Random Ramblings from the Vault...

• I had a chance to re-watch Poltergeist, and I have to say: JoBeth Williams gives one hell of a performance in that picture. I had never quite noticed it before, distracted as I was by the campy greatness of Zelda Rubinstein, James Karen's cameo and that vomit-astic face-ripping scene. But she really is terrific. And for the record, there's no way Spielberg didn't direct the lion's share of that movie. Let the riotous debate begin!

• Question: Who would you say was the standout horror director of 2000-2009? Not an easy one to answer, is it? Very interested to see some of the possible selections...

• Pet peeve: Film zombies that are made to look overly evil. I like my zombies vacant, staring and mindless--not demonic. Call me crazy, but I think they should look simply like walking, rotting corpses. You can keep the cro-magnon brows and crazy contact lenses.

• So I shall be attending a sneak preview of the I Spit on Your Grave remake down in NYC later this week. Comments/thoughts/opinions to follow shortly thereafter. This should be interesting...

• Just so you all don't think I unconditionally and automatically adore all pre-modern horror movies, I'd like to inform you that I just had an opportunity to see The Screaming Skull (1958) over the weekend and was bored to tears. Despite the movie's 75-minute running length. It was kind of neat, though, that it uses the same Berlioz theme employed by Stanley Kubrick for the opening of The Shining.

• If you have a minute, or even if you don't, please be so kind as to check out Ocean of Storms, an online novel currently being published in blog form by two old, dear friends of mine. These boys can write just a little bit, and this tense, psychological sci-fi epic of alien invasion is the evidence. They're only on chapter three, so jump on board nice and early.

• Wanna talk about under-used movie monsters? How about the cyclops? You just don't see many good cyclops movies out there. I mean, Harryhausen really set the standard with 7th Voyage of Sinbad; but come on people, don't be so intimidated. If Kennedy could call for a man on the moon by 1969, then I can call for a cyclops on the big screen by 2019. Someone make it happen.

• I'm thinking it's high time there was a new Lon Chaney Sr. biopic. Yes, Jimmy Cagney's Man of 1,000 Faces was a good movie, but it was also largely fantasy. Horror's first megastar needs the proper big screen treatment. But who should play him?

• I'm honored to have been enlisted to provide the official banner for the Village Invasion zombie crawl happening in Saugerties, New York on October 16. I've mocked up three banner possibilities, and would like you--yes, you; stand still, laddy--to help pick which one is chosen. Jump over to the VOH Facebook page (all the cool kids are fans) and click "like" for the one you, well, like. The voting continues till Monday night at 9pm Eastern. And, oh yeah, one of the lucky voters will receive a special prize. Not that I have to bait any of you with cheap promotional tactics...