Month: July 2013

PRESS RELEASE: “The Impy” Awards Cinematic Excellence in Midwest Snob Horror

Post author By Doktor Leech
Post date July 30, 2013

Three Corpse Circus in proud conjunction with DailyNightmare.com announce “The Impy,” an award for cinematic excellence in short horror film, to be awarded at this year’s Three Corpse Circus, September 28, 2013 at the Historic Michigan Theatre in downtown Ann Arbor, MI

Like its sponsor, DailyNightmare.com, The Impy celebrates achievements in Midwest Snob Horror, as represented among the short films selected to screen at the Three Corpse Circus.

• Midwest • What wickedness dwells in the heartland? The Impy will go to a work whose core production team is based in a region directly touching one of the Great Lakes (Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Manitoba, Ontario, New York, Pennsylvannia with the possible exception of Ohio.)

• Snob • Excellence transcends genre. The Impy recognizes works that employ all the tools of great film-making, including exquisite cinematography, suspenseful montage, insightful themes while avoiding the cliches of the genre. No jump scares need apply.

• Horror • Scare us in a new way. Fear is part of the human condition, running the gamut from uneasiness and dread to outright terror, and our fears are too often manipulated for crass ends. The best horror lets us examine our fears explicitly before we fall victim to such exploitation… while thrilling our socks off.

The Impy itself is a solid, 9″ tall statue sculpted by Jeremy Haney. The figure is based on the painting “The Nightmare” (1781) by Swiss artist Henry Fuseli (1741 – 1825). This imp — sometimes referred to as the “grim gnome” — is the mascot of DailyNightmare.com. Contributing Editor James Frederick Leach explains “Nightmares are like short horror movies that your mind creates just for you, for an audience of one. It seemed totally appropriate that DailyNightmare should sponsor an award like The Impy.”

What local film will receive the first annual Impy award? Attend Three Corpse Circus, September 28th, 2013 to find out.

Art Eye-Gore Movies

Introducing The Impy

Post author By Doktor Leech
Post date July 9, 2013

Last weekend, I uncrated a care package from sculptor Jeremy Haney. Inside were three test castings of an award statue commissioned by the DailyNightmare.Com. We’re sponsoring an award at this year’s Three Corpse Circus, the annual festival of short horror films held at the Historic Michigan Theatre in downtown Ann Arbor. The award, like DailyNightmare.com, celebrates achievements in Midwest Snob Horror. The winner will receive one of these statues — Elsa has nicknamed it “The Impy” — as well as a modest cash prize. I’m sure a press release will appear sooner or later either here or at Three Corpses Circus website. (Note to Film-makers: submissions are open until August 2nd over at Three Corpse Circus)

Jeremy used a good heavy resin, so the statue is quite an impressive blunt object, suitable for causing closed head injuries or public display. My task this week was to bronzify the little critter. I started by trimming away a bit of mold flashing and then I gave the figure a good wash to remove any mold release agent. When dry, I lightly dusted it with a bit of Rustoleum Rusty Metal Primer just to provide a good base color. Next came a light wash of Burnt Umber to enhance the shadows, followed by a light dry brushing with bronze paint and an even lighter coat of silver just to coax the hightlights to pop. Next up is another wash to tie together the colors and a couple layers of satin top coat. Here’s a snap of the work in progress:

Doktor Events Food

Sipping Absinthe on Bourbon Street

Post author By Doktor Leech
Post date July 7, 2013

I avoided the Hurricanes, but I imbibed many tasty concoctions while in New Orleans last month. In what I swear is my final post about the World Horror Convention, please permit a brief boozy retrospective:

• ABSINTHE •
I vividly recall the first time I tasted absinthe, prepared from an antique crystal water decanter–and poured into a SpongeBob paper cup. They’d run out of the matching glasses, dontcha know. Standing in a garage in Indianapolis at an after party for MoCon IV, I fell in love with the stuff. I’ve since had ice cream laced with absinthe at Theatre Bizarre and a lovely pour of Pacifique at my favorite cocktail bar, The Ravens Club. Its intense flavor paired nicely with the chicken liver butter and grilled croustilles, BTW.

So when in NOLA, I had to stop at the Old Absinthe House. Bourbon Street was crowded with what resembled a frat party run amok, when Elsa and I ducked into the rather sedate bar on the corner. Their absinthe menu listed a good half dozen varieties and I selected La Fee, a good French style.

The bartender showed me the bottle and proceeded through the highly theatrical Czech “Bohemian” style of preparing the drink. She arranged a sugar cube on a spoon propped on a glass and annointed the cube with absinthe. The alcohol-drenched sugar cube was ignited, its ghostly flames quite impressive in the low light of the Absinthe House. The point of this step, in addition to being cool as heck, is to lightly carmelize the sugar, something rather frowned upon by absinthe snobs. A quantity of ice water doused the flame and dissolved the sugar. It was a generous pour, nearly staggeringly large, but I enjoyed every swallow.

• GIN •
Having laid down a solid base with that killer dose of absinthe, Elsa and strolled down Rue Bourbon, lost amid the beer-sodden zombies and general debauchery, until we spied fellow horror writer David Hayes, author of Cannibal Fat Camp and his crew. He insisted that we follow his entourage to The Dungeon (also known as Ye Olde Original Dungeon.) We don’t get many opportunities to hobknob with the Spatter-Satire Elite, so we eagerly tagged along.

Down a narrow corridor and through a thick door, The Dungeon turned out to be –well d’uh– a metal and light BDSM-themed bar where drinks were quite reasonably priced. On the dance floor, black light made my gin-tonic glow so strongly that Marc Ciccarone of Blood-Bound Books asked what I was drinking. “Embalming Fluid,” I quipped. Poor Marc took me at my word and asked at the bar for Embalming Fluid. Instead of a cool, glowing drink, he just got a blank stare. Unperturbed, Marc rocked out to the metal.

• BEER •
Elsa and I slipped away from the convention another night, long enough for dinner at the Crescent City Brew House, I gather the city’s only brew pub.

It’s a minor miracle as far as I’m concerned that there are ANY brewpubs in a region where the tap water comes out warmer than my morning coffee. How the heck do they make Pilsener down there? All of the beer I sampled was first rate and the food was great too. Here Elsa poses with a Seafood Cheesecake appetizer.

• VIEUX CARRE •
Our last afternoon in NOLA, Elsa and I stepped out from the bustle of departing horror writers who crowded the lobby of Hotel Monteleone and into the relaxed elegance of the Carousel bar. The bar, you dig, slowly spins. In those precious final moments in the Crescent City, I sipped a Vierre Carre in the same environs as Truman Capote, Walker Percy and William Faulkner. A perfect end to a perfect trip.