September 1, 2015

LEGENDARY WES CRAVEN DEAD AT 76



The legendary WES CRAVEN, the king of horror dead at 76.  This truly shock and devastated me.  Wes films were a great inspiration for me when I was growing up in the 70's and 80's.  Because of his films and his awesomeness of film directing I went to film school (School of Visual Arts) to study film directing.  He made awesome films - LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, THE HILLS HAVE EYES 1 and 2, DEADLY BLESSING, SWAMP THING, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, WES CRAVEN'S NEW NIGHTMARE, DEADLY FRIEND, SHOCKER, SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW, PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS, SCREAM 1-4, RED EYE, CURSED, VAMPIRE IN BROOKLYN; The TV horror movies STRANGER IN THE HOUSE and INVITATION TO HELL and the unforgettable drama film MUSIC IN THE HEART which it was a great drama opus for Wes.  When I was attending School of Visual Arts, Wes came to promote his film "Vampire In Brooklyn", and he had a private screening for the film department students at SVA.  I remembered how down to earth and outgoing Wes was.  Some looney horror film buff got up from the audience chair and yelled at Wes Craven, practically attacking him on why is he making a dramatic film referring to MUSIC IN THE HEART and not making a horror film.  Wes in a gently, peaceful manner told him he wanted to direct something different but his passion will always be horror... This is the man who brought the scariest son of a bitch in horror film history Freddy Krueger and mind fuck us with his SCREAM series.  I truly going to miss this legend - truly sad and devastating.  Rest in peace Wes, with love - EYEPUS








July 12, 2015

"MORBID ANATOMY MUSEUM" - NOT WORTH THE PRICE OF ADMISSION.


Today I decided to take the subway down to Brooklyn to check out the MORBID ANATOMY MUSEUM, located at 424 Third Ave, in Brooklyn, at the corner of 7th Street.  For months I've been dying to check out this place, hearing about it online that it was amazing.  Well, this was a waste of my $8.00.  This place was a YAWN.  There is nothing morbid about it.  I walked in and paid my 8 dollars. Staff was very polite and sweet.  You walk in and you are right in the gift shop and towards the back is a cute coffee shop. I got my yellow ticket and went up the stairs to the museum Exhibition: DO THE SPIRITS RETURN?: FROM DARK ARTS TO SLIGHT OF HAND IN EARLY 20TH CENTURY STAGE MAGIC.  



So I gave my ticket to the nice girl behind the desk and walked around in the small space and checked out the life and work of Howard Thuston.  Mostly posters of his magic shows, some photographs, some props and that was it for that small living room size exhibition.  YAWN!!!!!!... Then I headed to the small back room which is the research library, which is suppose to hold all this amazing specimens, artifacts, 2,000 books, etc., as the online website mentions - well it was just paper mache skeleton dolls, some skulls, paper mache skulls, taxidermy small animals, dentures, prosthetic teeth, broken saints, dust bunnies, broken virgin Mary, toy skulls, silly putty stuff what they call wax embryological models, and whatever tired junk they called morbid, and about 300 books on anatomy, some about movies, nothing much to say about the books.  


This is what I thought the Morbid Anatomy Museum was going to be about:  the history of death, caskets, dead bodies in photos, in film, etc., tombstones, real skulls, Voodoo Dolls, witchery, bigger taxidermy dead animals, clothes of the dead, anatomy stuff, and just crazy MORBID stuff wall to wall, room to room full of morbid stuff - Well I thought wrong...  Ain't nothing morbid about this joint.

You want to see morbid stuff take a walk to one of the local Botanicas in your borough or take a walk inside the local cemeteries and you see things that will be morbid or close to it, and is free.  Or let me know you can get a free tour of my apartment, you get to see morbid, cool stuff I have been collecting for years including my dead grandpa's dentures or 
my dead uncle dentistry teeth collection from the 1970's. 




MORBID ANATOMY MUSEUM should be ashamed charging 8.00 per person for a two room exhibition of tired objects, props and junkets.  8.00 Dollars not worth the price of admission. 

This place gets ZERO stars from me.  

July 11, 2015

HOME MOVIE (2008) REVIEW

HOME MOVIE (2008)
Written and Directed by Christopher Denham
Starring Adrian Pasdar, Cady McClain, Austin Williams and Amber Joy Williams


Opening shot - flies swirling around a bloody dead animal, as we see the hands of a child picking up the dead animal in a trash bag, and placing it in a radio flyer wagon.  While someone is video taping it. And so it begins a found footage, cinema verite style shot with a home video camera and the wickedness of two deadly, creepy kids - brother and sister, Jack and Emily Poe (Austin Williams and Amber Joy Williams) causing sick mayhem in their perfect family setting.


Sweet parents David (Adrian Pasdar) and Clare Poe (Cady McClain) are doing everything to have fun with their children and make them happy by celebrating the holidays and each video taping each happy momentum.  David follows the family around with the camera to capture the family, joyous memoirs.  David is a pastor and his wife Clare is a doctor.

The creepy kids are silent, mute, expressionless, giving dirty looks constantly to their parents.  In one scene, in the backyard of their house, David plays catch with a ball with his son Jack.  Jack instead throws a rock at his dad.  Another scene - Thanksgiving, the family is sitting around the table.  As David starts to pray, the children pick up the eating utensils off the table, in purposely they toss the items to the floor.  David goes back to praying again, the children pick up the food plates and they toss it to the floor.  The horror continues with the torturing of frogs, putting their goldfishes in a sandwich, and the house cat getting crucified on a Christ cross on the wall.  


Clare takes the video camera and explains that her children behavior is a psychic pathology. Things start getting worse when Clare bust into their kids room, finding the kids sleeping next to David, the kids get up from the bed full of multiple bleeding bite marks found on their torso and arms.  Clare suspects is David who did this to the children. But the kids say the man in the closet did it... One day the kids go to school and they bite the hell out of one of their classmates... David thinks their children are possessed by some demonic force, so he takes the children, ties them up and start to exorcise them... Two months later, the children are all sweet and cuddly, talkative, outgoing. Clare has been giving them pills to relax them.  But when you think everything is going to end all sweet like the perfect, sweet family - well the children got something up their sleeves for their parents... 



Jack and Emily are as deadly as the fucked up killer kids in the cult classic THE DEVIL TIMES FIVE (1975) and as twisted as the nasty, little kid monsters from David Cronenberg THE BROOD (1979)...  The film acting performances is top notch; at times the film left me a bit confuse because who was behind the home movie camera at times, I didn't know who was video shooting in certain parts of the movies.  But I seen many films that the whole found footage does not work, but for Christopher Denham direction and videography, it truly worked.  I give this film THREE STARS out of FOUR STARS.

June 11, 2015

DAVIDE MELINI FILM "DEEP SHOCK" UPDATE




Amazing, Award Winning filmmaker Davide Melini upcoming horror film "DEEP SHOCK" teaser and behind the scenes photos by photographer Clemence Paquier. Eyepus has the eye on this upcoming film, can't wait for film to be completed.  David Melini has a great eye for horror/thriller.  CHECK OUT behind the scenes photos and teaser trailed.










CAST:  Laura Toledo as Sarah Taylor, Francesc Pages as Psychologist Marius Silver, Paco Roma as Father Jonathan McRoberts,  Estela Fernández as Caroline Taylor, Erica Prior as Helen Taylor and Luis Fernández De Eribe as Grandfather John Taylor.

PRODUCTION:
Producers: Davide Melini, Fabel Aguilera. 
Director: Davide Melini. 
Line Producer: Enrique Muñoz.  
Production Manager: Guersom Ariza.  
Director of Photography: Pope López.
Casting Director: Alessandro Fornari 
Production Designer: Ian Giaroli 
Costume Designer: Flavia Catella 
Special Effects: Rubén FX, Elisa Rengel 
Stills Photographer: Clémence Paquier 
3D Artists: Ángel Ariza, Raul Trujillo 
Sound: Christian Valente.

LEGENDARY CHRISTOPHER LEE DEAD AT 93


LEGENDARY ACTOR CHRISTOPHER LEE dead at 93.  Famous for his amazing film roles in Hammer Horror films - Dracula series and Lord of The Rings series.  When I was a kid growing up watching Christopher Lee scared the hell out of me as Dracula.  




June 1, 2015

BETSY PALMER (MRS. VOORHEES) DEAD at 88.



Actress Betsy Palmer, who played Mother Voorhees (Jason Voorhees mom) on FRIDAY THE 13th (1980) passed away of natural causes on Friday, May 29.  She was one hell of a scary, deadly mom.  Who could forget her legendary film performance, she had that lumber jack masculine look, the short hair cut, the unforgettable deadly face expressions, and the sick dialogue: "KILL HER, MOMMY! KILL HER!".  She was more scarier to me than Jason... May she rest in peace.  


April 30, 2015

ALEXIO GESSA: COMIC ARTIST/ILLUSTRATOR INTERVIEW

As I made my rounds at 2014 New York Comic Con seeking horror artists and art pieces that would capture my eyes, I stumbled upon Comic Artist/Illustrator ALEXIO GESSA booth, where a huge Texas Chainsaw Massacre Leatherface painting adorned his booth alongside with classic Universal Monsters paintings, and suddenly I was mesmerized by his artworks.  Here is a in-depth personal interview with Artist ALEXIO GESSA.


How did you start making art? 

I started making art as soon as I could hold a pencil, or crayon more appropriately.  As a young boy growing up in a working class Passaic County, NJ family I was surrounded by the stresses of work life, driving, commuting, shopping malls, and the mediocrity of everyday existence.  I knew there was adventure in the world and more to life than just paying bills and going to the grocery store.  Drawing in my notebooks, and reading superhero comics were a way out.  I always wanted to break free, and art was where I felt free as a young boy.  As I became a man, the feeling only grew.

What inspired you to make art especially horror art?

The first movie I can remember watching was Arnold Schwarzenegger's Predator.  I saw it with my Dad when I was 5 years old.  Was this a war movie?  It had so many soldiers in it.  Was this a horror movie?  It was really scary.  Was this a sci-fi movie?  It had the coolest alien creature I had ever seen and still have ever seen.  Horror, is anything that can scare people; which puts the directions and implications solely in the hands of the creator of the work.  I started with horror type subjects as opponents for my superhero characters to fight.  As I entered middle school, I began to embrace horror movies more and started drawing/painting from them.  I still do.  Since then my Dad has passed from Leukemia in 2009.  Whenever I make a piece of one of the classic universal studios monsters, they remind me of him.  We used to check those movies out of the library on VHS tape.  Remember VHS!?  His favorite was always The Creature From The Black Lagoon.  

On your website, and also at at NYC Comic Con, you have lots of pieces of Universal Monsters such as Bela Lugosi (Dracula), Frankenstein, Phantom of the Opera and Warhol Frankenstein, what about these monsters appeal to you?

Well, these monsters remind me of the better parts of my childhood.  They make me remember my Dad when he had his health before the ravages of cancer and chemotherapy treatments.  He was an outdoorsy guy, he liked to take his small rowboat on the Passaic River by my grandmother's house in Montville, NJ.  Maybe that's why he liked The Creature From The Black Lagoon.  Maybe to him it was The Creature From The Passaic River haha.  I don't know. My favorites are Dracula and Frankenstein.  I also love how all these monsters are human at their core.  I feel it makes them more accessible.  Dracula was a man; Frankenstein is made from people; the Wolfman is a tortured soul; and so on. 


What's your favorite piece of work you have created?

I would have to say my Wolverine VS. Ninjas oil painting.  I've never painted that many characters in the same piece before and it was a fun challenge artistically.  However, the best is yet to come!

Can you tell us your process of making your horror creations?

One of my best selling prints is my portrait of Leatherface from the 1974 classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre so I'll focus on that one.  I created that work some years ago but I recall it like yesterday.  I had just discovered the work of Basil Gogos.  I was looking at his album cover of Famous Monsters for The Misfits and all his horror monsters of filmland.  Initially I would need the likeness of the character so I took a still of the movie.  I printed it out in black and white and drew it on my canvas.  With my knowledge of anatomy and values(light and shadow) I added a chainsaw for Leatherface to wield.  I wanted to experiment with being a,"Modern Basil Gogos."  So I planned on making use of his color palette, but with more contemporary characters like Leatherface.  I loved how Basil could use multiple colors; as long as your values(shadows) are on point it will work.  I feel that I accomplished that endeavor because a lot of people love that print.  Democracy at it's finest I feel!

Who are your favorite Horror Visual Artists out there?

"If I could see farther than most, it is only because I stood on the shoulders of giants," Sir Isaac Newton.  My favorite horror artists would be Basil Gogos, Bernie Wrightson, all the old Creepy and Eerie magazine artists.


Who are your favorite horror filmmakers?

My favorite directors of horror would be John Carpenter, Wes Craven, and Tobe Hooper.  In their works it is the story and plot/character development that engulfs you in suspense with terror.  Their ideas were original and not just something recycled from 30 years ago like we don't notice. 

Any favorite horror films of all time?

My favorite horror film of all time will always be John Carpenter's Halloween from 1978.  With a young Jamie Lee Curtis and a new-fangled William Shatner mask, he made horror history.  If you notice from the start all the scenes with Laurie Strode and Michael Meyers are all wide shots that get tighter and tighter until the closet scene at the end.  That is a tremendous example of building tension.  Furthermore, in Halloween there are times when you wonder where Michael is.  This is a horror movie, you know he's going to slash and kill.  That's not scary.  Where is Michael?  That's a terrifying question.  That is what real horror is made of.  In every scene you see Michael, he's not always killing people.  Sometimes he disappears, sometimes he does much worse.  

What are you working on at the moment?

Presently, I am working a line of horror/sci-fi inspired T-Shirts and my Renegade Graphic Novel.  The T-Shirts will be available from my website and also Comic Cons I'll be exhibiting at later in the year.  The Renegade Graphic Novel is set for release on Halloween of this year.  

Do you have any tips or inspiring words for artists?

You have to want success like you want to breathe.  You gotta fight your way to the top; nobody gives it to ya.

YOU CAN CHECK OUT ALEXIO GESSA ART WORKS AT:

WWW.ALEXIOGESSA.COM
EMAIL:  alexio5487@hotmail.com
https://www.facebook.com/HaveYouHadLexToday
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Renegade/1438888936355742
https://www.youtube.com/user/thedragon5487/videos