We've Been Slimed: GhostBusters The Video Game

For about a year now you could not turn around on the internet without hearing some bombastic statement about Ghostbusters: The Video Game. "It has the original cast, even Bill Murray!" "It has a script by Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd!" "It's officially cannon, it's going to be basically a third movie!"

If reading isn't your bag (you play video games, of course it isn't. Zing! I'm kidding, I do too, no hatemail, please.) here's the one line review: nothing could live up to the expectations spurred on by the above statements, and the game doesn't.

According to most critics the game is a tepid success. The general critical consensus seems to be "it's good not great" and that it will "please fans of the original film." A couple of weeks have passed since the game's release and I have finally had a bit of time to sit down with it. I was encouraged by the critical response. I wasn't expecting the game to be any kind of masterpiece, but I hoped for a fun, long-overdue return of the characters I grew up loving, and it sounded like that's what I was getting. In the end I have mixed feelings, very mixed.

Let's get the good stuff out of the way so I can begin unfairly trashing the things I hated about this otherwise decent game that suffered from the impossible expectations trumped up by its publisher (see, I'm softening already).

The mechanics of actually busting ghosts is great. You strap on your proton pack and it has the same manic out-of-control feeling it has in the movies. You toss out a trap and it sucks in weakened ghosts, you even have walk over and pick it up, just like the movies.

The voice-work is surprisingly solid all around, and there is a lot of it. Aykroyd, Ramis, Hudson, even Annie Potts give it their all. Murray does not, but at least he's in the game for its entirety. When I first heard about his involvement, I figured they would have to find a dues ex machina to get the notoriously hard to wrangle actor out of the plot for a good portion of the game. No, he's with you every step of the way, hurling witticisms that, while a bit sleepy sounding, are one of the few bright points of the game. If you've ever wanted to hear Bill Murray order you around for 7 hours: then this game is for you.

The plot is just a poor excuse to string together retreads of jokes and locations form the first film (thankfully, they spared us the dancing Statue of Liberty). For example: you will hear approximately five permutations of Egon's "Twinkie" joke. You will also fight Slimer in the Hotel Ballroom, the Librarian in the NY Public Library, and the Stay-Puft Marshmallow man in Times Square (which is quite obviously NOT Times Square in 1991...when the game is supposed to take place. It is a real testament to the overall sloppiness of the developer that the art department couldn't be bothered to Google a picture of Times Square in the early 90s for crying out loud!).

The main problem of the game is that as a "third movie" the plot and dialogue are iffy at best, and as a video game it is shockingly light on actually game. Most of your time is spent walking around liner hallways waiting for the rest of the Ghostbusters to catch-up and trigger some kind of event. You catch whatever ghosts pop up and then you wait around for another 10 minutes listening to aforementioned lackluster dialogue. It's not a movie. It's not a game. It's just $60 dollars worth of mediocre filler. The only attempt to make the game challenging is by having enemies that occasionally knock you down and momentarily take control away from you. It doesn’t make the game hard, just annoying. The amount of time you spend running around reviving the rest of your brain-dead team is equal to the amount of time you spend BUSTING GHOSTS!

The game is a chore. There are isolated moments of genuine Ghostbusters-magic, but they don't makeup for the game's shortcomings, or its price point.

I'm not giving up on the boys, I feel that the game was made with the best of intentions on Ramis and Aykroyd's part. The scaffolding for a great game is here. Maybe there will be a sequel with all the bugs ironed out, or—better yet—maybe they will finally make that third movie Aykroyd has been talking up for the last decade. Hey Dan: I'm ready to believe you.

No Mere Mortal Can Resist the Evil of... The Thriller

Ask any horror fan what their first "monster" memory is and you will get a response based on two parameters: both the person's age and their nostalgic selective memory. You would get responses ranging from people cowering behind the couch as their local TV station replayed one of the monster greats of yore (perhaps Bela Lugosi or Christopher Lee as Dracula, Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's monster or the mighty King Kong). From a younger fan you may get Jason, Chucky or Freddy. But if you were to ask me, in all honesty, you would get "Michael Jackson" as my answer.

The news of Jackson's sudden passing made me realize this today. It would be hyperbolic to say that I would not have my current taste for the horror genre if it were not for Jon Landis' 15 minute "mini-movie" Thriller, I probably still would. It is no exaggeration to say that it was this film above any other that I fondly remember as my first good scare.

Landis isn't the only horror royalty associated with the film.* Rick Baker, who pioneered the special effects makeup field in Landis' An American Werewolf In London, created Jackson's "cat monster" and zombie makeups. The famous spoken word portion of the film is read by the legendary Vincent Price (keen-eyed viewers will also spot poster's for Price's House of Wax and Landis' Schlock in the scene where Ola Ray and Jackson are leaving the movie theater).

The VHS of Thriller also came with a half-hour featurette on the making of the film. The existence of this documentary may only have been to pad the run-time and add "value" to the tape, but to a 5 or 6 year old this material was as fascinating and, I am not ashamed to admit, frightening as the movie itself. The images of Jackson donning the phosphorescent and painful cat contact-lenses still sticks in my mind as one of those formative moments of "oh boy, that's scary" movie magic.

Jackson's music was a big part of my early childhood, but it is Thriller that will continue to be most important to me, and I hope one day in the future, to my own little monsters. Oh, and don't even mention the Ben theme song to me...I'd probably start bawling like a sissy.


* It is also worth pointing out that Famous Monsters of Filmland editor Forrest J Ackerman also makes a brief appearance (he is siting behind Ray and Jackson at the movie). Ackerman also sadly passed away recently.

Looking Legit ...

...without all that pesky business about actually being legit.

I have a new logo painted by the tremendously talented Arthur Wang (there's a link to his official site over on the sidebar, check him out).

You may have also noticed that you are now being redirected to a new domain. I can now by found at www.brain-tremors.com! Much catchier, I hope you'll agree. Change your bookmarks and spam total strangers accordingly.

I got some great stuff in the works. Stay tuned.

That is all.

Debbie Rochon: The Hardest Working Woman In Horror

My interview with Debbie Rochon for Macabre Cadaver Magazine is now available for free over on their website.

I would love it if you gave it a read. Rochon is truly a remarkable figure in the independent horror scene, if you have not seen some of the films mentioned in the article I strongly recommend you track them down. Thanks to Debbie for granting me the interview and being so honest about both her personal experiences (which are pretty amazing, but not always pretty) and her views on the industry as a whole.

Being a native Long Islander and rampant geek, I've grown up going to LI's largest Sci-fi convention: I-Con. Rochon is a frequent attendee of the con and my friends and I have had more interactions with her than I can count. She's the nicest person you'd ever want to meet and I think a lot of that shines through in her interview.

'Nuff dorky nostalgia....go read it!

Undead....again: The Vampire Makes a Comeback (Part One)

Everyone's heard the fasionista phrase: "_____is the new Black."

Horror fans are particularly familiar with this phenomenon of phases. We are fans of a (mostly) populist form of entertainment, thus our "fresh meat" is dictated by the tastes of the masses. Usually that taste is bad. A big factor of the recent resurgence in Vampires is the teeny-lit hit Twilight. Now I'm not going to hem and haw about something I am clearly not the target market for, the internet is full of misplaced hate and I try not to traffic in it. But with the "bad" inevitably comes the good, ah the duality of all things. This article will detail what works provide the Ying to Twilight's Yang.

Where was I? Oh yes: Vampires are the new Zombies. Remember that crazy phase? It started with 28 Days Later, and petered out around, well now I guess. But this article isn’t about the moldy dead…it’s about the pointy-teethed dead.

So with no further philosophizing, I give you the best of the new dead (in no particular order):



30 Days of Night: 30 Days 'til Death

I was never fully down with Steve Nile's vampire franchise I liked the first graphic novel a whole lot (I prefer to call them comics, I find the whole "graphic novel" rebranding pretentious-- it suggests 'comic book' is a dirty word). But I felt the subsequent sequels suffered because they feel too much like spin-offs. I wasn't crazy about David Slade's film adaptation either (I loved Slade's Hard Candy so I had high hopes for the 30 days film, the cinematography was certainly fetching, but the film was just meh).

This new one-shot caught my eye because it is written and illustrated by indie-comic critical darling David Lapham (Stray Bullets, Young Liars).At first I balked at the nearly 20 dollar pricetag but was convinced by my local comic shop's "the staff recommends" sticker that this was a wise decision (I trust the staff at Comicopia that much). I'm glad I did because I really liked this.

Lapham's trademark retro Lichtenstein-esque art style combines with some really twisted storytelling to great effect. The book is sad, gross, scary and funny, sometimes all on the same page.

The story of a rogue vampire, Rufus, who tries to "settle down" and live an inconspicuous (un)life after a group of elder Euro-vampires sends out a hit squad to quell their noisy American offspring in order to better cover-up the existence of vampires. Rufus gets a dog, is nice to his neighbors and kidnaps a heroin addict and sobers her up so she can pose as his "girlfriend." The whole plan goes to hell when more vampires from his past come knocking at his door. Short (around 90 gorgeous pages) and enjoyably bleak, 30 Days 'til Death is probably a safer bet than any movie currently in theaters.



Let the Right One In

If I would have had a blog when I first saw this film last year I would have blogged it a freaking sonnet. I love it that much.

As it stands now I'm late to the party, but it still has to be included in any list with the word vampire in it. Not a horror film perse (I mean its got vampires, but its also got LOVE) , this dark coming of age tale is melancholy, hopeful and remarkably moving.

No synopsis is needed. Just go buy it, rent it, whatever just see it. If you have the capability I would suggest the Bluray, this film has both inner and outer beauty.



True Blood

HBO's remedy to the vampire love story. How can you possibly make a good episodic vampire love story you ask?

Make it a trashy, bloody, sexy, Southern-fried soap opera/murder mystery send-up, well stocked with likable characters and have the whole thing overseen by Oscar and Emmy winner Alan Ball (Six Feet Under).

Once I got over my initial skepticism I realized that True Blood is a great show that never takes itself too seriously, but knows when it's time to back peddle off the preposterousness and let some weight in. It is a precarious balancing act, and one the show takes a few episodes to convince the watcher it can do, but once it hits its stride it is the most addicting watch on television.

Watching the show in an apartment full of young people like myself I watched my TV sessions balloon from me alone to me with my roommates, their girlfriends, even their sisters. I've lent the discs around the house so much it seems like we've all seen every episode at least twice, just by being around people trying to catch up.

Anna Paquin is great as Sookie Stackhouse but the real draw here is the eclectic cast of supporting players. HBO consistently casts the best ensembles television has ever seen, and Blood is no exception.

Do yourself a favor and grab Season One now. The new season starts this weekend, so you might have some catching up to do. The discs come with cast and creator commentary on a bunch of episodes and include all of HBO's clever viral marketing for the show.


There ya go....three blood sucking good times. But wait there's more! This was only part one of a two part series. Next time I will be writing about Guillermo del Toro (Director of The Devil's Backbone, Hellboy, and Pan's Labyrinth, and possibly our finest living mythmaker) and Chuck Hogan's new book The Strain, that is if the US postal service ever delivers my copy.

I Want My Shroud Magazine!

A great small press literary magazine now has national distribution. It is available at a whole bunch of Barnes & Nobles throughout the country, along with a selection of other stores.

Tim Deal, editor of Shroud, is now running a contest to try and get the word out at these stores. The details of which can be found here.

Please call a store near you. Not only can you win a prize, but getting the word out and getting these early issues sold is imperative.

The people at Shroud legitimately care about the genre and it shows. It would be so nice to be able to walk down to our local stores and have a quality horror option on shelves, don't you think?

So call up or walk into any store on this list and politely demand your copy of Shroud #6.

Ketchum has you Cover-ed

I've waited a long time for an excuse to rant about my adoration for the work of Jack Ketchum (a.k.a. Dallas Mayr). Now that day has come because Leisure is re-releasing one of my favorite Ketchum novels in paperback.

Cover demonstrates all the things I love about Ketchum's writing. Condemned for writing "violent pornography" with Off Season in 1981, Ketchum has long been a divisive literary figure. If you look beyond the hype and dive-in, I think you will find something quite different than you were expecting. His work is frequently upsetting and shocking, but by no means would I say it falls into the splatter genre. Ketchum is a master of taking familiar genre troupes and either subverting, inverting or obliterating them all together. Cover illustrates this beautifully by taking a fairly familiar "slasher" setup and turning it upside down.

Ketchum structures the novel with two alternating viewpoints. We see the story through the eyes of both Lee, a reclusive Vietnam veteran who lives in the woods with his dog growing marijuana and staying away from civilization, and the group of people who trespass on his territory and pay dearly.

What's remarkable about Cover is how deeply we feel for Lee, who is by all accounts the antagonist. By humanizing violence and its effects, Ketchum turns it into something repugnant and unappealing, instead of glorifying it like many of his lesser peers.

As relevant today, if not more so, as when it was written. Cover also touches on the effects of war on the people who have to fight and die in them.

Well, do I have anything bad to say about the re-release of Cover? Yes, two minor things actually. Ironically the cover for Cover is kinda ugly and the paperback lacks the wonderful interior art that came in the Hardcover edition.

Enough of that. Back to the adoration:

Literary without being alienating. Ketchum's prose is crisp and "to the point" while still carrying a lyric quality missing in most horror fiction. His work has more in common with Cormac McCarthy (who seems to be a hero of Ketchum, with quotes popping up as epitaphs frequently) than it does more traditional horror.

Do I suggest Cover as your first Ketchum book? I would if you are familiar with the horror genre, but I would also hesitate slightly as it is one of the least "genre" books in his oeuvre (with the exception of his collection of early shorts Broken on the Wheel of Sex and his drop-dead-amazing novella The Crossings which is a western). By this I mean, outside of some scary violence it is mostly a suspense/survival story.

I know what some of you are saying. You're saying: "I don’t know the first thing about horror fiction. Where do I start with Ketchum?" (in this case you are my relatives, who read this out of obligation). I, myself, began with what is probably his most famous (notorious) novel: The Girl Next Door. While fantastic (many would argue his best) it is also his most troubling. I suggest Red to lure you in, so you can "work your way up." Red is an uncharacteristically lowkey story of an aging man whose dog is killed by local punks. It is a quick read and it will give you a feel for Ketchum's ability to brilliantly partner brutality with pathos.

If you love Red and/or Cover (which you will damnit!) I would then suggest you move on to either The Lost (in my opinion the writer's magnum opus) or his collection of shorts Peacable Kingdom. From there...well... track down everything else the man has written.