Right now, there are 388 items on eBay related to "Planet of the Apes," ranging from action figures, posters, buttons, and costumes.

If you are interested, you can get Dr. Zaius on horseback. You can get an old hardcover of Pierre Boulle's original novel or a coloring book.

But why not go just a bit further into fandom? Why not bid on Planet of the Apes the Boardgame? Or maybe you are a teacher and want to help students learn about the relationship between man and apes. If so, you need "Planets of the Apes: A Guide and Commentary for Teachers and Students."

I'm not making this stuff up. "Planet of the Apes" was the model on merchandising for "Star Wars." There's such a wide variety of PoA stuff out there it's almost unfathomable. Almost as unfathomable as asking why I don't own this.

Despite the paraphrased headline, this isn't part of Warning Signs' "Planet of the Apes" week. Sorry.

Right now, I'm cleaning the house. As my wife said before she went to work, "So we won't have to clean on our day off." (For anyone keeping score, she cleaned the kitchen counters, loaded and started the dishwasher, started a load of laundry, and made a wonderful lunch before she left for work. I worked in the morning, so that's why I'm doing my part of the chores now.)

I wouldn't call my wife a neat freak, but she likes things clean. I wouldn't call me a neat freak, either, but for pretty much the opposite reason. I'm better now, but if I had my druthers, house cleaning would be done only when the dirt starts to move on its own.

In other words, I'm no Howard Hughes or Upson Pratt. Who is Upson Pratt, you ask?




Pratt, played by E.G. Marshall, is the main character in "They're Creeping Up On You!" which is the final story in Stephen King's and George A. Romero's anthology "Creepshow." Pratt seals himself in his apartment but is eventually taken over by cockroaches. If ever there was a neat freak, it's Pratt.

Before I get back to my chores, I'd like you to know that "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill," possibly the worst segment in the film, is my favorite. King himself plays the tortured Verrill. He plays the simpleton a little too well. He also looks totally whacked out. "Creepshow" was released in 1982, well before King gave up the sauce. It wouldn't surprise me if the bottle of Popov Vodka Verrill takes a swig from to ease his pain had real vodka in it.

But I love the segment anyway. It's dark and dirty, pretty much the opposite of "They're Creeping Up On You!" Good times.

That's all for now. Back to work.

Warning Signs went live on June 9, 2011. Today, July 30, we passed 2,000 reads. Thank you to everyone who has helped make this a success, especially my wife, Savannah. Yes, I call a thousand views a month a success. I could have zero. I appreciate every one who has visited Warning Signs in the last two months.

Now, let's look to the future.

As hinted in a post earlier today, this is Planet of the Apes week, leading up to the release of "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" on Friday. We're going to talk about the original 1968 movie and its sequels. We'll spend some time hashing out our thoughts about Tim Burton's remake. We're going to talk about Andy Serkis, the greatest motion capture actor ever (he's great as a real person, too.) And, of course, I'll be seeing the new movie on Friday.

We'll also have what I call a triple threat match pitting three major horror magazines against each other. I just have to finish reading the third 'zine in the pile. You can expect our two weekly features, Creepy By Association (Tuesdays) and Scary Song of the Week (Fridays) to continue. Feel free to share any suggestions you might have for those features.

Thanks again for reading and stayed scared!

T.J.

I've mentioned in the past that I am not much of a videogamer. So when I find a list from someone who sounds like they know what they are talking about, I'm not afraid to share it with you. That said, you should check out Bloody Disgusting's list of the 13 most atmospheric horror games.

The list includes "Silent Hill 2," "BioShock" and "Alan Wake," a game I really want to try playing. Tragically, none of the games on this list are on the Wii, the only game console in my house.

First of all, good clips of "The Simpsons" are hard to come by. I know the dialogue int he above clip is in Spanish, but the song is still in English and that's really what counts.

What's important here is that I, as you might be yourself, am getting geared up for "Rise of the Planets of the Apes," set to open in theaters Friday. This is as good a time as any to ask why, with all the sequels, TV shows, remakes, lunchboxes, and action figures, has no one done a full-scale "Planet of the Apes" musical? I'm serious. They made "The Lion King" come to life on Broadway, why can't they do apes? They could it with puppets, like "Avenue Q" for all I care. In those infamous advertising words, just do it.

We'll talk more about "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" and its predecessors as the week continues, leading up to the release of the new film. I hope you are as excited as I am.

Since its 2007 release, people have been telling me that I had to watch "Mr. Brooks," the Kevin Costner-starring thriller.

Well, I finally did.

Here's the thing: I don't like Kevin Costner. Yes, "Dances with Wolves" is a triumph of American cinema. I greatly enjoy Costner's three baseball movies--"Bull Durham," "Field of Dreams" and "For the Love of the Game," which was directed by Sam Raimi-- and even laughed at "Tin Cup." But I don't like Costner. I don't hate him as much as I dislike Richard Gere or Julia Roberts. I dislike Costner less than I dislike Martin Lawrence. The thing that kept me from watching "Mr. Brooks" is that I also loathe Dane Cook.

So, yeah, I'm a bit pissed off that I liked "Mr. Brooks."

I promised in the most recent Scary Song of the Week that I would expound more on my current Stephen King mood. Well here I go.

Right now, the big talk is about "Bag of Bones" beginning production. Pierce Brosnan has been cast as blocked writer Mike Noonan. I'm cool with that. I'm also cool with the casting of Melissa George as Mattie Devore. She impressed me in the remake of "The Amityville Horror." Mick Garris is directing the announced two-part miniseries for A&E, which means I need to get cable soon or I'll miss it. It might sound weird to many King fans, but "Bag of Bones" has become my favorite of his novels. It's the perfect bridge between the over the top King of the 1980s and '90s and the post-accident King of the 21st century.

That's my favorite book, so now is a good time to go back to the beginning and talk about one of my favorite King characters: Tommy Ross in "Carrie."

I'm in a Stephen King mood. (not that I'm ever not in the mood for anything King. More on this later.) This means that the Scary Song of the Week is "Pet Sematary," performed by the Ramones for the 1989 film.

It's a good Ramones tune: short, three cords, catchy chorus. King has never been shy about his love for the band, including writing the liner notes to "We're a Happy Family," the Rob Zombie-produced Ramones tribute album. King and the Ramones are a lot alike. They thrived on taking the everyday and twisting it into something darker and more sinister.

For "Pet Sematary," the Ramones went for a Romero-esque black and white video that makes one wonder what "Pet Sematary" the movie would have been like if Romero had been at the helm.

Not that the movie is bad. Director Mary Lambert (who I've sort of worked with, but she'd never remember me) crafted a harrowing family film with one of the all-time great endings. The Ramones tune follows that ending, playing over the end credits. Having an eponymous title track puts the film squarely in the tradition of 1980s movies, but feels more underground than it really is. By 1989, the Ramones-- and King-- weren't exactly secrets anymore. Now, 22 years later, "Pet Sematary" (film and song) are classics.

Check out the song. Even better, watch "Pet Sematary" again and wait for the credits to roll.

I was in Target (one of the least frightening places I know) and came across a few of the dolls from Monster High. Dolls such as these make me hope I have a little girl someday. There are plenty of scary toys for boys, but not enough for girls.

The "fashion dolls" were released in 2010 by Mattel. You may know that company for its other successful fashion doll, Barbie. The dolls are purported to be marketed to tween girls and ... wait. What the hell is a "tween"? Not to offend any of the the 12-year-old girls reading this (of which I am sure there are none) but you are either a pre-teen or a teen. There is no in be"tween."

I don't play many video games for one reason: I'm bad at them. I've never conquered Super Mario Bros. or gotten very far in Mortal Kombat. Right now, the height of my gaming level is medium on Guitar Hero: Metallica.

As many males my age, I loved Mortal Kombat when the games first came out. If someone had it, I'd play. I'd pump a few quarters into the game at the arcade but would soon be ousted.

And now I have a Wii, which means there aren't many horror-related games available for my console. I won't get to play the Mortal Kombat reboot, which is a shame because the nightmare man himself, Freddy Krueger, is a downloadable character.

Tom Petty's "American Girl" has been in the news lately as he demanded that Republican "presidential candidate" and Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann stop using it as her entrance music during events. Uber-conservatives are creepy enough on their own without having to use a song from one of the greatest suspense thrillers ever made.

We're talking "Silence of the Lambs," a film near and dear to me, that I can honestly say my wife likes, too.

Of course, it was her who said that any woman who hears "American Girl" while driving alone at night instantly gets a bit freaked out.

No apologies and no shame. I enjoy professional wrestling. It's similar to the love I have for no-budget schlock horror movies. I know it's bad, but I don't care. Now hand me that can of Easy Cheese.

A quick internet search will provide any number of lists of the scariest wrestlers ever. One thing you'll notice is that most of them don't stay at the highest levels of sports entertainment for very long. Remember the Boogeyman? He ate worms and smashed a clock on his face. The gaps in his short-lived stint in the WWE are as big as the gap from his missing teeth.

What? You don't remember him? What about Vampiro or the Demon from the last few years of WCW? Spark any memories? No? Well, let me help.

The above clip from "Fright Night" premiered at the San Diego Comic-Con Friday night. Introduced by David Tennant, the clip focuses on Tennant's Peter Vincent discussing how to kill vampires with Charlie Brewster (Anton Yelchin). Tennant (best know as the 10th Doctor Who and a small role in the Harry Potter series) seems to be pulling off some kind of Russell Brand look that could not be further from Roddy McDowall, the original Peter Vincent.

And that brings me to the original 1985 "Fright Night," which I'm watching right this minute. The movie is getting plenty of press leading up to the release of the remake, so I don't feel too bad about throwing my two cents in.

Seriously, what could be scarier than the idea of a hard rock/goth band covering a Seals & Croft song? Yes, Type O Negative's "Summer Breeze" is the Scary Song of the Week.

R.I.P. Peter Steele.

I don't have a lot to say about this song in particular. I like it. It captures the Type O sound but is still accessible to the non-fan (at least the album version from "Bloody Kisses," anyway. An extended version with altered lyrics isn't exactly friendly.)

Imagine a little red-haired, five-year-old boy peeking through the curtain at the back of a single screen theater, hoping THIS TIME he won't get scared by the ghost in the library.

Yes, freinds, that was your humble narrator in 1984, trying to watch "Ghostbusters." Why a five year old had multiple chances to watch "Ghostbusters" in the theater is a story for another time. Today, we're talking about how creepy libraries and used bookstores are.

Seth Grahame-Smith started the whole classics-horror mash-up phenomena with "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies." Once that became such a craze ("Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters" and "Android Karenina" are just two examples), Grahame-Smith ventured into slightly more original fare.

One must say "slightly" because we all know Grahame-Smith did not create Abraham Lincoln.

My brother-in-law is getting married in two days so this is a great time to tell you that I haven’t watched “Haunted Honeymoon” in years. It’s on Netflix Instant Watch but I’m not going to have a chance to watch it between now and the wedding. I feel like a bit of a failure for that. I should have been better prepared. I should have watched the movie, if only refresh my memory.

Here’s what I remember:

Dom Deluise in drag, face whiter than the skin on the underside of my arms. A big, scary bed & breakfast, looking like the Addams Family house or maybe even Norman Bates house. (There’s part of me that wants to say the filmmakers of “Haunted Honeymoon” used the same house while it say empty on the Universal back lot. This is only my memory. I could be wrong.) This is also one of the rare film teamings of real-life married couple Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner.

We're headed to a wedding this weekend, so I thought I would make a song from Tim Burton's "The Corpse Bride" our scary song of the week. Problem is, none of the songs from that movie are scary, per se. The piano work in "Victor's Solo" and the duet is amazing, but again, not scary.

So, in honor of all the recent "Evil Dead" news, I have chosen Danny Elfman's "March of the Dead" as the latest Scary Song of the Week.

I just finished reading issue 29 of Horrorhound, a bi-monthly magazine that, like Warning Signs, does its best to cover all facets of the horror genre.

Disclaimer: I'm not a subscriber or contributor. I picked up the magazine to read the tribute to the horror films of 1981.

Let's get a few basics out of the way. First, the cover price of Horrorhound is $6.99, which is much better than the $9 or $10 you'll pay for a newsstand copy of Rue Morgue or Fangoria. So that's nice.

Horrorhound isn't the household name Fangoria is or that Rue Morgue is becoming. That's not a bad thing. It helps keep the cover price low and cuts down on the most annoying aspect of Fangoria in the 21st century: too many ads for movies that are also reviewed in the same issue.

I'm not just blowing smoke here. I'm in the newspaper biz, and while I understand there are differences between papers and magazines, I get equally upset seeing an ad for a DVD and then a supposedly unbiased glowing review of the same release within a few pages. In the paper biz, we call that advertorial and it makes me want to puke.

Horrorhound, from this one issue, appears to be mostly free of such conflicts. While the content of many of the short articles--particularly those on horror toys and collectibles--are so over the top positive that they easily could be ad copy, there isn't much in the way of actual advertising.

The tone of the magazine is generally positive. We're all fans and it's hard to say anything bad about things we love. It's hard to see the faults in a film such as "The Howling," the subject of a franchise spanning retrospective (other 1981 films such as "An American Werewolf in London" and "Friday the 13th Part II" have been covered in previous issues), but it's easy to rag on the sub-par sequels. Sequels that, by the way, wouldn't exist if horror fans would stop watching them.

Thanks to the retrospective, "The Howling" gets a brief mention in the issue's centerpiece: a tribute to (and list of!) horror cinema in the year 1981. Among the 40 films mentioned are: "Scanners," "My Bloody Valentine," "Escape From New York," "Wolfen," "The Evil Dead," "Halloween II," and "Ghost Story." Even half of that output in a year these days would be a dream.

Since the entire issue is devoted to 1981 (minus a couple interviews on new releases and current stars), the folks in charge added features such as 13 "WTF" Moments in "Friday the 13th Part II" and an entire page of DVD covers of the Evil Dead series.

The overtly fanboy writing can be distracting, but I'd be a hypocrite if I tried to tell Horrorhound's writers not to write like that. And (forgive me now for any past and future typos) a closer copy edit is needed. Horrorhound doesn't have the budget of the two big horror 'zines, but one would hope they had more time to get things right.

Heck, I'd be willing to help out. (Dear Horrorhound, I am a writer attempting to make my way in the horror community. Since I respect your efforts in not only publishing a magazine but getting it into my hands, I would like to help you make it the best product possible. ...

Or something to that effect.)

The good news is that Horrorhound is worth your time every other month. It's cheaper than Fangoria and isn't trying to sell you as much stuff. (Which means they could use all the single copy and subscription purchases they can get.)

And they made a solid argument for 1981's candidacy as best year in horror cinema. (Separate votes for best year in horror literature and best year in horror overall, although a column in the issue on '81's contributions to heavy metal will help the case in that category.)

Threat level: YELLOW. Issue 29 and the tribute to 1981 is the May/June offering from Horrorhound. If this is your cup of tea, better go find a copy now. (For an explanation of Warning Signs ratings, visit our Warning System page.)

You wanted more videos from the record-breaking breaking Red, White and Dead zombie walk held earlier this month in Seattle, didn't you?


The good Dr. Thompson (aka ZomBcon Int'l senior editor Marshall Popham) has posted some more clips of our adventures together at the zombie walk. Video shot by me, editing by Popham.

The first set (actually Part 2 of "Fear and Loathing in Fremont") includes a chat with a couple of Mormon missionary zombies and Dr. Thompson confronting his zombie self.

Part 3 of "Fear and Loathing in Fremont" is our B-Roll footage of the record-setting crowd.

Enjoy!

Hey, even my wife likes tolerates "Army of Darkness." That's not quite the same as liking "Evil Dead" or "Evil Dead 2" but it's close enough.

Above is an all-too-brief clip from "Evil Dead: The Musical." Warning Signs is working on a horror musical piece as we speak. "Evil Dead: The Musical" is playing Portland, Ore., on July 22 and 23. Buy tickets here. According to the main site, the show will swing through Seattle on Oct. 22-Nov. 12.

If I'm not mistaken, there's something else that opening night in Seattle. Oh, yeah. ZomBcon!

Just in case you thought that was all of the "Evil Dead" news for today, you should continue reading for more.

Maybe it's the songs themselves, the simplicity of the melodies, that make lullabyes creepy as all get out. Or maybe it's the voices of children singing the songs that make lullabyes sound a bit twisted.

Whatever it is, lullabyes aren't right.

The worst part is that I just listened to three different songs and after a 4 a.m. shift, I am nearly dead to the world.

Warning Signs is excited about the new "Fright Night" coming out in August. As much as I gripe about remakes, I can't help but love some of them. The original came out in 1985, so that meets the Warning Signs 25-30 year moratorium on remakes.

Some time between now and the Aug. 19 release, you can expect to read my thoughts on the original film (and how awesome I think Roddy McDowell is) and, hopefully, a review of the new flick afterward.

Until then, you can enter the Fright Night Feeding Frenzy. Prizes are awarded based on how many clicks you get get on your links to the site. I want to win stuff and I know you do, too. So here's the deal: Click on my link here, sign up yourself and leave your link in the comments. I will click you in return.

Deal?

Certain classic novels and stories are always ripe for Hollywood adaptation. Richard Matheson's 1954 novel "I Am Legend" is just such a book.

Three direct adaptaions have been made from this book: "The Last Man on Earth" in 1964, "The Omega Man" in 1971 and "I Am Legend" in 2007.

I'm watching the middle picture, "The Omega Man," on Netflix Instant Watch right now, so I thought it would be a good time to discuss the movies and their inspiration.

Depending on who you ask or what the current trends are, "I Am Legend" can be sci-fi or horror, it can be a vampire tale (most applicable to the novel), a zombie film (some say "Night of the Living Dead" took its inspiration from Matheson), or some odd mix of all of these (the 2007 film would be a hybrid example).

First and foremost, "I Am Legend" is the harrowing tale of the last man on earth, which is pretty freaking scary, if you ask me.

UPDATE: For a limited time, John Carpenter's "The Ward" is available to rent on iTunes. Rental price is $6.99 in the U.S. and 10.99 in the U.K. According to iTunes, they have Aug. 16 as a tentative release date. You can pre-order "The Ward" for $14.99.




Today marks the long overdue return of director John Carpenter to theaters with "The Ward," starring Amber Heard.

This is where you'd expect to see a review of the new release, but none of the three theaters-- all in the same local ownership group-- decided to carry the film during its opening weekend. I am not happy about this, as you can imagine. I'm not so unhappy that I'm naming the theaters. They are the only ones in my immediate area and I don't want them to have a reason to keep me out. Maybe I'll get lucky and they will see the error of their ways and begin screening "The Ward" next week. Here's hoping.

Until then, let's have a look at Carpenter's best and worst work in the horror genre.

OK, not really. Warning Signs recently wrote about hotels in a recent installment of Creepy by Association. The boys over at the AVClub took a trip to Portland, Ore., to check out the Timberline Lodge, famously used by Stanley Kubrick for the exteriors of The Overlook Hotel in his version of "The Shining."

The AVClub's report can be found here.

This song could easily fall under Warning Signs other weekly feature, Creepy by association. "Without You" by Harry Nilsson is the latest Scary Song of the Week for good reason. You may not know it, but "Without You" is a vampire song.

No fooling.

Let's have a look at a few more photos from the July 2 Red, White and Dead zombie walk in Seattle. To see the the previous bunch, go here. To check out a video project Warning Signs participated in, go here.

Death was all around us during the zombie walk. Even the big googly-eyed kind of death.

Theses jolly reapers were probably busy checking out the more scantily-clad zombies.

The good folks of ZomBcon International were kind enough to let Warning Signs help out with a project during Red, White and Dead, the world record-breaking zombie walk in Seattle.

You've seen some of the photos. We also had a video camera. Warning Signs captured the fun as good friend Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (in this case ZomBcon senior editor Marshall Popham) interviewed the living dead, including Jesus. Swing by the ZomBCon page to see what trouble we brewed.

Stayed tuned for the next video project from Warning Signs. And while you are at it, you should go ahead and register for ZomBcon 2011.

Every Christmas, the nation is subjected to those stop-motion specials such as "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer," "The Year Without a Santa Claus" and "Twas the Night Before Christmas." The team of Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin, Jr., also made a few Easter specials and even directed "The Last Unicorn," one of the all-time great animated features.

In 1967, the duo tackled Halloween and even got Boris Karloff to join them on the ride. The result was "Mad Monster Party."

Anthologies are a staple of both horror literature and cinema. Every fan owns at least one (usually centered on a favorite monster) and has seen at least one (generally much less focused than their literary brethren).

At this moment, I am watching "Trapped Ashes," a 2006 anthology with stories directed by Ken Russell, Joe Dante, Sean S. Cunningham, John Gaeta, and Monte Hellman. It's not bad, so far. Henry Gibson (who was absolutely frightening in "The 'Burbs") is in the wraparound story. You know, the part of the movie used to tie all the stories together. Like the cat in "Stephen King's Cat's Eye."

Wraparound stories aren't really used in the anthology books. Those often have a theme to bring everything together. On of my favorites is "October Dreams: A Celebration of Halloween," edited by Richard Chizmar and Robert Morrish. With great stories such as "Heavy Set" by Ray Bradbury, the book includes favorite Halloween memories from the authors.

Halloween is a natural setting for horror anthologies. Michael Dougherty's "Trick 'R Treat" managed to only be an anthology, but tied the separate stories together, almost Tarantino style. Delays in its release pushed the movie from something that could have dominated the holiday box office to a direct-to-DVD pariah. If you are a "True Blood" fan, check it out just to watch Anna Paquin wolf out. Scary and sexy.

Horror anthologies are like sitting around the campfire, telling ghost stories. You get multiple quick tales, some better than others, each trying to outdo the story before. The best part, of course, is that you don't have to watch the whole movie or read the whole book if some of it isn't up to par.

Book or film, what's your favorite anthology?

It can be difficult to suspend disbelief for the 90 minutes it takes to watch the average horror movie. Lame plots, dull effects and bad acting serve to constantly remind us that we are watching a movie, that this isn't real.

Quentin Dupieux took those elements and made a movie of them.

Here's the thing. We all know hotels and motels are frightening. Alfred Hitchcock knew it and exploited it in "Psycho." You don't know who is on the other side of the wall. You don't know who slept in the bed or used the toilet before you. You don't know anything about the staff and you just hope they are trustworthy and won't steal your stuff.

Personally, if I'm staying in a hotel/motel for more than one night, I put the "do not disturb" sign on the door and no one gets in until I'm gone. I've never had someone peep on me in the shower (that I know of) and I've never had anything stolen from my room. I'm just paranoid as hell.

Perhaps you are planning a summer trip soon. You'll stay in some unfamiliar place, surrounded by strangers. You'll have a good time and nary a dark thought will breeze through your brain.

Yeah, right.

Creepy accommodations run the gamut from the rundown Bates Motel to the upper class digs in "1408." In between is the Overlook Hotel, the true star of Stephen King's "The Shining."




If you are planning a trip, do a search on the places you plan to stay. If the news reports are clear, book that vacation. If you find something a bit weird, beware. As the Eagles famously sang in "Hotel California," you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.

With no offense to my foreign readers, and there are more of you than I thought there would be, today is for America.

The United States of America owns the horror genre. That isn't to say all the best horror movies are American. There are many great British, Italian, Japanese and Korean horror movies. Other countries, such as Norway ("Dead Snow"), Sweden ("Let the Right One In") and Australia ("Wolf Creek") have gotten in on the act.

While these films are rooted in the cultures of those nations, the horror genre always comes back to the States. How many Lucio Fulci movies were set (although not filmed) in New York City?

I'm not trying to be ethnocentric. I love horror from other countries. As my wife just pointed out, many foreign originals (Ringu, Ju-On) are much more frightening than their American rehashes (The Ring, The Grudge).

There is just something about American horror that feels more real. Due to our melting pot population, we have unlimited monsters at our fingertips. We have Old World ghosts and demons, nuclear monsters, and the ultimate American monster: the serial killer/slasher. No other country could have thought of Jason Voorhees. (Some might count that as a point of pride that they didn't create the masked horrors that are Jason and Michael Meyers. I say, "America, fuck yeah.")

Many of these creations are given a close look in two excellent documentaries: "The American Nightmare" and "Nightmares in Red, White and Blue: The Evolution of the American Horror Film."

The first documentary focused on the filmmakers who came out of the post-Vietnam era: George Romero, Wes Craven, John Carpenter, Tobe Hooper, David Cronenberg (who is Canadian, or as comedian Christian Finnegan says, "America Lite") and make-up effects man Tom Savini. The second brought in more contemporary filmmakers such as Darren Lynn Bousmann and Eli Roth.




The highlight of "The American Nightmare" comes via the scholars interviewed and their analysis of American Horror. While "Nightmares in Red, White and Blue" includes many of the same filmmakers and scholars, it's selling point is reaching back all the way to Thomas Edison's version of "Frankenstein" and following the course of American horror up to 2009. "The American Nightmare," while released in 2000, narrows its focus to the 1960s and '70s. The torture porn trend of the 2000s hadn't even begun when "The American Nightmare" came out.

Both films should serve to remind audiences that when it comes to horror, America rules. Imported fright is more influenced by stateside horror than the other way around. If American filmmakers would reach back and appreciate their heritage more instead of just copying it or looking overseas for ideas, American horror will continue to be a driving force in worldwide cinema.

"You can't have a story without including a bad deed or a bad intention," Peter Straub writes in his award-winning novel "A Dark Matter."

Let me tell you about a problem I'm having. it has to do with books, especially horror novels, with a writer as the protagonist. My problem is that I am getting tired of stories about writers by writers who seem to have never known any other career.

The thing is, is that I still love two of the three novelists responsible for making novels about writers OK. (Sorry, Dean Koontz. You have your fans, but other than a few exceptions, I've never been able to engage with your work. As for Stephen King, I bow to the master.)

Peter Straub has done his share of horror novels about writers and "A Dark Matter" is one of them. At first, I wanted to be upset. You know, "Oh, great. Another horror novel about a writer and him (almost always a male) figuring things out."

Thankfully, I didn't let that stop me from finishing this book.

Your humble Warning Signs host was one of 4,522 zombies at Red, White and Dead, the annual zombie walk in Seattle. I got a little sunburnt, helped a friend with an interesting video project (more information on that once video editing is completed), and had a great time.

Let's look at a few photos, shall we?

On the road for tomorrow's #zombiewalk. keep your eyes on the page and the twitter feed for all the fun.

In honor of Red, White and Dead, which is tomorrow, this week's scary song is "Braineaters" by the Misfits.

I know, some of you are asking why it took Warning Signs four weeks to feature a Misfits song. The answer? Because I was waiting for this week to feature this song.

"Braineaters" is a great sing-along-song. It's short, has a catchy chorus and easy lyrics.

OI! OI! OI!

Brains for dinner
Brains for lunch
Brains for breakfast
Brains for brunch
Brains at every single meal,
Why can't we have some guts?

OI! OI! OI!


And repeat, more or less.

Like most of the classic Misfits tunes, "Braineaters" is based on an old horror movie, "The Braineaters" from 1958. It should be noted that the popular notion of zombies preferring brains to other body parts was introduced in "Return of the Living Dead" in 1985. "Braineaters" the song was on the 1982 Misfits album "Walk Among Us."

Give the tune a try. Get your buddies to sing it next time you are out at the bar. You might not get kicked out.