New Generation Slashers

***Newer slasher list with a few interesting flicks. Don’t expect awesome story-lines with these. This is just a drill to prepare you all very early for the next Friday the 13th in November 😀

You’re Next (2011): Among the lesser known slasher movies which turns amazingly good, You’re Next has a special place, and it is well supported by the critical appreciation. You have Sharni Vinson of Step Up 3D here, bringing the chaos to the masked killers who attack the family in a remote cabin rather than falling victim to them. The home-invasion slasher thriller becomes a full entertainer here. It is one of those movies which doesn’t take the story to the next level, but manages to deliver with such nice and energetic sequences which keeps you interested. It is also a reflection of the new generation family which has too many problems, and the link of love is missing.

Friday the 13th (2009): The reboot of the Friday the 13th film series happens with this movie, and it manages to work with all the elements of a slasher movie without adding anything new. It might feel like a repetition, but the same also makes this a perfect slasher movie with the legendary villain Jason Voorhees returning to murder more people in a hockey mask. There is nothing like seeing one of those few killers who provide nostalgia to go on the murder spree again. The cast which includes Danielle Panabaker, Jared Padalecki, Julianna Guill and Aaron Yoo becomes the right choice for this horror movie with a slasher fan’s favourite day on its title. If you have missed any of the movies of this very long franchise, do watch it on a Friday 13th 😀

The Collector (2009): You can also continue this journey with the sequel, The Collection which released in 2012. This one happens to be a movie with a lot of blood and gore; it was supposed to be a prequel to the Saw franchise before things changed, and so you can guess how it is going to work. As an ex-convict in desperate need for money breaks in and attempts to break the lock to the safe, he realizes that another person has already got in and has locked up the whole house including the windows and anything can initiate a trap good enough to fatally injure him. The family is held hostage and he finds himself in trouble with no chance to escape as deadly traps and deadlier psychotic killer awaits.

My Bloody Valentine (2009): There are only a few movies which instantly gives the feeling that it has done better than original, and is qualified enough to be a righteous remake – this is one of them. It has a good cast lead by Jaime King, and it is just pure slasher fun without leaving much to think about. The fans of the genre can surely be happy that this one has returned to give them what they wanted. This movie in 3D might have been a great joy for them. It goes through the expected lines with the killer on a spree, and what you will see here is a reminder of how those slasher movies were during their best times, and how they have still managed to keep that essence.

All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006): Amber Heard is Mandy Lane whom everyone has a crush on. As she remains the center of attraction for everybody during a party at a farm, people start dying. It is said that some people are worth dying for, but this goes the rather brutal way. A former outsider with secrets who turns out to the dream girl for everyone, there is something about falling in love with her and dying. Amber Heard is one of the official horror queens, and if you have watched her other horror movies, you will know. There is a certain amount of artistic style associated with this movie, and there are some nice twists related to this one, and some moments are really smart.

Halloween (2007): I remember liking the 1978 movie and I also liked the 2007 version, the remake which was not that much liked by the critics, but you can’t go with the critics on a slasher movie. Michael Myers is one of my top five slasher villains of all time, and so I have no second opinion about liking this movie. The one who might be the best scream queen for the horror fans, Danielle Harris is also there. It is the highest grossing Halloween movie by a good margin, and I liked the sequel which released in 2009 too – may be it should have released after the mall culture had further developed here, and the multiplexes would have made it more popular!

Laid to Rest (2009): This one has an young woman with no memory breaking out of a coffin in a funeral place, but her trouble doesn’t end there as she is chased by a woman with a chrome skull mask. With no knowledge about where to go, the man chasing her shows more skills in brutality that anything else. Bobbi Sue Luther plays the protagonist who keeps running from the unknown murderer. ChromeSkull is actually another interesting slasher villain, and there is also a sequel, ChromeSkull: Laid to Rest 2 which released in 2011 with the scream queen Danielle Harris. With limited resources, the movie manages to create a fine experience for the slasher fans.

***The images used in this blog post are from the Official Facebook Pages of the movies.

TeNy

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FPFS4: Halloween Night

Vampire Owl: Why are we wearing the Halloween costumes? We are the vampire team and should automatically scary to the humans in our true forms.

Vampire Bat: It is how things should be. If we are not wearing those masks, this is no Halloween at all. Even Uncle Dracula is wearing a mask for this occasion. It is a human mask, and he has promised to shock us.

Vampire Owl: Shock is no enemy of the oldest of the vampire-kind. Wait! Is that the Vampire Crocodile? What a vicious mask he is wearing. It looks like taken right from a giant dangerous rat which can devour us all.

Vampire Bat: It is a mask of Jerry from the legendary cartoon of those humans which they call Tom and Jerry.

Vampire Owl: Well, it surely worked for me while staying inside the Halloween terms and conditions. The Jerry Mask should be made a compulsory part of each and every Halloween of these lands.

Vampire Crocodile: I have always been depressed by the evil deeds that the devilish mouse commit on the poor cat Tom. Even the Vampire Cat has acknowledged the same.

Vampire Bat: The second property, the mask of evil is acknowledged then. Let them be evil as well as scary.

Vampire Owl: I demand party after this.

Vampire Bat: The party is where there is the need for hope. We are doing this for charity. The finishing line is at two places, one at the nearby orphanage and the other at the home for the aged and the infirm run by the Sisters of the Destitute.

Vampire Crocodile: So, what is the plan?

Vampire Bat: We go to a door, knock on it, collect the money if given, or may be some old clothes, keep repeating the same, and take what we collect to the orphanage or the old age home. It is as simple as that. Uncle Dracula will come and lead the way.

Vampire Owl: Yes, we are like the cool vampire people doing some good things unlike the normal human beings.

Vampire Crocodile: Yes, it is cool. The others including the Vampire Cat, Vampire Alligator, Vampire Hamster, Vampire Crow, Vampire Raven and new apprentices will join, along with three werewolves from the Land of Anger. Lich Queen has also offered us two zombies from her kitchen team.

Vampire Bat: This has the goodness factor, and you are also going to enjoy these moments.

Vampire Owl: I had and still have that feeling that this was going to be awesome!

Uncle Dracula [entering the hall]: Let the Halloween begin!

I have been tagged by Maniparna to take part in the Five Photos Five Stories (FPFS) challenge. This challenge works like: You post pictures for five consecutive days (with possible discounts like sometimes changing to alternate days :D) and attach posts to it, fiction, poem or short write-up. It can be anything that suits your taste. I am also tagging my wonderful blogger friend, Tara on Day Four, as part of the challenge, and I will tag a new person on Day Five. 

***This writing is based on our own Halloween programme which was conducted on the Sunday closest to the October 31st in the years 2010 and 2011 bringing something innovative and inspiring hope. It was a voluntary charity drive organized by our youth club with permission from the residents association, and result was excellent. It had clearly exceeded our expectations. It happened only for two years as the club itself had ceased to exist because of people getting jobs further away and a few others getting married. May be it shouldn’t have stopped, but a continuation was never in my power even though I was the club secretary. We needed members, but there were not enough.

***The image used in this blog post is also part of the pre-programme preparations, taken on my Sony Cybershot DSC-W310. The Ghostface mask from the movie Scream is my own special mask for the programme, and the rest included Werewolves, Vampires, Zombies and a number of others including my personal favourites, the Hellboy and the Wolf-man. It was a programme from the youth, and so even in the absence of masks, we managed with all the horror that we could come up with 😀 May be you can try this some day – there will be people who won’t like this, but they are sure to be in a minority 😉

TeNy

After Friday the 13th

On this beautiful Friday the 13th, I was depressed in the absence of no horror movies being released. I just ended up watching a Malayalam movie, a thriller (https://moviesofthesoul.wordpress.com/2015/02/13/saaradhi). So I am choosing to go after some horror from my memories and bring back a few bad guys to life. No, Uncle Dracula will not be on the list because he was never a real bad person. Here are some of the villains of great horror from my favourite slasher movies. This time, I choose the psycho killers and make them better known.

Jason Voorhees (Friday the 13th): This lovely killer from Friday the 13th series needs a mention on every 13th Friday that you have in an year. Having a machete in his hands and murdering people at will, he was a grand character in the 1980s and 1990s only to come back to us with a reboot in 2009. The movie does exactly what it was supposed to do, and it is time Jason come back to us with another sequel. That one even had Julianna Guill who could be one of the best scream queens. Even if the movie name is forgotten, you might not forget his mask which has become the serial killer face that makes the most impact.

Jason needs something for his machete. After all, this is Friday 13th season.

Rusty Nail (Joy Ride): This part-time trucker and more of a serial killer comes from the three movies of the Joy Ride franchise. I like that name – it has something about that draws interest towards him. His face rarely has any chance to come near the camera, and the horror is drawn from the huge truck and his method of operations. Even as the first movie had a better cast, I would prefer the second – the third is not bad either. Rusty Nail in a truck might also be the smarter one around and will make sure that your love for Optimus Prime won’t be that much from admiration or respect.

Freddy Krueger (A Nightmare on Elm Street): Here is a villain who had me scared during my childhood. I remember it to be scarier at that time. Among all the killers here, he has that nice, scary supernatural side that work so well. He rules the dream world and in invincible there. He comes in your dreams and kill you, so there we see that reason for not falling asleep. All your fears come alive in his world as this burnt face and bladed gloves are sure to provide some nightmares and questions your decision to go to sleep. The last movie of the franchise did no justice to the villain though.

Be silent in your dreams. Freddy doesn’t like to be disturbed in his world.

Harry Warden (My Bloody Valentine): The imagery of the miner armed with pickaxe is a nice one, especially when there is that mask bein worn. The remake of the original, My Bloody Valentine 3D which came in 2009 carries the legacy of the killer. There are some nice moments of thrill and gore in the new version too which can establish this killer in your list of villains. This really matches the situation of having Friday the 13th and Valentine’s Day so close to each other, right? You might need to find a mine or a town near a mine to have that special feeling of having this killer though 😛

ChromeSkull (Laid to Rest): I first thought Michael Myers (Halloween) or Victor Crowley (Hatchet) would have been the right choices, but then replaced him with this one. A less known killer here, but he can still be a nice choice for your Halloween or Friday the 13th – even the name is so interesting, isn’t it? It is time this one gets his due as he has been ignored for too long. Moving around and murdering people, sending the video tapes of the murders to the authorities, ChromeSkull is one strange and lethal killer to bring the horror.

So, it is the Valentine’s Day that comes after Friday the 13th. It might sound strange to some people, but not for me, as I don’t find too much difference between the two. My Bloody Valentine is the movie which you can watch on both days. There will always be something common between romance and love – this closeness is the sign of that common thing being even more common this year. This should be a bloody valentine’s day indeed 😀 Even if you don’t need any of these people of the gore, there is always Hannibal 😉 ***The images used in this blog post are from the official Facebook pages of Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Happy Friday the 13th and Happy Valentine’s Day. May the combination work very well 😀 😀

TeNy

My Halloween Valentine

Even as it has been quite a long time since I had a crush and good times have gone and disappeared too quickly, I would like to use this opportunity provided by Closeup’s Cupid Games to make an attempt on how I would propose to my crush on a Valentine’s day. A certain amount of weirdness is present in this blog post as expected, and I hope my readers can forgive it as they have done for my many other posts 😀

The time would be late afternoon, around seven or seven thirty. It would be on the Badminton court which has been one of my favourite and the luckiest places, and there would be her, waiting for a game. I have always been more impressed by her shuttle skills rather than anything else. Being a jobless person, I should be the first one there, but I am also the lazier one. The others are those with even a lesser amount of punctuality; being usually late and that makes it perfect and clear that I can be there at the right time.

I am not with the strength that I used to be, and the teenage energy was lost some time ago, with only a few things left that bring me forward. But she was different, and so was I – the people of the Badminton court. She was never like the other girls around, and it had nothing to do with the looks. I have been pretty much weird myself, and therefore I thought it was going to be good for me, and my idea also was supposed to be strange.

I am getting older and friends are getting married; the fact is that I am feeling much older than I am due to these wedding invitations. I know that the number of people asking me to get married will keep increasing that I might soon be forced to put my face on a matrimony site, and start drinking tea at many houses with girls who were unlucky enough to have their profiles on the same matrimony sites. Drinking tea might be the only positive thing about that. Meanwhile, this was a girl whom I had known for around fifteen and half years.

So, with not much time to waste before getting even older as the single young man, I would go with my Ghostface mask and ask her to have a cup of tea with me, and offer to drink tea with her forever, like the vampires do with their nicely brushed teeth and fangs calling for eternal life. Halloween is my favourite celebration and it has been a connecting link for us. So I wouldn’t think that she can disagree to that. Neither would she doubt the quality of my mask.

We would go for tea in the Chevrolet Beat or on the Honda Dio to the nearest restaurant, and would have that cup of tea. She would also need a Masala Dosa, and as I shall be well-prepared for the same with the wallet. We were never known to be the more talkative ones, and with another cup of tea, I would ask her to begin drinking tea at my home as soon as possible, as more waiting meant more complications, with both of us not getting any younger.

***The images used in this blog post are from the official Facebook Page of Closeup, only meant to support this work. This blog post at The Tea Cerebrations is for the Happy Hours Campaign from Closeup in association with Indiblogger. It is written as a part of Closeup’s Cupid Games. Check the following link for more details about these interesting games from them as the Valentine’s Day approaches quickly – keep calm and participate in the games of love: http://cupidgames.closeup.in/

TeNy

People of the Halloween

It is that time of the year again, and the period of Halloween, a night which has kept me happier than most of the other night. This is that celebration, which even if not at all popular in this part of the world and not even heard about among the people of our locality, had a lot in store for us. Halloween did turn into something special in 2010, but it remained so only for just another year, and 2011 ended the same.

It was after my visit to the United Kingdom in 2010 that this celebration got going. Thanks to my cousin in England, I was able to get a few Halloween special items as the night neared. But I had to cut short my visit and return to India as my grandfather had expired. Soon, I returned with what all scary or almost scary things I had brought from the place. After a few days passed and there were only a few days to Halloween, I wondered what was the use of the costumes.

Our notices before the first & the second Halloween.

We had a group for the youth at that time, and more than a month had passed after the last meeting – I was for some odd reason the secretary of the group and decided to hold a meeting, in which I asked the same about the possible celebrations. There was not really a response in the beginning, but later we felt that may be it could be possible, not without doubts, but still there is hope.

The major arguments against the celebration were that
I. Nobody is aware of such a celebration and doesn’t care at all.
II. People will get scared and might even complain.
III. Some people might misunderstand the evil masks.
IV. We don’t conduct celebrations, only the elder’s group do.
V. We have absolutely no decision making power.

Hellboy, Mr. Brain, Ghostface & Wolfman 😀

But then we decided to give it a twist. I had read about the Halloween related fund raising programs for UNICEF which had raised a huge amount of money. It is really a nice idea, I have to say; for Halloween isn’t usually considered in a positive light, and this changes a lot: http://www.unicefusa.org/mission/usa/trick-or-treat. See what they say about the same “began in 1950 as a way to help kids who need more than candy”. Notice the tagline: IT’S SCARY HOW MUCH GOOD YOU CAN DO!

We thought, may be we could do something good with our group along with celebrating Halloween all at the same time. It was from this idea that we come up with the plan to give a detailed proposal to the association and get the permission to conduct the same. We printed notices and distributed them in each and every home to make sure that they will be ready when we arrived. We rented a few more masks from the shops to make sure that all our members were included.

Before unleashing the monsters…

We mentioned in the notice that we would take donations as well as the old clothes. Even as there were two or three homes which didn’t open the door or didn’t contribute, and even though a number of people were not at home, we did collect around five thousand rupees for the night along with a lot of old clothes, which we could take to the nearby children’s home and the home for the aged. Unfortunately, the same couldn’t go on for more than two years, due to the lack of volunteers and the absence of interest.

It is fun, and a satisfying thing to do. Unfortunately, our club did cease to exist.

How not to steal Halloween sweets! 😀

Happy Halloween 😀 🙂
TeNy