Seasonal YumYums

Just wanted to share really quickly two of my favorite seasonal treats.  First off....

These are little gifts sent down from the official bakery of Heaven located on the corner of Paradise St. and Eternity Blvd.  Seriously, I'm going to take the Crayola route here and say they don't quite taste like pumpkin but more like pumpkin pie. (again FU#$ you crayola and your dastardly choice of adjectives)  All that matters is that they are one of the most delicious things your can buy in your grocery store during our favorite time of the year.  I always start off buying one box at a time (which equates to about 3 boxes a week) and then come the week of Halloween once I know these aren't going to get shipped out to my local grocery store anymore I buy about 20 more boxes to stock up.  Those last 20 boxes last about, oh.... 2 weeks haha.  I think the one improvement that can be made to these cookie treats is the pumpkin faces they "carve" into them.  Seriously, look at them!  They look like they are secretly insulting me in their little pumpkin brains.  But I suppose that's not really a problem since my stomach acid will be "ASSAULTING" them after about 3 seconds.  So I guess the jokes on you little pumpkin smart-asses! (plus they don't really even look like pumpkins, especially without an official "pumpkin" nose, whats up with that.)  This is all trivial though since they are again the greatest seasonal treats one can buy right now.
Another little delicacy I love to feed my throat are these little bad boys.

These might be available year round, I'm not sure, but they just don't taste right unless you are eating them during the Autumn/Halloween season.  Also I would really to ask Tootsie Roll Industries, Inc. what Colombian drug-lord is supplying them with all the crack cocaine they put into these things.  Seriously, if you've ever eaten one tell me that you just stopped after one?  See none of you responded and that's because you can't eat just one.  Wait a minute maybe Tootsie and Lays should team up for this one.

Remember that old slogan?  Well that's how I feel about these suckers.  I seriously remember beating the shit out of Johnny Whatshisface on the Tyrone Middle School playground for one of these.  He taunted me with it for like half the day and I remember thinking, "Oh you wait until recess you little shitface."  Guess who ended up eating the Caramel Apple Pop?  That's right me, and then I starting shaking and foaming at the mouth and then proceeded to sneak off of the school yard to my local Arbor Drug store (remember those?) to buy another bag. (thank Odin for lunch money)  I honestly bet these could replace cigarettes as the local prison's monetary system if you were to introduce them to the prisoners.  Seriously could you imagine Frank "8-Ball" Colavettii shanking Tommy "The Cobra"  Biondi with a spoon over a fucking Caramel Apple Pop?  I can, because they are that delicious.  Oh and by the way when I said Lays should team up with Tootsie to promote their products together maybe they should bring back this old chap to help.

How long have we waited for this?

Well we knew eventually it would come, but I was starting to get a little scared it wouldn't be in my lifetime!  What am I talking about?  Well obviously, a Halloween themed RPG.  Thats right ghouls, the fine folks over at Double Fine have been working on a little treat for us thats all set to debut on October 31st on Xbox360 Arcade!! (Which I find a little weird since arcade games usually come out on Wednesdays, but who's complaining!)  In case you don't follow video games I think it is of importance to note that the founder of Double Fine is the one and only Tim Schafer!  Tim did most of the writing duties for two of my favorite games in the entire universe, The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: Lechuck's Revenge.  Mr. Schafer also went on to work on such classics as: Full Throttle, Grim Fandango (go play this one now, I demand you!), Psychonauts, and Brutal Legend.  Yes all of those legendary games have been helped along by the hands of Tim Schafer and hopefully this will be another one of those legendary games.  In other words I'm hoping now we all have a reason to stay home on our favorite night of the year and fire up those Xbox 360s.  Hopefully you'll be burned out from playing Halo: Reach enough to actually play something else by then!  Here is the cover art (yes, even arcade games have cover art) and some screenshots for you.

 Here's the lowdown on the game as seen on the Double Fine website;

             Explore, Collect, Battle!                         

Play as Wren or Reynold, in this action-adventure role-playing game that unfolds on Halloween night across seemingly peaceful suburban neighborhoods, a mysterious village carnival and a monster-infested shopping mall.

Go door-to-door collecting candy, points, cards, battle stamps and quest assignments to prepare for combat. Use your wit, bravery and home-made costumes with superpowers to rid the neighborhood of creepy monsters and SAVE HALLOWEEN!

 Sounds like absolute video game gold to me!  Come Halloween I'm sure Double Fine will have us all sitting in front of our t.v. screens playing this instead of watching the same old lame Halloween movies right? (Just kidding, I would never talk that way about our most beloved seasonal movies, but I'm sure we will be bumping one or two of them off the list to make room for this game)  Below you can watch the trailer for the game and a behind the scenes video of Mr. Schafer and Tasha Harris, the games creator.  Also I can't say much more right now, but if all goes as planned (and this is not for sure, just something I'm working on) then hopefully this isn't the last you've heard from myself and Double Fine this Halloween season.  Keep your eyes tuned to HalloweenOverkill and hopefully I'll have some more treats and not just some tricks coming your way!  Although maybe I could turn some tricks to get us some more treats here at HalloweenOverkill.  Hey honey, I have an idea!!!!!! haha

This behind the scenes video was shown on 1up.com and can also be seen here.  By the way this might be the last time I remind you ghouls but we still need like 2 more fans to enter the horror draft.  Click here and sign up please!

Judging from the smell, it's "Unmistakably - Crayola"

Warning: Don't let the kiddies read this one, there is some colorful language used ahead! (haha, I love myself!)
When I saw these sitting on the shelf at my local "junk" store I thought "wow I wonder what Crayola could possible make these markers smell like that hasn't already been done before." Well I can say that they have applied some pretty unique scents to these markers, all of which are absolutely appropriate to the avatar that is associated with them. Avatar you say? Yup each and every marker in this Crayola package had its own mascot. Something that I cannot applaud Crayola for enough was the inclusion of several "horror" themed mascots for the markers. Featured below I will display the actual mascot that is printed on each marker (which were total assholes to scan into pictures) with it's respective title as given on the marker itself, I will then give the mascot my own treatment as far as a name goes.  After that I will take a whiff and give you what I think each scent is, followed by the official scent of the marker. How do I know what the official scent of each marker is according to Crayola? Well I did what any marker sniffing blog writer would do, I emailed the source. I was amazed at Crayola's fast response. (it only took 1 business day) Kudos to Crayola for the handling of the email. Well without further ado I present to you the "Crayola Silly Scents" experiment.

Mascot: Fawkes the phoenix (don't know who that is?  Look it up.)
Color: Orange
Scent according to my nose: Cinnamon
Official scent according to Mr. Crayola's nose: Spice

Close enough, spice and cinnamon pretty much go hand in hand right?  Cinnamon is a spice after all so I believe I can count this one as a correct guess.

Mascot: Treebeard
Color: Green
Scent according to my nose: Pine scent
Official scent according to Mr. Crayola's nose: Pine

Not bad, 2 for 2.  I suppose this one was a gimme though.  What else is an enchanted forest titled marker supposed to smell like, steak?  Although if Saruman was manufacturing these markers he would probably want "Enchanted Forest" to smell like burning.  (rimshot?)

Mascot: Rafiki
Color: Yellow
Scent according to my nose: Banana
Official scent according to Mr. Crayola's nose: Banana

Again with the obvious crayola?  Couldn't you have been a little more creative and maybe made "Belching Baboon" smell like the zoo or something.  Imagine an unknowing kid taking a whiff of that bad boy. Haha  Oh by the way Crayola:0 Jason:3

Mascot: Puff - the magic dragon
Color: Red
Scent according to my nose: What the fuck! (the only honest thing I can think of that smells that bad is dragon's drool for real!)
Official scent according to Mr. Crayola's nose: Calamine

Chalk one up for Crayola!  That seriously smelled like living death.  Yuck!  Yes, it's that bad.  I hope I never EVER get sunburned again because calamine just got wiped off of my list of  "must have" summer items.  Actually the more I think about it the more I'm inclined to just let Crayola win this little battle of senses because of the intelligence behind using calamine as the official scent of Dragon Drool.  If you don't quite get the irony in that, go ahead and think about dragons and what they do, you'll figure it out.

Mascot: Rudolph's little buddy
Color: Peacock Blue
Scent according to my nose: Fresh Linen?
Official scent according to Mr. Crayola's nose: Fresh Air

Fuck you crayola!  You cheating bastards!  First you annihilate my sense of smell with "Baboons Asshole", then you throw a curve-ball and name your next scent "Fresh Air".  Will someone please vindicate my nose and go outside and tell me what you smell.  Gasoline?  Grass?  Global Warming? (yes even that has a scent, it smells like mountains melting into the ocean.  Sound about right Mr. Al Gore?)  Those might be some of your responses but I sure as shit do not think anybody stepped outside and said, "Boy sure smells like air out here".  Could you imagine if "air" did smell though, we'd all be fucked.

Mascot: Vick the vapor (see what I did there)
Color: Violet
Scent according to my nose: Pimpinella Anisum (Anise) although I suppose the masses would say black licorice
Official scent according to Mr. Crayola's nose: Licorice

I have to remind you that the color names and official scents were sent to me in an email from a Crayola Consumer Affairs Lead Representative. (who's name I won't divulge)  Now do think this Crayola rep sat there and sniffed each of these markers as I have?  No, she was given this list by Mr. Crayola and told to send it to me.  Keeping that in mind, do you seriously think that I should give Crayola the point for naming this scent "licorice"?  There is a clear difference between what BLACK licorice and regular (is red regular?) licorice smells like and this is clearly BLACK licorice.  Sorry Crayola this one goes to me.  Oh and by the way being that everything black is more evil than it's other colored counterparts don't you think there was no way to mess this one up.  I mean come on, black licorice would be the one experimenting with voodoo while regular licorice is trying to win a Nobel peace prize for developing a cure for shingles right?  (shingles are another story for another day, but in case you were wondering, yes they are as painful as you have heard)

Mascot: Haggis
Color: Black
Scent according to my nose: French Vanilla (yes there is a difference from vanilla, go ask your local "Yankee Candle" employee)
Official scent according to Mr. Crayola's nose: Burnt Marshmallow

Touche' Crayola!  Bold move on your part.  Not only did they give this a marshmallow smell, but they made it totally XXXXXXXXXTREME (as the local tweens would say) by making it "burnt" marshmallow.  This point goes to Crayola however I will respectfully disagree with the title of the scent again.  You see this most certainly does smell like a marshmallow, it however does not smell like a BURNT marshmallow which as we all know smells like, well.... you know.... a....., oh forget it, you know what I mean, burnt smells different from not burnt marshmallow.

Mascot: The baddest box of popcorn your ass has ever seen!  But we'll call him Ernie
Color: Blue
Scent according to my nose: Popcorn
Official scent according to Mr. Crayola's nose: Popcorn

Couldn't fool me this time Crayola. However I have to tell a little story about this to you fine fans of HalloweenOverkill.  I was talking to my buddy the other day and I says to him, "What does a scary movie smell like?"  And do you know without hesitation what that walking bag of atoms said after oh about 0.4 nano seconds of deliberation?  "Popcorn!"  As if the only answer eligible to the human brain WAS popcorn.  Seriously I would really like to know when I missed the "Horror Scents 101" class.  But I digress I suppose the only scent any type of movie could smell like would be popcorn, except "Skeleton Man", that movie smells like shit.  Oh, and in case you weren't paying attention go ahead and look again at the logo of "Scary Movie Blue" and tell me that he isn't the ringleader of this cabal of scented freaks.  Seriously look at his demeanor and tell me he doesn't scream "sunny dispostition"?  I bet he orders them around the Crayola warehouse like some kind of third world dictator

Well there you have the Jason vs. Crayola common "sense" tournament of champions.  The final results:

Jason - 5

vs.

Crayola - 3

I dominated this match much more than the score would lead you to believe.  The only reason they even got two of those points is because of a really creative title for one of the scents and another for a scent so inhuman that it should be only spoken of in the same whispers as the great god Cthulhu. (short story: so Cthulhu comes up as an error in my spell-check and you know what it wants to replace it with? Thulium, that's Atomic #69 in case you don't know.  Giggity Giggity Goo.  Sorry that's the old high school boy in me coming out)  So thanks for playing Crayola but I'll proudly be taking that trophy, thank you!  Oh and by the way look out soon for the 1st Annual HalloweenOverkill Halloween Countdown logo to be revealed.  And if you haven't already signed up for the horror draft please comment here to let me know you want in!  We had an influx of people wanting in and I thought we would run out of spots but now it seems we don't quite have enough, so head on over and sign up or just email me.

p.s. When I said at the beginning there would be colorful language you thought I was just being a smart ass didn't you?  And for the record I don't think using such language is a must for a blog but I do feel if used properly can add a little cinnamon (spice according to crayola) to the posts and can even be funny sometimes.  One more thing, so that Crayola doesn't send Ernie over to drown me in popcorn, those mascot titles you see in the card with the picture are the actual titles given to them on the marker.  The name's I gave them in the little bios underneath each card were made up by myself and have no affiliation with Crayola Silly Scents markers.

Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills! -(Napoleon Dynamite)

The 1st Annual HalloweenOverkill Halloween Countdown is coming very soon and I wanted to have a logo to use for this year's countdown, but couldn't find one. I was digging through Google for an image of a vintage pumpkin, which is what I had planned on using, but just couldn't find one I liked. Well, during my quest I also came across some tutorials on how to use gimp (a photoshop clone) to create some fantastic imagery. So the journey began... The first night I thought to myself I can learn all there is to learn about gimp. WRONG! I did however manage to find a tutorial on how to make a pretty neat pumpkin and stayed up from 9:30 P.M. until 4:30 A.M. perfecting my picture. (It still isn't fantastic) What that all means is that I have found my perfect Countdown logo for this year and it was designed by yours truly. In the meantime I have continued improving my digital art skills that I have moderately developed during my college studies. (I think with everything you learn while majoring in Engineering that digital art skills are a nice complement to the other skills that you acquire, such as CAD, Catia, and so on. I feel those extra skills are what makes you that much more valuable to a firm.) In other words I am obsessed with gimp and have stayed up far to late into the evening creating all sorts of new logos, buttons, banners, and artwork for the site. Once I get around to publishing them here I would really appreciate any comments, even negative ones are OK with me. I'd really like to know what people think and any/all comments will help me hone the skills that I am trying to teach myself here at home while waiting to go back to school. Sorry, I got way off track there. In other words you can be expecting the debut of the HalloweenOverkill Halloween Countdown logo in the next few days.
EDIT:  Oh my sweet Horrorblips where did you go?
Seriously does anyone know what happened?  It was literally here earlier this weekend and then overnight, poof... gone. 

Halloween is coming!

Well how many Halloween products have you spotted in your local stores lately?  I haven't seen the full blown transition from "back to school" to Halloween yet, but here are some little things I've seen in stores around my area.

Horor purchase(s) of the week

I scored big today ghouls!  For the whopping total of $6.79 here is what I walked away with.  First over at a local nonchain used bookstore I picked up these three titles for $4.80.

"Horror Times Ten" Edited by: Alden H. Norton 1967

"Halloween Murder" by: Shelley Freydont 2002

"Friday the 13th, Part 3: 3-D" Novel by: Michael Avallone 1982

The other item I picked up at my local Buybacks for $1.99 was this

 

Yes I have already heard how terrible it is but I figured, it's Goosebumps, it's a video game, and it's $1.99, I'll find a way to like it.  Plus it just adds to the horror themed video game collection right?  By the way I'll set up a list of all my horror themed video games, I think you ghouls would be impressed.  Anyhow not a bad haul for a little under seven bucks right?
Again I will keep reminding you ghouls to click here and join my first annual horror draft, we still need a few more people to get this going.  Make sure you comment on that post to let me know you're in.  Once we get enough we'll all agree on a night to meet on my live chat and do the draft, then the season begins!

House of the Wolf Man

Words cannot explain how excited I am for this "old school" horror movie coming soon to DVD! Seriously the movie fits right in with the old Universal classics and even features most of the classic monsters as well. The plot (as seen in the trailer below) is about 5 people brought to a castle, presume ably the "House of the Wolf Man". I don't have much more concerning the plot, but do you really need anything else to convince you to grab this movie once it's out?  Oh and by the way the movies stars Ron Chaney, the great-grandson of Lon Chaney, and the grandson of Lon Chaney, Jr. (who I'm sure needs to introduction, but just in case, he played Larry Talbot in the original Universal Wolf man movies) This movie has the look, the sound, the legacy in Ron Chaney, and the overall feel of a great modern "retro" Universal Monsters film.  Get ready for some throwback nonstop creature action violence! Hopefully I'll have a better write up on this soon. But for now just use this to whet your appetite.  By the way visit the official site over at http://houseofthewolfman.com/ for a Hi-Def trailer and some more publicity stills.  You may also want to visit Taurus Entertainment  the company handling the DVD release of the film.  Amazon.com lists the movie hitting it's shelves on September 28th, just in time for Halloween! 


Also don't forget about the first annual Halloween Overkill Horror Draft.  If you're interested check this link out here.  Make sure you comment on that post to let me know if you want in or not.  Spots are running out so hurry over there and sign up!

Thank you Mr. Cozzoli

I would like to thank John over at Zombo's Closet for posting his interview with me, read it now by clicking here  Also DO NOT forget about the First Annual Horror Draft.  Read all about it by clicking here and comment on that post if you are interested.  Spots are filling up fast, so get to leaving your name and email if you are interested!

Anyone interested?

In having a horror draft?  Entrants would draft a team of horror movies and would then face off against another team which would then go to a vote on who has the better team of horror films?  We would have a set number of entrants and hopefully by the end we would have some prizes for the winner (although I'd like to compete also).  This is something that I've seen done over at bloody-disgusting.com and other horror sites and it sounds like a blast.  So again comment if you are interested, I'd like to have at least 10 or 12 people interested before we got it started.

New Discworld novel!!!!!

That's right ghouls, you heard it here first. (right?)  I don't care if it's horror related or not I have to give Sir Terry Pratchett a big shout out anytime he has something new coming out.  That time is now!  Coming in September is Terry's new Discworld novel, "I Shall Wear Midnight".  This book falls into the Tiffany Aching Adventures category but is still no less a novel of Discworld.  In Short, Discworld is a flat planet that sits on the back's of four great elephants that are standing on the back of the giant turtle Great A'Tuin.  Sounds amazing right?  Well it is.  If you haven't read any of the Discworld novels head over to your local bookstore and start with, "The Color of Magic" the first of the Discworld novels.  Anyways here are two pieces of artwork (U.K. artwork & U.S. artwork?) and the trailer for the new book.

EDIT-Not quite sure why the trailer says February, but his website and amazon both say September.  Oh well I guess we'll have to play the waiting game for the next month to find out.

A Gathering of Crows review

Well I have finally got back into reading mode after all the craziness of moving, and I must say my first trip back into the world of literature was a pretty good one. I just finished reading Brian Keene's "A Gathering of Crows" and think it is definitely a book you should be going out to your local Borders Book Store to pick up. Here is the lowdown on the book as featured on the back of the title:
"Brinkley Springs is a quiet little town. Some say the town is dying. They don't know how right they are. Five mysterious figures are about to pay a little visit to Brinkley Springs. They have existed for centuries, emerging from the shadows only to destroy, to kill, to feed. They bring with them terror and carnage, and leave death and blood in their wake. As the night wears on, Brinkley Springs will be quiet no longer. Screams will break the silence. But when the sun rises again, will there be anyone left to hear?"
To tell you any more about the story would be a disservice to Brian Keene. In "A Gathering of Crows" you will learn a little bit more about Keene's labyrinth mythos--a theme that can be found in most of his novels from "The Rising" onward--including how the labyrinth works and much more about the 13, the denizens that use the labyrinth to sometimes inhabit our world. If you don't know what I'm talking about in regards to the labyrinth and the 13 go back and read all of his recent paperbacks or if you haven't read them at all go back to "The Rising" and start now. But if you do know what I'm talking about in regards to this overarching mythology then you will also find some new surprises lurking within, such as a surprise visit to one of the 13's home worlds, and a visit to the labyrinth itself.  This is a tale that encompasses things on a much more cosmic scale than some of the other books. This is not to say that you have to know about the labyrinth or the 13s to enjoy this book, since each of Keene's novels is a "stand-alone" that tells its own tale and doesn't require any prior knowledge of the overall mythology. Needless to say I think this book gives "The Rising" & "City of the Dead" a run for their money as far as being Brian Keene's most exciting piece of fiction yet!
I am giving this book 4 and 1/2 Jolly Jack-O-Lanterns out of 5.
Go pick it up now!

F#$% Me, Ray Bradbury!

First off let me say that this is not safe for work,(it's not pornographic or anything, just uses some pretty colorful language!) and you also better put the earmuffs on the children cause it's not safe for them either!  This is a piece of comedic genius from writer/comedian/actress Rachel Bloom and gets my vote for the music video of the year!

Wizard of Oz birthday spectacular!

Wizard of Oz is one of my favorite movies of all time so even though it isn't horror/Halloween related I had to give a shout out to it.  Ok just thought I'd get that out of the way.  Well anyways today is the 71st birthday for the Wizard of Oz and below you can see the beautiful design that google is using for it's doodle of the day.

To honor this event I thought I would share two things related to Wizard of Oz that scare the living shit out of me. The first is this image.

FU$% THAT! This picture is the stuff nightmares are made of. I don't know if it's the shadow or the actual pose of Margaret Hamilton that scares me the most. Ok now that we got that scary ass picture out of the way I'd like to share something else from the wizard of oz mythology that scares the death out me. This isn't quite from the Wizard of Oz but is from Return to Oz so it still fits the theme. Here we go.

Fuck you wheelers! Thats right you scared the living shit out of me growing up and now as a grown man you still make me pull the covers up over my head.  Well thats it for the Wizard of Oz birthday spectacular. It was spectacular wasn't it? haha  Tomorrow is Friday the 13th, so should I do a retrospect of the Friday the 13th series like every other blog on the webs is going to do (just kidding ghouls) or should I celebrate some other way? I'll come up with something special I'm sure.

 Oh and in other fantastic news. If you haven't figured out by the amazing artwork above, created by the monstrously talented Jeremy over at iZombielover, the blog association that myself and others belong to known as The Horror Blogger Alliance is going to be featured in August's Rue Morgue magazine. (Issue #103)

How sweet is that! So for you blogs out there that are also a part of this awesome alliance, get ready for some heavy traffic. I myself couldn't be more proud to be associated with something that will be featured in one of the horror communities favorite magazines. For whoever submitted the HBA to Rue Morgue, Thank you!

Oh yeah and here's a little advice from myself to you before you go to sleep tonight.

EDIT - I forgot to tell everyone you can check out my new "Scariest shit in my life feature" by clicking on the feature button over on the right under the "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" feature button.  Click it, I think you'll get a kick out of it, at least I do anyways and that's all that matters right ghouls?

Jack-o-lanterns in cinema

I'd like to thank Melissa over at Little Miss Zombie and Jeremy over at iZombie-Lover for tagging me in the new horror picture blog meme.  My task was to find pictures that all share a common theme.  The theme I chose, Jack-o-lanterns.  Some of these pictures feature very subtle Jack-o-lanterns, some very "in your face", some hard to find, and some not so hard.  Some are plastic and some are real but in every pic below you will find a jack-o-lantern.

As I was capturing these and posting them I thought to myself "These are not going to be fun to tag" so instead of tagging and labeling them all I challenge you ghouls to figure out what pictures are from what movies. Now not every pic featured here is from an actual motion picture, some are from Halloween novelty videos, others from cartoons, and even one from a documentary.  There are also a few from t.v. shows.  Even though they aren't all from actual movies I feel the "hardcore" halloween fans will be able to guess at least 20 of the 25 photos featured here. Up to the challenge? List your answers in the comments below. And no, there are no prizes for this, I just thought it would be a fun time. Hell you can even team up for this one and just list one at a time and the next person in line can name the next picture, that would be acceptable also!