A mixed bag of horror-comedy, un-pc excess and loving homage to the z-grade Drive-In flicks of what seems so-long-ago, CHILLERAMA (mostly) succeeds where a lot of other recent attempts at this mix have fallen flat. The basic premise is that in Sometown, USA the local drive-in is closing down after being bought out by a douchebaggy developer, who just happens to be in attendance at the final showing. His shy younger brother and friends are also there, as are a handful of other patrons, employees and movie fans, led by the always solid Richard Riehle as “Uncle” Cecil Kaufman, the owner/projectionist/showman of the Drive-In. What follows is a wrap-around story involving necrophilia, toxic neon love-juice, tainted popcorn and an unfortunate end to the evening. In between these segments we’re treated to 3 1/2 short films that push the boundaries of acceptable taste and good humor. Witness! the horrifying scientific catastrophe of a man who gives release to a rampaging WADZILLA! See! The terrifying trials of teen homosexuality in I WAS A TEENAGE WERE-BEAR!! Kvetch! At the dastardly Nazi plans for creating an undead army with THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANKENSTEIN!!!

All of these things are pretty much what you would expect them to be. Each film apes an era and genre, while imbuing it with the most excessive, and offensive, humor the director can muster. WADZILLA (starring director Adam Rifkin as a 50’s kind of gent with a painfully growing sperm problem) is gross-out greatness, with appropriately melodramatic acting, vivid set pieces and bizarre cameo performances from Ray Wise and Eric Roberts before an explosive “happy ending”. I WAS A TEENAGE WERE-BEAR is a mildly confusing (and only partially-realized) mock-up of 60’s “Beach Blanket” and “Teen Monster” flicks replete with beach parties, scantily-clad teenagers and off-key caterwauling by Fabian look-alikes who, in this case, transmogrify into raging dog-faced leather-daddies. In the most hilarious segment, Joel David Moore plays a completely ineffectual Adolph Hitler out to create a killing machine in THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANKENSTEIN. Highly reminiscent of Mel Brooks’ YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, this one is stuffed with the kind of slapstick, gore and goofy humor we’ve come to expect from Adam Green through his AreiScope Halloween shorts like “Jack-Chop” and “The Tiffany Problem”. Filmed in Universal style black & white, subtitled, and featuring an all German-speaking cast (except for Moore, who speaks in the most awesomely ludicrous mock-German ever put to film “Boba Fett”, “Osh-Kosh B’Gosh” and “Cous-cous” all take on brilliant new meaning) THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANKENSTEIN had me (and my perceptually-enhanced wife) laughing our collective balls off. In fact, we went back and watched most of it an immediate second time. The last segment, entitled DEATHECATION, was blessedly mostly seen in the background as the end of the wrap story plays out. DEATHECATION is pretty much a literal shitstorm and is thankfully just long enough to make you thankful that the apocalypse is about to hit the drive-in (or shit-to-hit-the-fan, if that suits you).

Each segment had its hits and misses, but ANNE FRANKENSTEIN was certainly a win for Green, and Rifkin’s WADZILLA is disgusting, but very funny. The only one of the central segments that fell flat for me was WERE-BEAR, not because of the content, but because it just seemed to fall flat. Between the haphazard musical numbers (though I will admit that “Love Bit Me On The Ass” has potential) and the lack of chemistry between the main players, it just fell apart long before it ended. Really, the best part of this one was Lin Shaye doing her best “Mysterious Gypsy Woman” as the school nurse, and Scream Queens contestant and up n’ comer Gabby West as the unappreciated “Bela” of the supernatural love-story. Finally, the wraparound story is a little disjointed, but enjoyable, and makes for a pretty decent zombie flick with a high gross-out factor, like RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD on Viagra.

All in all, a great Friday night gross-out flick to watch with your friends, a couple of pizzas and a fridge full of beer. Just keep it in your pants and skip the blue-buttered popcorn.

SEE THE FULL REVIEW AT WWW.EYECRAVE.NET

Toys For Tots is one of the best “seasonal” charities out there and I try to be sure to donate toys and books for needy kids every year. This year I’m taking my kids to pick out stuff they’d like to donate and try and spread a little Holiday Whobilation. Through my network of writerly pals, I came across TOYS FOR TOTS: HORROR STYLE and immediately offered up my last autographed copy of A Career Guide To Your Job In Hell as part of their incentive package.

The most excellent Joe Pulver (Check out his Amazon page and be amazed!) decided to throw a contest to end all contests and go to his friends and fellow writers to create a one-of-a-kind event to encourage people to give to Toys For Tots. Dozens of horror writers, from all over the spectrum have donated books to go into one big pot for the luckiest winner of all! So far, more than 40 titles (many of them signed) are waiting for some samaritan to claim. All you have to do is take a picture of your donation, and another pic of you dropping it in the box and submit them to the Toys For Tots: Horror Style Facebook group. Come January 1st, Joe and his gang of demonic elves will pull a name out of their festive skull candy bowl and YOU could be receiving the library of every horror lover’s nightmares! So get to it. Share the Wealth, help a kid have a great Holiday Season and get  yourself some books!

https://www.facebook.com/ToysForTotsHorrorStyle

That Handsome Devil – The Heart Goes To Heaven, The Head Goes To Hell (2011 – Arts & Crafts)

NYC had the Beasties, Philly had G.Love & Special Sauce, SoCal has Cake and Boston brings That Handsome Devil to the party. Each one of those “Fringe Pop”, fusion-heavy bands has their hook. The B-Boys were (and continue to be) very Hip-Hop based; G.Love mixes in the Blues and Philly Soul; The almighty Cake feeds their music machine with Mexican trumpets and twangy guitar. That Handsome Devil dips its toes in all of those waters, but brings a much more keyboard-laden and vocal-focused sound, powered by that undeniably Boston ballsy party-style. Like The Dropkick Murphys and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones before them, THD is something you can’t fully comprehend until you see them in action.  That being said, there is still a high degree of awesome present in their new studio album The Heart Goes To Heaven, The Head Goes To Hell, which sees Godforbid and the gang (one-man-band Jeremy Page, keyboard player Tyler Cash, bass master Jeremy Siegel, Sam Merrick on drums, and backing vocals from Naoko Takamoto and Deflon Sallahr) roar off on another go-for-broke road trip of sex, drugs, booze and rampaging humanity.

The Heart Goes To Heaven, The Head Goes To Hell fires up with the Surf-Hop cool of “Adept” and rumbles on through tunes like the new soul-style “Becky’s New Car”, the agro-stomp of “The U & I in Suicide”, the comic ballroom two-stepper “Charlie’s Inferno”, the beat-heavy dystopian anthem “Bored”, and then burns up into the smoky nightclub sleaze of the joyfully profane”Inside You”, before sending us off with the teary farewell of “Party’s Dead”. Jeremy Page’s careful musical creations flow song to song, mixing countless genres and influences, while Godforbid growls and moans like a worn-out show tiger with a bad whiskey habit – somewhere between Tom Waits and Lux Interior. The resulting sound is something that defies description, outside of endless references to other bands that share the flavor of any one song. A little Red Elvises mixes with a dash of The Cramps. A bite of Captain Beefheart leaves an aftertaste of Butthole Surfers. A waft of Raymen leads to a tinge of Nick Cave.  In the end, like all of the best “Fringe-Pop”, The Heart Goes To Heaven, The Head Goes To Hell has a little something for everybody (unless you’re a Nickelback fan, in which case, get the fuck outta my That Handsome Devil review). Perpetually interesting, musically diverse, lyrically entertaining and excellent for dancing, The Heart Goes To Heaven, The Head Goes To Hell is a party record to reckon with, a jam album to groove to and a damn fine soundtrack for a life less ordinary. PICK IT UP!

Amazon                                        iTunes

THAT HANDSOME DEVIL

And check out the exclusive new tune “How To Get More Money” which you can download FREE HERE

So I caved in and built myself one a’ them new-fangled Facebook “Author Pages”. Go check it out at www.facebook.com/Thee.Axel.Howerton 

Also, there’s more 5-star reviews of Living Dead at Zigfreidt & Roy on both Smashwords and Amazon! Not to mention a nice little mention over at Pandora’s Pen where LD@Z&R is Pandora’s Pick of the Week!

In other news, I may put finishing Hot Sinatra on hold for another month, swapping it out on the back-burner for the long-gestating short collection, tentatively entitled Airborne Heroes in Chainmail Tights. More to follow on that project when I make a final decision. Now get out there and Nanomammawhojooboogaloo or Mo-Bro-Blow-vember or whatever the hell you’re up to this fine blustery month.