Random Ramblings from the Vault...

• So how great a supporting cast did Universal have at its disposal back in the day? Lionel Atwill, J. Carroll Naish, Dwight Frye, George Zucco... Just had to point that out.

• You'd really think there would be more Christmas-themed horror films than there are. Especially more good ones. It seems like a theme that's ripe for the genre, don't you think?

• The 2nd Annual Cyber-Horror Awards are approaching! The nominating committee will be getting to work next month, and ballots should be going out to all you fine voters in February...

• Back to Universal for a second--Do you have a favorite Jack Pierce makeup design? I know, I know, so many. I'm really leaning towards Kharis from The Mummy's Hand.

• So what's this about Natalie Portman being in the Pride & Prejudice & Zombies movie/miniseries? Masterful casting, if you ask me. Can't wait.

• Can't figure out why everyone got so excited about The Wolf Man getting an R rating. Not all horror needs an R to be effective, people. The original sure as hell didn't.

• Tim Burton's Dark Shadows is another project I continue to be highly intrigued with. Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins cannot be anything but legendary.

• And on the subject of Depp, it may not be straight-up horror, but this new Terry Gilliam movie The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus has my full attention. God, Gilliam is such a visionary. I'd pay to watch car insurance commercials directed by him.

• I don't know if I ever mentioned it, but I had a chance to see Antichrist a few weeks ago. Not much to say about it, other than it was a well-made but thoroughly confusing film that was shocking for the sake of being shocking. But I'll be damned if Dafoe wasn't really boinking that Gainsbourg chick...

• Relieved to hear that the Krueger makeup in the NOES remake will be almost all practical FX. I was worried for a bit there that we'd be getting a partly CGI Freddy...