Christmas is fast approaching and to share in the holiday spirit, we’re giving away three sacks of loot courtesy of Infinite Santa himself. Included in each will be an Infinite Santa 8000 Season one DVD, a Drive-In Horrorshow Ghoulish Videos DVD, a DIHS Soundtrack CD, an autographed Infinite Santa or DIHS poster and some sweet X-mas cards and postcards.  I’ve sung the praise of both Infinite Santa 8000 and Drive-In Horrorshow in the past and now you have the chance to experience them for yourself! All you have to do to enter to win is leave a comment below with your name, address and your favorite Christmas movie (horror or otherwise). That’s it, easy huh? Contest runs until December 31st and winners will be notified by email January 1st. Contest is open to US residents only, sorry folks, postage is expensive! For more info on Infinite Santa 8000 check out the official site and watch the episodes here.

Headpress, one of the premiere UK publishers focused on the counter-culture, has a buy one get one free sale on two of its titles running through the end of the year. If you buy Dark Stars Rising by Shade Rupe you also get Trashfiend by Scott Aaron Stine totally free. Both offer plenty of quality reading for the cult movie fan. Dark Stars Rising comprises twenty-plus years of interviews with a who’s who of counter-culture legends. Over the years Shade sat down with Richard Kern, Udo Kier, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Divine, Chas. Balun, Alejandro Jodorowsky and a whole bunch of others. The book has 27 interviews in all plus a handful of film reviews and hundreds of photos and illustrations. Trashfiend focuses on the horror films of the 60s and 70s and contains more than 300 pages of interviews, articles and reproductions of rare advertisements and more. Headpress is offering both for 15.99 GBP which is roughly 24.99 US. Quantities are limited, so I wouldn’t expect these to last long. For full info on both titles and to place your orders head here... now… go…

Dir. Augusti Villaronga

Cult Epics

In A Glass Cage, or Tras el cristal in its native Spain, is a beautifully shot, ugly bastard of a film. It opens in a dimly lit basement where a young boy is strung up by his wrists, naked, beaten and unconscious. An older man observes him, snapping pictures, with a facial expression that suggests his thoughts are elsewhere. When the boys eyes open the man begins to caress him, rubbing his face against the boy’s. Barely alive, the boy doesn’t a make a sound as the man smashes a wooden board into the back of his head. The man makes his way onto the roof  while someone off camera enters the basement, observes the scene and picks up a journal off the floor. The man stares across the land before taking a fall. This opening scene sets the tone for the entire film – bleak and uncomfortable, yet nearly impossible to take your eyes off.

The man is Klaus (played by Mr Slugworth himself, Gunter Meisner), a former nazi who was prone to molesting, torturing and killing young boys during the war. Well it seems he decided to keep his evil activities up as a hobby after the war was over, hence the naked boy in the basement. Klaus, in an iron lung after his “accident” on the roof, lives in exile in Spain with his wife and young daughter. Griselda, his wife, is becoming more and more depressed and desperate with their situation. She needs help taking care of her invalid husband, and wishes her daughter could be at school and live the life of a normal girl her age. She writes a letter to her mother in Germany, asking to send a nurse to help with her husband. Before she can even get the letter to the post a mysterious young man shows up, saying he heard about the man’s condition and was there to be his nurse. Griselda is rightfully suspicious, but Gunter insists that the young man stays as his nurse.

The young man, Angelo, is just what Klaus needs. He shaves his face, washes him, and entertains him by jerking off while reading from Klaus’ journal from the war. Griselda meanwhile becomes increasingly suspicious and tells Angelo he must leave. In turn Angelo goes batshit crazy, kills Griselda, starts wearing Klaus’ army coat, redecorates the house with wire fence and sets furniture on fire – inside the house. That is all just icing on the depraved cake, as Angelo takes up his patient’s old habit of luring in young boys to snuff out. Klaus, being face to face with his own sick and twisted past, tries to no avail to stop Angelo, but what’s he going to do? He’s in an iron fucking lung! In all seriousness though, watching Angelo taking on the role that Klaus once held is a very disturbing thing indeed. Themes of shame, guilt, repression, abuse and perversion all run throughout.

Beneath all of the ugliness and despair, however, is a beauty that sets In A Glass Cage apart from other shock exploitation films. It’s set design and cinematography are often gorgeous, even during the most shocking of scenes. It’s this balance that keeps the viewer willing to be along for the ride, waiting to see where Angelo’s disturbed actions takes us, and what makes the film an artsploitation experience that sticks with you long after viewing it. The new high-definition transfer on Cult Epics’ recently released DVD and Blu-ray captures the dismal grey and blue color scheme quite well, and comes complete with an endorsement from über perv and shock cinema legend John Waters himself. Accompanying the film are a pair of interviews with director Augusti Villlaronga, and three of his short films. I highly recommend seeking out a copy and experiencing the film for yourself.

In A Glass Cage rates 4 out of 5 Screaming Jamies

The film starts in traditional Lustig style, with a woman walking home from work through the New York City night only to be attacked by a couple of scumbag hoods. Barely escaping, she spots a cop in the distance and heads for help. This turns out to be a fatal mistake as we are introduced to the maniac cop. Bodies start piling up throughout the city, all at the hands of the mysterious killer in the police uniform. Citizens start to fear the police, more so than usual, and whether the killer is an actual member of the force is unclear. When Officer Jack Forrest (Bruce Campbell) is arrested for the murder of his wife, the case seemed to be closed. So was The Chin the maniac cop? Was it a set up? That’s where Detective Frank McCrae comes in. Tom Atkins plays McCrae to cop drama perfection. In fact, next to his role in Night Of The Creeps, I would say that this is honestly his best performance. Atkins’ McCrae is a no-nonsense, bar dwelling cop with a knack for making the ladies’ blush – nothing new for Atkins, this is what he’s good at. McCrae is out to prove Forrest’s innocence and uncover the true identity of the killer in blue.

The killer is played by Robert Z’Dar, who is a big old ugly sonofabitch who really doesn’t need much in the way of make-up to be scary and whose chin put Bruce Campbell to shame. Seriously, the man looks like he’s storing a ham in his jaw for the winter. But the man makes a perfect maniac cop, that’s for certain. When you see his shadow in the distance or his hulking frame coming towards your car, you bet your ass you’re going to be scared!

The film works on many levels. It’s equal parts eighties slasher, cop drama, murder mystery and revenge film. All set against a New York City that no one captures quite like William Lustig. From what I’ve read in the past, and from some of the cast interviews on this release, Lustig apparently had a very minimal directorial style. He was more of an “okay, go…” kind of director, but it obviously worked for him as evidenced here. The recent Blu-ray release of Maniac Cop from Synapse Films looks great with a brand new 2K high def restoration print that captures the raw quality of the film perfectly. Besides the film you get extras in the way of interviews with Atkins and Z’Dar and a bunch of scenes shot for Japanese television that involve a subplot focusing on the mayor’s involvement in the whole thing. Once again, Synapse gives a solid Blu-ray release of a cult classic that stands above all previous versions.

Maniac Cop rates 4.5 out of 5 screaming Jamies

It’s Only A T-Shirt is a new horror shirt company launched this month by Matt O’Neill based out of Melbourne, Australia. The company’s debut design, a wonderful image based on the 1978 Aussie classic Patrick, is available for pre-order now and is being printed in a strictly limited quantity of 200, each housed in a collectible VHS box package. I got pretty excited when I heard from Matt with the details so I decided to throw a couple of questions at him and see if it really is just a t-shirt.

Murphy Screams -  Being the new kid on the block in the horror shirt biz, what do you have planned to set yourself apart from the other companies that already have a strong following ?

Matt O’Neill- I’m hoping what sets us apart will be our unique packaging concepts, the fact that our Tee’s will be fully licensed, and the rarity of the item. So when you go to a horror con, you are the only person there wearing a Patrick T-shirt. I really want to evoke the artwork found on posters and VHS boxes back in the day. I also want to make it more than just a T-shirt, it’s not something you open, pull over your head and spill ice cream down. I hope they become collectors pieces.

Murphy- You said Patrick was an easy choice for your first design being an Aussie based company. Will there be a down under focus on future designs? (I’d love to see an Undead shirt!)

Matt- There will be a few Aussie flicks that get a look in for sure. We are not strictly about Aussie horror, we are looking at British, Spanish, Italian, Thai.. American everywhere! but i want to focus on films that have a small following. Everyone likes Freddy and Jason, and there are plenty of fantastic Tees out there already for those properties. I want to provide Tees for fans of  Patrick or Blood On Satan’s Claw or Raw Meat… (I have my fingers crossed for a Raw Meat tee! – Murphy)

Murphy-  Can you give us an idea of what some of the next designs will be?

Matt – A combination of ‘Michael Jackson’s making of Thriller’ at the age of 5, and holidays to ‘Whitby’ where Dracula was conceived. After that my mum would tape horror films off the BBC that were on too late, and i would get up at 5:00 am and watch them before my little brother would wake up and shit his pants (in fear, he didn’t have a shitting pants problem… I should point that out in case he reads this…) As a result my favourite films and directors have been shaped by the classics. Terrance Fisher is my number one, along with his films Horror of Dracula, Dracula Prince of Darkness, The Devil Rides Out.  However once I moved away from the UK to Australia a whole world of titles banned in my home country were available for rent so the later part of my life has been influenced by The Exorcist, Fulci, Deodato- so I like to think that I have a well-balanced out look on the genre.

Last year I kept you up to date on the animated web series Infinite Santa 8000, from the makers of Drive-In Horrorshow. If you haven’t had the pleasure yet, and like your Christmas tales set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland and your Santa a mutant killing, badass sonofabitch, then you owe it to yourself to check it out ASAP! I’m not sure if a second season is on the horizon or not, but there are brand new Infinite Santa 8000 Christmas cards available for all of you that want to send something original to your horror fiend family and friends this season. There are six to choose from and you can check them all out here.

I just found out that the first 500 people to order a copy of the upcoming Blu-Ray/DVD combo of Intruder from Synapse will receive a very limited edition DVD-R of the film’s original work print version. This version of the film, originally known as Night Crew, contains additional and extended scenes, different editing and is without the final music and sound effects mix. These are  individually burned DVD-R’s and are taken  from director Scott Spiegel’s personal VHS copy.

“We want to give fans of the film something unique to relive the days when the only way to see the original uncut version of INTRUDER was through grey-market videocassettes, so each disc will be individually burned for the customer, with a handwritten label and individually numbered from one to five hundred,” says Don May, Jr., President of Synapse Films.  “Anyone who has already pre-ordered Synapse’s INTRUDER Blu-ray/DVD Combo will have the DVD-R shipped to them along with their order.  Once the 500 DVD-R discs are gone… they are gone.”

From what I can tell these are going very fast. The shopping cart function on Synapse’s website actually crashed yesterday due to such high traffic of people ordering Intruder! I can’t see these lasting much longer so what are you waiting for? Get it now!

	3 Cool Film Blogs To Visit

Basement Screams  Giving obscure horror flicks some love Behind The Couch Fear, nostalgia, shame… Horror Smorgasbord Scary news, reviews and trailersFor more movie blogs, visit The LAMB.

This morning it came to my attention that Total Film showed Basement Screams some love by including it in its email list newsletter as one of three “Cool Film Blogs To Visit”. Needless to say I’m crazy excited, so thanks to Total Film and thanks to blogger Kate Flood for bringing it to my attention.

Okay, folks, as I’ve mentioned before, the deadline to vote for the 26th director in the upcoming ABCs Of Death anthology is Midnight tonight. I’ve gotten word that T Is For Trick, the entry by New York City filmmaker Shade Rupe, is in the top ten entries, which means that it will be one of the final contenders for a spot in the film. Shade has been a good friend to Basement Screams and I urge everyone who hasn’t voted yet to take a minute or two out of their Halloween celebrations and vote while there’s still time!  It’s a dark and dirty little gem, but if you don’t take my word for it, this is what Clive Barker had to say…

“That was an elegantly shot, sharply edited and strongly conceived and directed four minutes of film-making. Colour me impressed.”

Yep, if it’s good enough to get Clive Barker’s vote, well you know what to do…

I’ll leave you with a scene from one of my favorites to watch this time a year, and a dance that’s primed to sweep the nation!

Bonfires burning bright, pumpkin faces in the night, I remember Halloween…