Hollywood Gothique

Pop quiz, Halloween Hot Shots! What’s better: a haunted house or a Halloween haunt? Are the staged illusions better than the real thing (assuming there is a real thing)? Come to think of it, why choose one or the other when you can have both? The Winchester Mystery House – renowned because of its odd-ball [...]

The TITANIC actress on working with director James Whale on THE OLD DARK HOUSE and THE INVISIBLE MAN
Today’s mainstream audiences remember the late Gloria Stuart, who died on September 26, 2010, for the box office blockbuster TITANIC, but for cult fanatic and horror buffs the actress holds a special place in film history, having worked [...]

Following up on our Blumhouse of Horrors 2012 Preview, we offer this video interview with producer Jason Blum, which also includes glimpses of the insidious “Paranormal Activity” taking place within the Variety Arts Theatre this Halloween. Blum’s company, Blumhouse Productions, is responsible for the PARANORMAL ACTIVITY films, INSIDIOUS, and the upcoming SINISTER, which opens next [...]

Tonight, Wicked Lit returns to the Moutain View Mausoleum and Cemetery for another October season of immersive theatre productions. Rather like TAMARA, the play staged in the American Legion Hall in Hollywood back in the 1980s, Wicket Lit productions take place in an actual location, requiring the audience to follow the characters from scene to [...]

On Saturday, October 2, Yours Truly appeared on KFWB’s “Home Wizards,” hosted by Cindy Dole. The home improvement show was doing a Halloween theme for its first hour, offering advice to homeowners thinking of decorating their domiciles for the delight of neighborhood trick-or-treaters. Dole asked me about the different levels of home haunting, dealing with [...]

The Queen Mary Dark Harbor sees the majestic ocean-liner-turned-hotel revamping its Halloween presentation for 2010, with the long-term goal of challenging the Knotts Berry Farm Halloween Haunt and Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood – a daunting task approximately equivalent to taking on both Dracula and Frankenstein in a tag-team wrestling match. How does [...]

Queen Mary Dark Harbor, the new Halloween event making its debut this weekend in Long Beach, promises 160 monsters delivering 270,000 scares per night. There will be five walk-through attractions one in the Fishing Village, one in the Dome, and three on board the Queen Mary herself. The proprietors also promise to present a holistic [...]

PARASOMNIA – the new independent horror film from director William Malone (HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL) – screens at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood as part of a tribute to the late artist Zdzislaw Beksinksi, whose work inspired the movie’s dreamscape imagery. Before the screening, there will be a panel discussion with Malone, Tobe Hooper (TEXAS CHAINSAW [...]

MY BLOOD VALENTINE IN 3D, the remake of the 1981 Canadian slasher film, opens in theatres nationwide today. Last night, director Paul Lussier and writer Todd Farmer attended a preview screening at the Arclight Cinemas Hollywood and answered questions about the film. (Lussier will be appearing after the 8:00pm screening of the film at the [...]

Bruce Campbell comes to town this week as part of his promotional tour for MY NAME IS BRUCE, which starts a one-week run this Friday at the Nuart Theatre in West Los Angeles. The film is a sort of horror movie variation on THREE AMIGOS and GALAXY QUEST, in which actors found themselves confronting real-life [...]

A few days ago, we reviewed this year’s version of the Old Town Haunt in Pasadena. Now we’re back with this video, which takes you on a tour through the depths of the underground labyrinth and also feature an interview with the proprietor, Ron Rogge, who provides some insights on what makes this Halloween haunt [...]

Four months since the West Coast premiere of DIARY OF THE DEAD at Screamfest, I took advantage of the opportunity to see it again at the American Cinematheque’s preview on Wednesday night, in the Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Blvd. This is the theatre where I saw ALIEN during its initial run, so the venerable venue [...]

THE SIGNAL was one of the best movies I saw at last October’s Screamfest Film Festival in Hollywood. The premise involves a mysterious transmission that turns those who view it into homicidal maniacs. The plot follows a married woman and her lover, who are trying to avoid her husband after he views the “signal.” Although [...]