers and to the public at first, but upon further investigation you can see that it’s actually quite the opposite. The American Academy of Environmental Medicine has warned that foods we consume that have been genetically modified, as opposed to organically grown from seeds found in nature, can be a serious threat to our health causing chronic diseases, cancers, and more recently new allergies. Not to mention being linked to thousands of sick, sterile, and dead livestock that consume these crops. If it isn’t safe for the animals, how could it possibly be safe for us humans to eat?

These GMO seeds are used mostly to grow corn and soy beans as well as cotton. Monsanto also produces the herbicide called Roundup Ready to spray on crops and also sell seeds with the Roundup formula. The International Journal of Biological Studies states the effects of these ingredients: Monsanto Mon 863, Mon 810, Roundup-herbicide absorbing NK 603 in corn caused kidney and liver damage in rats as well as damage to the heart, spleen, adrenal glands, and blood of rats that consumed the corn. If you own a farm that is next to another farm that uses Monsanto seeds and those seeds migrate onto your land, you can be sued by them for royalties.

Adding to the list of atrocities committed by “MonSatan”, is the fact that they have put most small farmers out of business by lawsuits filed against them claiming violation of their seed patents. Monsanto is frequently described by farmers as being the “Gestapo” or “Mafia” by the way they bully farmers into taking settlements because they cannot afford time-consuming lawsuits, and the questionable means that they use to gather evidence for the supposed “patent infringements”. In the past decade there have been over 125,000 suicides by Indian farmers after using genetically modified seeds hoping to yield better results with their crops. Monsanto convinced them to stop using organic reuseable seeds for the genetically modified ones but when their harvests failed and the farmers went bankrupt. They started taking their lives by drinking Roundup Ready herbicides. Oh, the irony.

Originally a chemical company until the late 1990s, Monsanto was a much larger ‘lifesciences’ company whose business covered chemicals, polymers, food additives and pharmaceuticals, as well as agricultural products. Historically Monsanto has been involved with the production of PCBs, DDT, dioxins and the defoliant / chemical weapon ‘Agent Orange’ (sprayed on American troops and Vietnamese civilians during the Vietnam War). A suit was filed against Monsanto for the debilitating effects Agent Orange had on Vietnam veterans. Over 3,000,000 servicemen were contaminated by the chemical and 4.8 million Vietnamese people were exposed to it causing over 400,000 deaths and disabilities and 500,000 children were born with birth defects. In recent news, Monsanto’s GMO foods have been proven in laboratory studies on rats and mammals including monkeys to cause new allergies, cancer, sterility, miscarriages, seizures, and even death. And now they are trying to genetically modify wheat.

After DDT and Agent Orange were outlawed following the Vietnam War, Monsanto developed a bovine growth hormone further poisoning the populace. Europe will not buy beef from the U.S. They also manufacture Aspartame, a neurotoxin sold to the public as an artificial sweetener used in diet sodas. It has been said that before taking off in flight, pilots in the war were not allowed to consume diet sodas due to the numbing effect it has on the brain slowing reaction time and critical thinking. Aspartame is also known to cause new allergies and hives by the reported cases of the FDA. So next time you think you’re doing yourself a favor by drinking diet, just know that it’s simply another way that evil corporations like this are fooling you.

So now you have to ask yourself how a company that has caused so much pain and developed many of the most harmful chemicals known to man can produce food that is safe to eat. Hopefully this has enlightened you about the dangers of consuming foods grown from seeds made by unnatural means and the devastating effects it can have on our biological bodies. Being slowly poisoned for decades, I’m not entirely surprised at how sickly people seem to be these days and the slew of new diseases that are bombarding our populace. Let’s all try to be a little more conscious of what we are putting in our bodies and now might be a good time to consider going organic. I know I will.

List of food that may contain GMO’s

One incident was caused by a man named Brian De Leon who also lived in Miami, Florida. De Leon is a 21-year-old who was high on “Cloud 9,” as it is known on the streets, or better known as bath salts. He was also drunk ... Read More »]]> In the midst of the news story about Rudy Eugene, who had taken bath salts before eating a man’s face in Miami, there were two other incidents where bath salts were the reason of insane human behavior. They both happened this month of June, 2012. Neither story is nearly as gruesome as Eugunes, as that would be hard to do, but the two perpetrators still did insane things. I had never heard of people using bath salts as a drug before, but somehow it seems it has caught on around the United States especially in Miami.

One incident was caused by a man named Brian De Leon who also lived in Miami, Florida. De Leon is a 21-year-old who was high on “Cloud 9,” as it is known on the streets, or better known as bath salts. He was also drunk off another highly controversial drug that made the news a while ago called Four Loko. The police were called to the scene when De Leon was involved in a verbal altercation with another man in front of a Boston Market there in Miami. It was not easy for the police officers to subdue De Leon and finally arrest him and put him in the back of their police car. While in the back seat De Leon yelled at the officers, “I am going to eat you.” He was smashing his head against the plexiglass while doing this. Due to his head banging an officer tried to help treat some head wounds that De Leon suffered. While trying to clean up the blood coming from De Leon’s head, De Leon growled at the officer as well as tried to eat the officers hand by clamping his teeth together. His zombie like ways did not stop there as he also attempted to bite another officer once at the police station who was taking a blood sample from his arm. After spending the night at the station, De Leon awoke the next morning saying that he had no recollection of what had happened the night before.

Brian De Leon

The second incident was in Lousiana meaning that the zombie virus, caused by bath salts, has started spreading to other parts of the United States. Carl Jacquneaux is the man who was tripping out due to being high on bath salts this time. This story is much like Rudy Eugene’s since Jacquneaux also started eating another man’s face. The reason this story did not attract that much attention was due to the fact of the man being attacked, Todd Creduer, defending himself by spraying some wasp poison in Jacquneaux’s face before much damage was done. That being said it is time for all of us to go out and buy some wasp poison since it is a proven method of successfully defending off these “zombies.” Todd Creduer is the husband of Jacquneaux’s ex-wife. This is what the motive behind the attack was. Jacqunueax attacked Creduer as he was doing some yard work and chewed off a chunk of skin in Creduer’s face about the size of a quarter before being sprayed with the wasp poison.

Todd Creduer

Who would have thought that the beginning of the zombie apocalypse would be caused due to bath salts? That is never the way it was portrayed in a hollywood movie. The good thing is that it is yet to be contagious. In order to stop the invasion of zombies many states have just recently banned bath salts from being sold and made them illegal to be in possession of as well. Previously, bath salts were not hard at all to buy since they were easily purchased in mini-marts as well as smoke shops under names such as Bolivian Bath and Ivory Wave. The banning of the drug may turn out to be a success in making fewer people get high off of these bath salts. This seems to be true so far since there has been no recent attacks within the past few days, at least not that have been reported yet. The banning could also backfire making it to where more people want to take it since it is illegal much like cocaine or marijuana. Even with it being illegal, it will not be that difficult for anyone to acquire the drug since it is sold at many places in Canada still. So, if you want to be one of the first few zombies to try and take over the world go visit Canada and buy your bath salts today. Just make sure if you do to stay as far away from me as you can when you decide to take them as I like having my whole face and do not want to become your food source!

ON TO THE MOVIE!

Nice change of pace, the victim is male.  Typical scum bag horn ball that I assume is the bad guy at first. But NO! He is our hapless victim taken away and knocked unconscious.

He wakes up in a very dingy cell, with two very upset men, who promptly begin a series of physical, psychological, and pharmacologic torture. Some seem to make very little, to no sense at certain moments. But, they are twisted and barbed.

They make him wear a dress, and continue with the torture, burn away his finger prints and announce “you are not you”.

There are really only three actors in this movie (extras and people dead before the movie began aside) and one ... Read More »]]> Yes the rumors you have heard are true, this is indeed a very….um….what’s the word….starts with an F, any ways that’s not important.

ON TO THE MOVIE!

Nice change of pace, the victim is male.  Typical scum bag horn ball that I assume is the bad guy at first. But NO! He is our hapless victim taken away and knocked unconscious.

He wakes up in a very dingy cell, with two very upset men, who promptly begin a series of physical, psychological, and pharmacologic torture. Some seem to make very little, to no sense at certain moments. But, they are twisted and barbed.

They make him wear a dress, and continue with the torture, burn away his finger prints and announce “you are not you”.

There are really only three actors in this movie (extras and people dead before the movie began aside) and one does not talk. So the acting is pretty easy to fall on target, and the main character the “victim” has some serious stretches in what has to show on-screen, so I was pretty impressed with the range he showed.

Remember me saying this movie was Effed Up? Well…as the movie progresses the true nature of the disturbing actions taken against this “victim” become increasingly more messed up.

The anticipation of “what the hell are they doing to this guy” as well as waiting for the “money shot,” are the reasons you will keep watching till the end. There is a big pay off at the end that you will mot want to miss. So, be sure you sit through the entirety of the movie.

I really enjoyed the way it keeps you guessing as to who is the bad guy as it keeps jumping around throughout.

I really enjoyed the disturbing and extremely morbid torture and terror placed on our “victim.”

But, I like messed up movies….so be ready.

Not much gore, not much soundtrack, obviously a tiny budget. But they did a great job with the very little they had.

But, all in all I really enjoyed the movie and if you don’t mind disturbing mental horror, have a strong stomach, and make sure your kids do not walk in on this puppy, then you will too.

I recommend this movie to all you sick bastards (like me) out there.

VICTIM is a horrifying, twisted thriller, enjoy!
 4 out of 5 Blood Drops!

Other killers kill just for fun, because they feel they have to, or in one case because a dog told him to.

The chart below shows the amount of serial killings from 1960 until now.

Let’s just take a look at some of the highlights of the 1970-80’s

1978-1992: Jeffrey Dahmer  was convicted of killing 17 men and young boys mainly in Milwaukee.  His killings involved things such as dismemberment, cannibalism, necrophilia, and even rape.  He was killed in prison by another inmate during the year of 1994.

1977-1978: Ted Bundy was found guilty of slaying three people in Florida one of whom was a 12-year-old girl.  Right before he was executed he admitted to killing more than 30 victims.  He was executed by ... Read More »]]> People have been killing each other since the beginning of time, some for money, some for land and some for religion.

Other killers kill just for fun, because they feel they have to, or in one case because a dog told him to.

The chart below shows the amount of serial killings from 1960 until now.

Let’s just take a look at some of the highlights of the 1970-80’s

1978-1992: Jeffrey Dahmer  was convicted of killing 17 men and young boys mainly in Milwaukee.  His killings involved things such as dismemberment, cannibalism, necrophilia, and even rape.  He was killed in prison by another inmate during the year of 1994.

1977-1978: Ted Bundy was found guilty of slaying three people in Florida one of whom was a 12-year-old girl.  Right before he was executed he admitted to killing more than 30 victims.  He was executed by way of the electric chair in 1989.

1977-1978: Angelo Buono Jr. murdered nine children and women in California.  He is known as the Hillside Strangler.  He was sentenced to life in prison and later died in his cell in 2001 by way of heart attack.

1976-1977: David Berkowitz, also known as the “44 Caliber Killer” and “Son of Sam”, murdered six people as well as injured seven in New York City. He is still alive today serving his six sentences that ranged from 25 years to life.

1972-1978: John Wayne Gacy  sexually assaulted and murdered 33 young men and teenage boys in Chicago. He is known as the “Killer Clown”.  He was executed by way of lethal injection in 1994.

1971: Juan Corona murdered 25 farm laborers whose bodies were buried in shallow graves in Sutter County, California.  He is still alive serving his 25 life sentences.

1979-1981: Wayne B. Williams was found guilty of killing two boys in Atlanta.  After being convicted of these crimes it was discovered that he killed 23 other victims.  It is believed that he killed 6 others but there was not enough evidence to find him guilty of those.  He is still serving his life sentences while still claiming his innocence.

Jeffrey Dahmer                        Ted Bundy                         Angelo Buono Jr

David Berkowitz                 John Wayne Gacy                 Juan Corona

Wayne B. Williams

Serial killers just are not the sensation they used to be. That being said they have by no means disappeared.  Last summer in Suffolk County, N.Y., police found the bodies of four women dumped near a beach in Long Island. Philadelphia police have attributed the murders of three women in the city’s Kensington neighborhood to one known as the “Kensington Strangler.”

Then there was “Britain’s: ‘Crossbow Cannibal’”  who killed prostitutes with a crossbow, and even eating pieces of them. He admitted after being convicted that  he got his ideas from historical serial killers.

Why this decline you may ask? My answer: Technology.

It’s nearly impossible to get away with mass murders these days thanks to technology. Serial killers back then could much easier evade the police and investigators. Almost all the forensic science that is around today has been developed as well as perfected in the last ten years or so. So, serial killers today do not know how to exploit any gaping holes that may still exist in the police department’s post mortem investigation process.

Imagine the damage someone could do if they came from this time and travelled back to the early 70’s and knew what the police would be looking for such as tire tracks, DNA, fingerprints, and so many other things the police just had not perfected, or did not know how to use to the full potential yet.

But then again, T.V. is teaching us. Just by watching Dexter, and CSI I think I know enough to get away with murder. So who knows what the next generation of psychopaths will be able to get away with.

A growing trend in today’s society however is suicide. Nearly a third more people die at their own hands than die at other people’s hands The murder rate in America is about 6 per 100,000 compared to suicides which is 10.8.

Death by your own hands will always be the #1 most caused way of death.

The golden age of serial killers may have passed, but they will always leave a ton of material for writers, movie makers and just general twisted bastards (like myself) that just seem to have wet, warm and squishy place in our hearts for the beasts.