HalloweenOverkill has been awarded theVersatile Blog award!

First off I would like to give an enormous thank you to iZombie over at http://izombielover.blogspot.com/ for giving me this award!  Head over there to check out his amazing zombie artwork and photos.  There are some rules for receiving this award and they are as follows;
1. Thank the person who gave it to you
2. List 7 things about yourself
3. Share the award with 15 other blogs that you think are delicious
4. Let those blogs know they have been awarded the versatile blogger award

So again I would like to thank iZombie for this award.  And here goes on 7 things about myself that you hopefully find interesting.
1.  I am obsessed with all things "Monkey Island"  for those that don't know this was a series of "point and click" adventure games from the early 90's that have recently been given the HD update.  Anyone looking to rid themselves of any Monkey Island junk let me know!
2.  I'm a total germaphobe
3.  My Fave TV shows are: Home Improvement, King of Queens, Lost, Are you Afraid of the Dark?, and Count Duckula
4.  I love Disney!  The movies, the toys, but most of all the parks!  Walt Disney World is my favorite place on planet earth. (especially the Haunted Mansion)
5.  I love Terry Pratchett and the Discworld novels (I also love The Goosebumps series and any novel or book taking place on Halloween, if you know of any drop me a line!).
6.  Several people have told me I look like Adam Sandler with a goatee
7.  I secretly love the movie Love Actually (shhhh don't tell or I might have my horror blogging license revoked)
Wow that was probably way more than 7 but oh well.
And last but certainly not least the blogs who I feel deserve this award are
http://www.freddyinspace.com/
http://autumnforestghosthunter.blogspot.com/
http://spookyvegan.blogspot.com/
http://horrordigest.blogspot.com/
http://thehalloweentree.blogspot.com/
http://thehalloweenblues.blogspot.com/
http://cavalcade-of-perversions.blogspot.com/
http://livingdeadgirlnicoleart.blogspot.com/
http://dayofwoman.blogspot.com/
http://dollarbinhorror.blogspot.com/
http://strangelittlegirlblog.blogspot.com/
http://shellhawksnest.blogspot.com/
http://lovemanor.com/blog/
http://khpinson.blogspot.com/
http://www.zomboscloset.com/
Well there you have it, the 15 blogs that I chose to bestow the Versatile Blogger award upon!
Again thank you iZombie for the award and huge thanks to the 15 blogs I chose above for giving us all inspiration and keeping the Halloween/Horror spirit alive 365!
EDIT: sorry about the winner's links not working for a while, I fixed them and they should all work correctly now.

Finally the move is complete!

 Sorry about the lack of posts lately.  My wife and I just moved to Monroeville, PA and things have just been insane lately.  Do not fear, for I do plan on getting right back up to speed with some fun new posts coming soon.  We may even try that contest for Darkwalker again since I had the comments turned off by accident during the contest.  You Ghouls have any suggestions for some new content or ideas let me know in the comments.

Weekend Update

Sorry about the lack of posts, things will pick up once the move happens on Thursday morning.  We should have internet at our new place by Friday morning so this might be the last update until then, sorry.

UPDATE! It was brought to my attention by iZombie that I had my comments settings all messed up, so it was actually my fault nobody could comment on the last few posts including the contest.  I am really sorry about this and hopefully it won't happen again.  I am new to this so hopefully everybody will cut me some slack haha
Also thank you iZombie

 
     1.  Since nobody ( not even 1 of you wanted some free stuff? ) signed up for the contest, I have no winners to announce, guess I'll have another contest in a month or so.

    2.  I don't know how many of you are sports fans, but being one myself I thought it would be fun to have just one more fantasy football team ( 1 is never enough, I have 5 )  I was wondering if any of you fans wanted to join a fantasy football league?  It would just be my wife and myself and any of you fans that wanted to play, pretty much a league just for ourselves.  Anyone interested??  We would need at least 8 other people to properly run a league and you'd have to sign up for a free account over at espn.com let me know in the comments or email me at halloweenoverkill@gmail.com if you wanna play and leave your email address so I can contact you about online draft dates and such.

   3.  I added a HalloweenOverkill facebook page and my personal page, please become a fan of the page and go to my personal page and friend me if you would so desire.

   4.  I also put up my xbox 360 gamer tag, again send me a friend request. ( the gamertag is Halloweenman666 )  I'm on my xbox way more than I should be so there could be several nights of over the top gaming haha.  Just another way to bring all us Horror/Halloween fans closer together.

  5.  I added a live chat on the sidebar as well.  All you have to do to chat with myself or other fans on the blog is pick a random guest # and sign in, or you could head over to chatroll.com and get yourself a dedicated account so we all know who you are.  Again I'm on the blog's mainpage way more than I should be, but I thought this would be yet another way for all of us to communicate and have some fun on those boring nights after all the old blog posts have been read.

  6.  Any questions/concerns/comments about the blog so far?  It's been going pretty well for the first 3 months or so but I want all the input I can get so that it can become as fabulous as the blogs I list over in my sidebar.  Those are the blogs I go to most and the blogs that provided me the inspiration to want to do this blog thing in the first place.

Annual 4th of July Scavenger Hunt and a lost treasure from my tomb of goodies!

Happy 4th of July!  I'd like to first thank everything and everyone that makes this country so great, including all the troops who risk their lives everyday to uphold our beliefs and the freedom we sometimes take for granted.

So before we get to the contest I'd like to share something I found in my closet yesterday while packing up for the move to PA. I believe most of you share my fondness of Adrienne Barbeau, the legend from such classics as The Fog, Swamp Thing, and Creepshow! Well as I was packing up my book collection I found the book featured above, Vampyres of Hollywood, which was co-written by Adrienne and Michael Scott.  The book is a tale of murder and mystery involving the deaths of several people connected to a Hollywood scream queen who also happens to be a 500 year old vampire.  I took a second to flip open the cover and guess what I found? An aunthentic autograph from Adrienne Barbeau herself!!!

This must have been one of those copies that Borders Books sometimes has hidden on their shelves that has been actually autographed by the authors. So unbeknownst to me I was the owner of an autographed copy of Adrienne's book. Crazy the things you find when cleaning or packing up your apartment.

OK now for the first annual 4th of July contest/scavenger hunt.  Hopefully this blog will be around for many more Independence Day celebrations so that we can actually say that it's an annual thing.  Up for grabs this time are two copies of Darkwalker!

Here's the lowdown on Darkwalker from the back of the DVD case: It's Halloween at Hobb's Grove.  Seven teenagers start working as tour guides in a haunted amusement park.  When they begin to disappear, one by one, they discover an unspeakable monster that walks the grounds.  Can they unravel the mystery of the Dark Walker before it's too late?  Directed by Danny Draven and produced by Chuck Williams, this film begins a new chapter in terror. 

To win this contest you're going to have to work a little bit more than the last giveaway. (Hopefully not too much work, but hey it's a free DVD right?) Here are the rules and legal mumbo jumbo for the contest.

 HalloweenOverkill's 4th of July Scavenger Hunt Contest

1.  You must be a follower of this blog.  If you aren't yet just click the follower tab up at the top right.
2. You must have a mailing address within the US (due to cost restraints, I can't ship the DVDs outside of the US).
3.  You must answer these three trivia questions correctly and post your answers in the comments section:
                 *  Which Hollywood summer hit movie featured the mask from Darkwalker? Hint: the answer can be found at the official Darkwalker site by clicking here http://www.darkwalkermovie.com
                 *  Earlier somewhere on this blog I reviewed another Chuck Williams produced film. Find the post that featured this film's review and tell me what Jolly Jack-O-Lantern rating this film received. Hint: click on the DVD button on the sidebar and go from there!
                 *  Finally, find the badge/link to my new HalloweenOverkill Facebook page and click on it. Once you're over at the new page, find the Super Secret Password and that is your answer to this third and final question. Of course, it wouldn't hurt to "like" the HalloweenOverkill facebook page as well although it is not required for this giveaway...

4.  Don't forget to leave your email address in the same post that you answer these questions in so I can contact you if you win.
5.  If more than two people answer all questions correctly then they will all be entered into a contest winner generator and drawn at random.
The deadline for this contest is Saturday July 10th at 11:59 P.M. ESTWinners will be contracted by email and DVDs will be shipped to the address provided by winners. I take no responsibility for damage during shipment but will do my ultimate best to make sure they get to your doorstep in as good as condition as they left my home.  I'd also like to thank Chuck Williams for providing these DVDs for the giveaway, you can visit his official site at http://www.chuckwilliamsfanclub.com/  If anyone has any problems posting their answers in the comments section, email me at halloweenoverkill@gmail.com

Alan Wake Review

 So I finally got around to finishing the new thriller/horror game title from Remedy entitled Alan Wake.  If you ghouls remember way back I had a post talking about the upcoming game and how excited I was for it.  Well do you wanna know if it lived up to my expectations?  I have to say that the game did indeed live up to what I was expecting, however I could understand how some may be a bit let down by the finished product.  The game was originally intended to be a "free roaming" type game where you were free to roam about Bright Falls as you pleased during the day and the action and story would unfold during the night sequences.  However during the development cycle Remedy decided to do away with the free roam and instead set the game up as different episodes, each ending with a giant cliffhanger, and doing away with much of the actual "free roaming."  During each episode you are still roaming around different parts of the town, but there are boundaries set up as to not let you stray too far off the beaten path.  The only thing I could see as a let down for some fans is the decision to do away with the "free roaming" portions of the game.  In my humble opinion I think it actually helped the game and gave it some very nice pacing, which is what really keeps this game going as each episode ends on a huge cliffhanger and just begs you to come back and play the next one.  Another advantage to the episodic content is how each are presented so much like a show that you don't even have to be playing the game to enjoy it.  My wife actually sat with me and watched as I played through the whole thing.  She said it was like watching a TV show. A rather nice touch Remedy also  made when crafting this game was that, after each episode ends, the game shifts to a credits scene while some very appropriate licensed music plays including songs like "In Dreams" by Roy Orbison and "Haunted" by Poe, among others.

 The story is quite difficult to explain but involves the disappearance of  Alan's wife from the cabin they rented to help get him out of his writer's block.  Alan then begins to question his sanity, and as the viewer/player you soon begin questioning his sanity too as you go through each episode.  At some points in the game I wondered if Alan was just dreaming, at other points I wondered if what I was watching was some twisted TV show that Alan himself wasn't aware he was in, another thought I had was that I was watching a book that someone was writing if that makes sense. Finally I started to think he was just plain old insane in the membrane.  I won't spoil the ending, or if any of these scenarios are what is actually going on but I will say that most but not all things are wrapped up, though not in a very explanatory way.  Hopefully the next two episodes which are downloadable content should help to explain some of the mysteries left open.

The graphics and sound were both exactly what you would expect from a 360 game, which by the way is the only system this game is available on.  The only complaint I had about the graphics, which you will also read about on other game review sites is that there was a lot of screen tearing.  Screen tearing is when the screen gets all fuzzy and distorted at points during the game.  The gameplay was again a very strong part of the game and though it is quite repetitive I never found myself getting bored.  Alan doesn't have access to machine guns or laser pistols as seen in other games, but what little he does have comes in handy.  You can use a basic pistol, hunting rifles, shotugns, even flareguns to take out your enemies, AKA "The Taken."  Another tool you have at your disposal are flashlights of different varieties.  These are used to weaken the Taken until the point at which they can be shot.  Ammo isn't really a problem when playing the "Normal" mode of the game and I have yet to experience "Nightmare" mode which is unlocked after beating the game on normal so I can't really tell you how much harder it gets.  One more cool note about the game is that while you are adventuring through the Pacific Northwest which is where this game takes place you will find pieces of a manuscript which helps to explain exactly just what is going on.  A tip for anyone reading this is as you find the manuscripts don't actually read them until you beat the game because they can spoil upcoming events before they actually happen.  You will also find coffee thermoses hidden throughout each episode as well which is an obvious reference to Twin Peaks, and fans of the show will understand.  I highly recommend a rental of Alan Wake at the very least, but if you enjoy Thriller/Horror action style games on the XBox 360 then you just might want to go out and purchase this one.

4 Jolly Jack-O-Lanterns
Jolly Jack-O-Lantern Rating Explanation 

Oh and by the way I added some Facebook badges over there on the right so go ahead and click them and become friends with me and "like" the official HalloweenOverkill Facebook page which you can link to from another Facebook badge a little bit more towards the top of the blog.  I will be doing exclusive posts and giveaways over there, but don't worry this is still your HalloweenOverkill home and should be the first place you check for some wonderful Halloween deliciousness!  Also check back tomorrow for my 4th of July giveaway which actually has nothing to do with the noble holiday, and I will also show you ghouls something I discovered in my closet as I was packing today (what was it?  you'll have to come back tomorrow to see, but it's pretty neat) as we get ready for the big move to Monroeville, YES you read that right Monroeville, the home of the Monroeville Mall from the Romero classic Dawn of the Dead.

The Perfect Halloween

 OK so first off I wanna give credit to "pumpkinman" over at halloweenforum.com for posting this great question.  Now to ask it again, you have just woken up on October 31st ( let's say it is a Saturday) it's 6:30 A.M., what is your idea of a perfect Halloween?  You can just give the general idea or give me the hour by hour rundown!