Zoom-in Online

"Boys and girls of every age, wouldn't you like to see something strange?  Come with us and you will see, this our town of Halloween."

With those mischievous words, the denizens of Halloweentown invited us as an audience into their haunting world in the immortal holiday classic, A Nightmare Before Christmas.  Similarly, I invite you to join us at Zoom In Online in celebrating the horrific season for which I'm sure we've all been waiting for the last 365 days (unless you're this cantankerous woman).  

The poor box-office showing for Saw VI seems to signal that people are getting sick of the same old shtick, so I've compiled here a list of some of Zoom In Online's horror related content from 2009 that will help shed some light on what tricks should be avoided and what treats should be indulged in this Halloween.  Enjoy!

Reviews

- Read up on why Jason Voorhees was better served getting beaten down by Freddy Krueger than he was having his story remade in this review of Friday the 13th.

- What do ghosts, goblins, demons, witches, candy corn and the film The Uninvited all have in common?  You won't want ANY of them in your house this year.  But especially The Uninvited.

- The paranormal activities that inspired The Haunting in Connecticut may not have been real and as the film shows, the same could probably be said about the belief in a halfway decent PG-13 horror film (Drag Me to Hell excluded).

- Possibly more horrific than any ghost, zombie, vampire or undead serial killer is Lars von Trier's egotism coming through in Antichrist.

Editorials

- Trick 'r Treat has shown that the horror anthology isn't dead, but films involving multiple overlapping tales have never really gone out of style.  Gavin Mevius thought so about The Signal anyways.

- Those people who have unwisely written off slasher films without exploring their context should feast their eyes on this piece about a fabulous documentary called Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film.

- Our friends from across the pond have given us some noteworthy horror content in the past.  Just look at these articles on Severance, a horror comedy that fans of Shaun of the Dead will enjoy, and Dead Set, a faux reality TV series involving zombies.  

Happy Halloween!