Retro Wednesday!

Believe it our not kiddies...today is retro Wednesday. Our creature feature for today is the 80's scare-fest "The Gate." This film was a nice departure from the slasher fair of the 80's and provided many a nightmare for kids of the same age of the lead character Glen (played by a young Stephen Dorff). The plot is simple enough...three kids accidentally unleash a horde of beasts from a hole in their backyard. Simple enough, but the film creeps you out with this little tiny creatures that come out of nowhere and terrorize the characters. It has a great metal sound track. Levitation. Kids in peril. Parents away. Family dog dies...all wrapped up in nice 80's horror artistry. This has to be my favorite time in horror. Maybe cause its my youth...when I saw the films....but the 80's were great. And....to prove even more that this film is a classic....it is being remade. Yes kids, remade. While some chambers and corners of the current horror world are doing fine coming up with original ideas...Hollywood horror still can't keep its grubby little hands off of 80's classics. Do yourself a favor- rent this tonight...VHS...BETA...or DVD (for sale at Best Buy...only 5 bucks!)...and wait for the little ghouls to bite your ankles! Happy Horroring!

Have Mercy On Us All #2

You're the Quarter, I'm the Well

Have Mercy On Us All 2

I really think I need to get a hold of myself. To tell the truth- there is a mysterious, "Clue"-like factor in finding a hidden doorway in your daughters bedroom. The library with that secret bookshelf to push. That candelabra that when pulled down, opens a passage to a crawlspace. Those eyeballs looking at you from the painting.

But a small door. In a little girls bedroom. This was not what I expected when my wife left for the weekend. The darkness scares me too. I knew my daughters paranoia came straight from her Daddy. For her sake, I will need the courage to investigate this with some sense of calmness.

The crest was straight out of Davey Jones locker. A crimson and gold chest, dressed perfectly, even down to the over-sized padlock on the front. The lock was undone. A flash of dust and soft light yawned from the chest as we opened it. A staircase, winding down into the well. Wet bricks and and dripping sound somewhere ten to twenty feet below. But stairs. Inviting stairs that called us down.

The water was only a few inches deep at the bottom and flowed down a short hallway. Every few feet there was a doorway. Wooden doors, two on the left and two on the right. The first one to our right was already open, revealing the edge of a table. This appeared to be a short, metal veterinarians table extending from the wall.

The doctor looked up at us.

"We mostly treat farm animals. Our specialty is horses. Rare breeds, race horses, prize winners." The doctor put both hands simultaneously in her lab coat pockets. 'Do you like horses little girl?"

Arlene's eyes widened at the question from the doctor. She grabbed my pant leg as I stepped forward to confront the woman at the table.

A good Independent never dies...

The horror genre like the music genre is defined by independent work. When a indie rock bands starts a movement- sooner or later the mainstream catches up and copies. When a good, independent horror film comes out the genre tends to follow in the box office. Carpenter's Halloween, Sean S. Cunnigham's Friday the 13th, George Romero's Night of the Living Dead, at their time, were independent films. They went on to spawn decades worth of Hollywood horror nightmares. Even more recently, many of these groundbreaking films are being re-made; yet another attempt at Hollywood's cinematic plagiary.



So it's safe to say, a good independent horror film never dies. Recently, the Horror Society put on an independent film fest here in Cincinnati. While mostly consisting of shorts, the fest showcased a few feature length indie fright fares. Director Lou Vockel's http://www.onemanfilmindustry.com/The Stalking Hand and Vagrant played to crowd applause and intrigue. Vagrant's cast displayed a Reservoir Dogs like pacing throughout. They played off each other and against each other in a grindhouse style heist film. With a back-drop of a vagrant, homeless killer in the house- this scenrio proved the best of the fest and most likely to transcend the indie film world. Halloween, Friday the 13th or Night of the Living Dead it may not be- but the independent world seems to be alive and screaming in Cincinnati, OH.

Goodbye to a MASTER of the genre

Farwell to Stan Winston, who died of cancer today. Stan has given us so many movie monsters and inspired make-up/ creature effects. Film highlights (for me) include Aliens- Terminator films- Wrong Turn- Pumpkinhead- The Thing- The Entity- Starman- Predator- just to name a few. This is a sad day for horror fans...but check out http://www.stanwinstonstudio.com/home.html

and simply peruse the long list of films Stan Winston leaves us with- and you'll see he will most certainly never be forgotten.

Cincy screams for a new Bruce

If Cincinnati Reds fans want something to cheer about amidst a dismal season...they scream for BRUCE. Jay Bruce that is. And when horror fans have gone for awhile since a new Evil Dead film, they want to scream for a new BRUCE Campbell. Fear not horror hounds...our new Bruce appears to be here in the form of Russell Hurley, star of this weekends Cincinnati Horror Film Fest and center piece of this http://citybeat.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A145355 City Beat article. Hurley is a barber in downtown Cincinnati and our towns largest independent horror philanthropist. I saw Hurley this weekend in a small role in The Stalking Hand. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0475401/
as well as the lead role in Vagrant http://youtube.com/watch?v=kd3EzjhqMyg. Hurley absolutely stole the show in both pictures. If going from being a barber to being a film star seems hard, fear not, as Hurley provides horror with a real shot of comedic intensity. He goes from a humorous, Elvis loving cop in the Stalking hand, to a dead serious thug in Vagrant. Both turns showing that this Cincinnati son is destined to rise as a marauder of the undead. A slayer of the severed limb. A leader of the misfit gang. All while engaging the viewer in Samuel L Jackson-Esq monologues and Bruce Campbell wit. Russel Hurley may enjoy being a barber- but he trades pork chop sideburns for acting chops when it comes to his latest film. Vagrant was the crown jewel of the Horror Film Fest. Hurley, along with the rest of the cast of Vagrant established themselves as innovators of the genre. The film itself relies on a grainy, grindhouse feel. But the film is carried by the acting performances alone. The group of actors in this film gave what may be the rocket launcher to their careers. This may not be Hurley's Evil Dead as Bruce Campbell had. But unfortunately for Bruce, I personally feel that Hurley's acting skills will send him straight into many more diverse roles, he's that good. I look forward to seeing more form him. Better than a rookie coming up from AAA ball and invigorating a stadium of thirty thousand.

Happy Friday the 13th !

What a splendid day it shall be! Friday the 13th!
Things you could do today to celebrate: 1. go see The Happening 2. Watch Friday the 13th movies (probably will be some on AMC or Sci-Fi tonight). 3. Go to the Cincinnati Horror Film Fest in Fairfield tomarrow. 4. Play a trick on someone. 5. Step on a crack. 6. Dress up as a camp counselor and and see what happens when you mix sex drugs and alcohol. 7. Play with a quiji board tonight. 8. Say bloody Mary or Candyman into a mirror. 9. Don't listen to the old crazy guy that warns you of what in them der woods. 10. Or, just sit at home and do whatever your wife tells you.
Whatever you do, enjoy the 13th.... chi chi chi ha ha ha...

It's all in a name

Nancy: [about Freddy] What'd he look like? You get a look at him?
Rod: No.
Nancy: Well then how can you say somebody else was there?
Rod: Because somebody cut her. While I watched.
Nancy: Somebody cut her while you watched and you don't know what he looked like?
Rod: I couldn't see the fucker. You could just see the cuts happening, all at once. I probably could've saved her if I'd moved sooner. But I thought it was just another nightmare, like the one I had the night before. There was this guy who had knives for fingers.

That's right guys and ghouls...you're favorite horror blog received it's name from Nightmare On Elm Street. How can you see somebody when they're not there? you can if there's cuts happening. How can you keep getting the latest in horror film, literature and original stories? Tune in daily to cutshappening.blogspot.com. Or else...I'll pin all of the murders on Rod Lane!

Never Knew

Gary Braunbeck is from Ohio. Newark, OH to be exact. I used to deliver Home City Ice there in high school. Gary is a Bram Stoker Award winning author of several short stories and novels. His latest is Coffin Country. Which I will be reading after I finish the non-horror-mass-market-yet-still engaging as hell Dean Koontz novel The Husband. I will give a full review of the Braunbeck novel in a week or so and I have added a link to his site on the horror authors list. While we're speaking of Koontz...many may cry out "why have you not included the dog lover Dean in your horror list?" I will premise this by saying I enjoy Dean Koontz. Read him almost as much as the King in high school. Almost everything I read by Dean Koontz is great, reels me in and I cannot stop reading (like The Husband a great novel). This said...I have begun to think he is not a horror writer. He is a great writer, but more suspense and crime and kidnapping now. Plus, he puts out like twenty some novels a year...i can't keep up. So, no I don't include Koontz as a horror writer. But he is a good one. For this sites purposes, I'll stick to real creepers and ghouls...like Braunbeck, Ketchum, Keane, Lee, and (even though he's gone soft himself...) the King. Constant readers will always listen.

seeing sounds

Although I know my wife does not care for the beats and the rap...and I typically don't either....more of a rawk guy....I cannot get enough of the new N.E.R.D. album "seeing sounds." It's terrific! Highly recommend, even for someone who does not like hip hop (like myself). But this is good. So good you can see it. http://www.n-e-r-d.com/

Have Mercy On Us All #1

*This story is inspired by, in tittle only, the Fred Vargas novel Pars Vite et Reviens Tard (Have Mercy On Us All). I have neither read the novel, or seen the recent 2007 film. Although I plan to do both when done with this story.

This story is copyrighted by back words 4.

Have Mercy On Us All

part 1

"I want to tell you something. I want to tell you about the monsters in my room and the bad dreams I'm having. They are behind the door and in the ceiling fan and in the shadows of the night light. Turn that off. Check behind the door. The horse's in my dreams are all unicorns with wings. They walk around like people and there's one behind the door."

-A beaded necklace rattles the wood as the door opens. The hollow ping of the plastic slapping the wood takes too long. Time begins to slow. But behind the door yields no monsters. No goblins. No unicorns with wings walking around. Just the horror of the once area daddies vacuum doesn't get. Dust bunnies. Far worse than Easter bunnies or fuzzy bunnies in the yard. A beaded necklace and a grey streak of dust behind an off white door.

"There's nothing in here. See. Monsters are just pretend. Besides, Mommy and Daddy would never let anything scare our little girl. We're right downstairs and you can come down if one appears."

"But mommy is not here and there are more monsters in the ceiling fan and the closet. The fan turns into a wing and the unicorn walks around up there. He wants to get home but he cannot get to the closet before they hear him. They lock the door on him. That's their hideout. There, behind that tent."

-The yellow fabric feels cool from the constant sway and billow of fan-wind. If it were a tent the campers would have to pray for no rain. The right hand section seemed to open itself with a ghostly swagger. The left hand panel of curtain held shut, blocking the light from the killer of all monster killers, a child's flashlight. Sometimes, the beam alone has been said to have launched ceiling fan monsters right back to Home Depot.

"Shine that light over here. For one little girl, you sure can jam pack a closet like a grown woman. Half of these clothes should be sent out to goodwill or something. The diapers. Those should be tossed, you haven't been in those for a year at least."

-The curtain stayed closed on the left side. There was a quick flash of white behind the plastic over wrap of a bag of diapers. A piece of thin trim from a panel. The trim was only one piece, straight up from the baseboard. The diaper bags, cloths and stuffed animals all toppled over with the slightest touch. With the hallway light illuminating parts of the wall, there was a change in the paint color. What was a clean white wall, seemed grey in part. The part felt different too. Like particleboard. Like it wanted to give a hand a splinter. A door.

-A makeshift, but flush with the existing wall, three by three square door. Big enough to crawl through. Any monster pliable enough to fit through though could not be that terrifying. The door looked like an access door to a fuse box, or a attic entry. Nothing near big enough for a talking winged unicorn.

-But big enough for a little girls imagination.

-The light bulb popped in concert with the switch.

-In the dark, the door in the closet seemed to disappear. Then, the square got darker as the panel fell back into a space behind the wall.

Since the Reds are choking...

I'll write a story. Our ol' Cincinnati red legs are suckin like a vampire on a tampon, Have been for the last three nights (or is it weeks)? Either way, there has to be something better to do with my time. I will of course support the Big Red Tricycle by having it on, on mute, while I listen to some records and write a little bit. Each night I will write. Just a few paragraphs a day. Of a longer, serial story horror story. More of a fable for kids- no Pans Labyrinth or Hansel and Gretel. But closer to a Thief of Always. We'll see how it goes...I see it being kind of a modern age old time radio show late night horror tale. A Tale From the Crypt! So as the Creepier would say "cuddle up kiddies...you're in for a nasty little terror tale I'd like to call... Have Mercy On Us All..."

U.S. v. Them

One of the recent trends in horror seems to be the U.S. remaking/reduxing/or just plain borrowing from foreign nightmares. This is most prevalent with Japanese horror films. I honestly stopped counting Asian horror remakes shortly after The Ring. But, there is some comment to be made on if/why someone would rather see the U.S. version of The Grudge...rather than seeing Takashi Shimizu's Ju-On. I personally enjoyed both, but for real, dark, horror- Shimizu's original cannot be challenged. It's creepier, darker, more dank. Granted maybe the U.S. version is more accessible because of the language- but often for me at least, subtitles make a film even more spooky. I could spend hours comparing original foreign films to their U.S. remake counterparts- but won't. I appreciate most good horror films, U.S. or otherwise. I especially appreciate when foreign directors make blow your mind apart "U.S." horror movies. I do not care for all the borrowing though. Case in point....which came first? This weekends 'The Strangers," or "Them?" Now, I will be a hypocrite and probably at least rent The Strangers when it rockets to DVD after getting pummeled by the super-hero-Jones onslaught that is in the theaters now. Due in some part because it looks somewhat spooky and I'm a sucker for masks. BUT...the movie does at least appear to borrow somewhat from David Moreau and Xavier Palud's "Them." Now that movie was a horror movie. An absolute creep-fest. "Them" was a quiet, tension building spook of a film that indeed scared me at times (that's what it's all about, right). "The Strangers" may do well. But most likely will get dissolved into the pea soup that is the U.S. taking others ideas and not playing nice.

Links

As advertised...the new and improved cuts happening blog will be more devoted to horror than ever before. This includes links. Not sausage links my dear readers...or Zelda Links my dear gamers...but link links. I have begun to list links to my favorite horror filmmakers and horror writers. You should peruse them there to your right. This is by NO MEANS a comprehensive list. I will add to it at will. I give my cuts happening seal of approval to all of the filmmakers and writers listed. You should not go wrong with any of these masters work. Furthermore, I will not share the taste of every horror fan...so as Brian Keene would say "Don't look for your town here."

Horror Society?

What a revelation! I suppose if I was a little more with it, not so old, or out of touch....I would know of things like the horror society http://www.horrorsociety.com/. Instead, my family, that allows and forgives (as it is an odd hobby) my love of horror films, brings this film festival to my attention http://www.cincinnati.horrorsociety.com/. Over the years i have been isolated in my interest in horror films. Maybe one friend or two that says "yeah...I like horror movies, you seen that new Saw film?" But no one who appreciates in concert with me, the vast array of horror talent that is out right now. I have been a fan since watching the Shining with my mother as a young boy. Since watching Nightmare on Elm Street with my brother, when the parents were away. Since watching Evil Dead with my old college roommate-and to this day, my only ever real horror friend. Since today- where I find myself starting my horror blog back. Sifting through my collection of close to two hundred films- asking myself, "do other people enjoy horror films as much as I do?" the answer is yes! I will be attending this horror fest this weekend. A wonderful thing since I cannot afford the travel costs of attending a fangoria festival- which only comes as close to cincy as Chicago. I will have a blast. Perhaps even meet some others of my kind- then this blog will really get going and my family will see there are others like me out there.

cuts are happening again!

The world's favorite Horror Blog is back. Cuts Happening has fought off the zombie hordes that overtook the company headquarters about a month ago- and have emerged hungry as ever to report on the world of horror films. This renewed interest in discussing horror has come in some part to this weekends "Cincinnati Horror Film Fest" brought to you by www.HorrorSociety.com. My father in law brought it to my attention that this was happening here in Fairfield this weekend. I checked into it- and it is for real. Eleven hours of independent horror films. I cannot wait. I am so happy to see horror films coming to my area. So ecstatic in fact, that I am officially bringing back cuts happening. This time, it will be bloodier, cover more horror and review more film than ever before and I will proclaim the wonder of horror film to anyone special enough to fall upon this blog. So keep checking back. And remember what Rod Lane says "There were just like....cuts happening man."