Hey, Louisville Halloween Fans, it’s The Phantom
of the Ville here in my secret sanctum practicing my astral projection skills to
get ready for this weekend. I’ll need to be in more than once place at a time if
I hope to experience all the thrills being offered in Louisville this Friday
through Sunday. Here’s a quick preview to help you plan your weekend!

The Louisville International Festival of Magic,
Illusion and the Unusual (June 14^th – June 16^th ): Two of
the world’s most famous magicians, and both Louisville natives, Lance Burton and
Mac King, will be in town hosting the largest gathering of magicians and
illusionists in the world for magic shows, lectures and secrets shows of the
unusual all weekend long. Lance Burton just ended a 20 year career as Las Vegas’
most popular magician and Mac King, the undisputed king of magic comedy, also
has his own Vegas show. Both also got their careers started working as the house
magician at Caufield’s Novelty!

Perhaps the biggest show during the weekend, which
will be hosted by both Burton and King, is the Festival Gala Show which takes
place Saturday night at 8PM at the Brown Theater. Five of the world’s greatest
illusionists will join them for a variety of acts. Other shows and lectures are
taking place all over downtown from the Baron Theater in the Whiskey Row Lofts
to the Marriott to the Garage Bar to the Galt House. There are far too many
shows happening for me to detail them all here, and I recommend you go to the
Festival’s website at www.louisvillemagicfestival.com for show
information and tickets.

“Robocop” with LIVE score by Ultra Pulverize (June
15^th ): If you’re a fan of one of the goriest sci-fi films ever made,
“Robocop” (1987), there’s a special screening of the film this Saturday night,
June 15^th, at the Clifton Center at 11PM as part of the Flyover Film
Festival. One of Louisville’s most interesting and eclectic bands, Ultra
Pulverize, will be providing a LIVE, electronic re-score to accompany the film.
Ultra Pulverize has been one of my favorite local bands for several years, and
this is a one time event you won’t want to miss! The Clifton Center is located
at 2117 Payne Street.

VinylFest (June 14^th – June
16^th ): This is the first year for this vinyl record collector’s show
at the Crowne Plaza Louisville Airport Hotel at 830 Phillips Lane. Most of the
best spooky records from my childhood, like Disney’s “Chilling, Thrilling Sounds
of the Haunted House” (the last record I bought from ear-x-tacy, by the way),
still only exist on the vinyl format. This is a great place to seek out some of
those lost treasures. The attending guests will also be of interest to
Louisville Halloween fans.

Fantasy artist, Ken Kelly, who may be most famous
for creating the iconic art for the KISS albums, “Destroyer” and “Love Gun,” has
also designed album covers for Manowar, Rainbow and many other rock bands. He
also painted the covers for a number of popular issues of “Famous Monsters of
Filmland.” Ken will be at the show all weekend.

William Stout may be the most famous bootleg album
cover artist in the world. His movie posters for films such as “Wizards” and
“Rock n’ Roll High School” are some of the most iconic images in the world of
cult cinema. He has worked as production designer on dozens of films including
“Pan’s Labyrinth,” “Men in Black,” “Predator” and, perhaps most famously to
Louisville fans, “Return of the Living Dead.” Stout designed the entire look of
the film including the infamous Tarman zombie. He will be at the show all
weekend. Check out the VinylFest website at www.vinylfest.net for more information.

Get out there in the Ville and experience as much
of this magic and mayhem as you possibly can, and I’ll see you next week for
more news of the weird and unusual!

In this age of endless sequels, re-makes and re-boots, it’s a rare thing for an original, untested idea to get the green-light for production in Hollywood. It’s even rarer for a modestly budgeted little genre film like “The Purge” to be released in June amid the onslaught of mega-budget blockbusters, so it pains me to not be able to tell you that the film knocks its interesting ideas out of the park. Ultimately it doesn’t, but it comes so close to greatness that I can’t help but recommend it anyway.

I’ll go even further than that. This is a film that I would welcome sequels to. I’d like see different stories of different social groups and economic classes as they deal with the annual Purge. I think there’s a chance that sequels to this film might actually improve on the concept. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

“The Purge” is set in a speculative near future where unemployment, poverty and crime eventually got so bad that the country nearly destroyed itself. A new government comes to power that institutes “The Purge.” Once a year, for 12 hours, all crime is legal. All police and medical services are shut down, and murder is not only legal, but encouraged. Everyone is allowed 12 hours to purge their darkest urges and society purges all of it’s “dead flesh” (the poor, the elderly, the sick, etc.). The Purge is working. Unemployment is down to one per cent and violent crime has nearly been eliminated. America is a shining utopia with the exception of 12 hours once a year.

We’re introduced to James Sandin (Ethan Hawke), an upper class home security salesman, who discovers he has just been promoted to “salesman of the year” on his way to his expensive gated community home just a couple of hours before the annual Purge. Sandin doesn’t participate in the Purge, but he certainly profits from it, and he encourages support of the practice to his family. It works. His family and many others have benefited greatly from the Purge.

His wife (Lena Heady) has more complex feelings about the Purge, but she’s supportive of her husband’s career. Sandin’s eldest daughter is more interested in her relationship with her older boyfriend than the night’s potential danger and violence. His youngest son, sowing the seeds of youthful rebellion, is firmly against the whole concept. The family’s difference of opinions come to a head at the dinner table just as the civic warning sirens sound the start of the Purge, and Sandin programs his home security system to safely lock them in for the next 12 hours.

If you’ve seen the trailers then you know Sandin’s son will make a split second decision to help a homeless man being hunted by a group of killers that will set his family under siege by creepy mask wearing stalkers who want to “purge” themselves on their uninvited guest. It’s here that the original concept seems to start borrowing ideas from other home invasion movies, namely “The Strangers” (2008). We’ve seen these mask wearing creeps before, but they’re still effective villains, especially their psychotically entitled leader played by Rhys Wakefield. Wakefield occasionally borders on “over-the-top,” but is quite chilling in his best scenes.

Sandin must decide what to do with the homeless man lose in his huge house while the wolves at his door threaten the lives of his family. When the violence finally erupts, it is brutal and exciting. The fight scenes are extremely well staged and scary. There are several twists that come into play in the third act as the loyalties and the moral integrity of every character is tested under fire.

In the end, however, it’s still a little horror film with big ideas. I’ve met many film fans over the years that would rather a film not reach so high and exceed its grasp. They would rather see a formula film follow the dots well than see a film take a chance at something original but not quite stick the landing. If you’re one of those folks, you might even hate “The Purge.” But if you’re one of those folks that likes discussing the ideas and potential of an interesting idea, even if the totality of the execution might not have met your expectations, then I think “The Purge” will give you a lot to think about.

It’s hard for me not to encourage the kind of original ideas here that reminded me of many of the high concept horror and science-fiction films from the late 1970′s and the early 1980′s that are still being copied, re-made and re-booted today. I would include “The Purge” in the same category with films like “The Ring” and “Battle Royale,” not that it is in any way similar to those films, but like those films presented original ideas that lit the flame for dozens of copycats, I think “The Purge” will ultimately generate a new sub-genre of imitators itself.

“It was an exercise in greed. Nobody cared what
you wore or anything like that. It was how many bags of candy could you actually
get. I remember, literally, three or four shopping bags full of candy. You know,
we’d have to go home and dump it and come back. It was really just pure greed.”

Alice Cooper, “Halloween: The Happy Haunting of
America” (1997)

In Chuck Williams’ holiday documentary,
“Halloween: The Happy Haunting of America,” shock rock icon, Alice Cooper,
ponders the darker side of October 31^st. His observations remind us
that the origins of All Hallows’ Eve are rooted in not only the supernatural,
but in the darker sides of ourselves, in spite of our cultural insistence that
the celebration of Halloween is for children.

Although in recent years, adults have taken back
the night with rituals of masquerade parties and pilgrimages to elaborate and
terrifying haunted attractions, the concept of Halloween being anchored by the
tradition of Trick or Treating has long been the sole privilege of the very
young. The dress up play, the make believe and the pursuit of free sweets in
roving gangs of monsters, super heroes and fantasy characters seems innocent
enough. But what lurks behind the Target vampire teeth and Walmart fright wigs
of these little monsters? What primal instincts are awakened by the ancient
traditions of Halloween?

As a little Phantom, I participated in Trick or
Treating every October since the first year I could walk, and although I
remember attending several Halloween parties at the homes of friends and
schoolmates, I only remember hosting one Halloween party at my parent’s house.
My mom took me to the local hardware store where we bought a shopping cart full
of black garbage bags. The idea was to turn our garage into a house of horrors
worthy of a neighborhood hootenanny, and we spent the better part of a day
cutting garbage bags and duct taping black plastic to the garage walls, covering
my dad’s tools and wrapping his shotgun shell re-loader.

The next step in getting the haunted garage ready
for the party was covering the walls with cardboard Beistle Halloween cutouts.
Jack-O-Lanterns, black cats, glow-in-the-dark ghosts and witches were evenly
spaced throughout the room, and my dad installed black lights in the old light
bulb sockets. My favorite memory of the haunted garage is the Wolf Man figure we
constructed to guard the entrance. We bought a Collegeville Wolf Man mask with a
day-glo painted face that would glow under the black lights, and stuffed my
dad’s old hunting clothes with newspapers to form the body. He had a plaid shirt
worthy of Lon Chaney Jr., covered with denim overalls, and the look was
completed with work gloves and boots. An old, Styrofoam wig holder was covered
in black plastic to hold the werewolf mask in place.

In the dead center of the room hung the piece de
resistance, a huge black spider pinata. This papier-mache monsterpiece was the
mystery and the terror of the room. My parents had insisted on filling this
eight legged arachnid themselves, so I had no idea what dark treasures awaited
inside its terrible belly. All I know is that we hung it up the day before the
party. I could hear the treats inside tumbling around as I helped my dad hold it
steady while he nailed it to the ceiling. All day and all night it hung there
while I obsessed over its mysteries, occasionally tapping it with my fingers
trying to size up the treats inside like a kid shaking his Christmas presents
under the tree.

The day of the party arrived and as soon as I got
home from school I went out to explore the haunted garage and help get
everything ready for the arrival of the kids in a couple of hours. I carefully
checked the giant spider to make sure my younger brother hadn’t previously tried
to poke a hole in his belly to get some early treats.

Next, I helped my mom move spare chairs into the
garage where we set up a mini movie theater. I was already a part time
projectionist with our Super 8 movie projector and my dad had edited together
three short reels of monster movies we owned so I wouldn’t have to rewind and
load each separate 8mm film. Tonight’s triple feature would be four minute
condensed, Castle Films versions of “Dracula,” “House of Frankenstein” and
“Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man.” Sound effects for these silent reels were
provided separately by my “Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House” LP
playing from the black plastic covered record player in the corner.

As soon as the kids began to arrive, I ran off to my
bedroom to don my Collegeville Ultraman costume. Mom brought snacks and sodas
out to the kids who gathered to look around the haunted garage and check out the
newspaper stuffed Wolf Man. We finally had a room full of kids and things were
starting to get rowdy so my dad announced the start of the classic horror
movies. Everyone sat down, dad pulled down the portable movie screen and I ran
over to start the sound effects. I still remember the clicking sound of the
projector as a room full of kids sat and watched fifteen glorious minutes of
silent monster madness, cheering their favorite monsters and feigning terror at
the appropriate moments.

After the movies, my mom decided a game of musical
chairs was in order, so all the chairs were placed in a circle beneath the giant
spider pinata.I managed to get eliminated fairly quickly, but I was never a big
fan of musical chairs anyway, so I went to get a Coke with some of the other
early losers. We discussed the white elephant in the room which was, of course,
the black spider in the room. My friends and classmates were as curious about
its contents as I was.

Finally, it was time for the ritual sacrifice.
That black spider must die to appease the gods and provide treats for the
masses. My dad brought out a sturdy stick and the winner of the musical chairs
competition was given first swing at the eight legged guardian of the secret
treasure. The spider survived quite a few mighty blows, but it lost a limb or
two in the battle. Finally it was my turn to slay the beast, and I gave it my
best shot but I wasn’t well trained in the art of pinata murder and I failed.

I slunk away to the corner by the Wolf Man to
await another turn, but that turn would never come. A kid in a cute tiger
costume had much better pinata ninja skills and split the critter right down the
middle spilling his guts full of treats and prizes! The booty hit the floor and
spread out across the room. My eyes darted about the floor. I saw cheap candy
necklaces, Now N Laters and even some full size Snickers bars amid rubber
skeletons and spider rings! What a haul!

I reached down to pick up a piece of candy but it
was snatched by another kid before I could grasp it. I went for a rubber
skeleton, but it was whisked away as well. I looked around and the whole floor
was crawling with clutching, clasping kids, only they weren’t kids anymore. They
were hungry beasts, craving and desperate. Soon everything would be gone and I
would have nothing. Then I saw a full Snickers bar next to the foot of the Wolf
Man that seemed to have avoided detection by the ravenous horde. Just as I was
about to lunge for it, I saw a cute little girl in a witch costume looking down
at the same candy bar. She was using her witches cloak as a makeshift treat bag
and that sucker was full. We locked eyes for a split second. I reached out my
hand for the Snickers bar and I swear she growled and snapped at me! She
snatched up the candy bar and I withdrew my hand, just glad all my fingers were
still accounted for.

Soon after that melee, the party was winding down,
and I was holding back tears because I had no treasure from the spider’s guts to
run my fingers through. There was nothing special inside that spider that I
couldn’t easily talk my parents into buying for me at the local dime store the
next day, but at the time my situation seemed bleaker than I could see past. It
wasn’t so much the lack of rubber skeletons and spider rings that haunted me,
but it was how this group of normal, laughing kids had suddenly turned into
savage little beasts. I’ll never, ever forget the look on that little witch’s
face when it came down to her or me for that Snickers bar. That face haunts me
still when I’m alone at night.

As many magical memories as I carry with me about
twilight neighborhood wanderings, double feature horror screenings with long
gone friends and the buzz of excitement in line at local haunted houses, I also
carry with me this scene right out of William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies.” The
years make even that experience all the sweeter in memory, so I guess Alice was
partly right. You can’t get to the sweet without a taste of the bitter.

“She was always my favorite when I was a kid and
now that I see her, she’s the most beautiful thing I ever saw.”

Dr. Alan Grant, “Jurassic Park” (1993)

Welcome back, Louisville Monster Kids, it’s The
Phantom of the Ville taking you back to a time when dinosaurs ruled the Ville.
Well, not that far back. There was a time, however, not so long ago when one
famous, life-sized triceratops sculpture brought awe and joy to generations of
Louisville’s monster loving kids. Almost every kid that grew up loving monsters
started that lifelong affair by loving the ones that really existed and roamed
the primordial Earth 65 million years ago.

I first remember encountering the Louisville
Triceratops as a young child when it was located at the Louisville Zoo. Already
a dinosaur obsessed little Phantom, seeing the life-sized beast for the first
time in its natural glory amid the all the other animals at the Zoo was
something I’ve never forgotten. Kids were naturally drawn to it. Some of the
older kids even climbed on it! This was the 1970′s and parents didn’t fuss so
much over our safety. I guess they figured if we fell off the dinosaur and broke
a couple of bones, we’d learn not to climb on prehistoric creatures in the
future. I remember my dad hoisted me up so I could climb onto the dinosaur’s
shoulders for a photo op. Glorious!

Years later, the Louisville Triceratops was moved
to the Louisville Science Center downtown where it stayed for many years. For
years it sat in the Yarmuth Garden near the back entrance to the Science Center
until one day it was moved into the parking lot beneath the buzzing expressway
where it was chained down to keep it from escaping. Finally, it was moved right
next to the parking attendant’s booth where anyone entering the Science Center’s
parking lot could see it.

I think it’s possible for something to be so
omnipresent, even something as big as a dinosaur, that it becomes invisible to
local eyes. I passed that creature so many times over the course of my life that
I ceased to even notice it. Then one day a few years ago I was visiting the
Science Center with my niece and she says, “Where’s the dinosaur?” It was gone!
Where did it go? Rumors on the Internet suggested someone with a flatbed truck
had stolen it in the dark of night, but surely somebody would notice a dinosaur
sitting in someones back yard, and it’s not the kind of thing you can sell on
eBay. Other rumors guessed it must be stored somewhere within the Science
Center’s private collection.

After a year of looking, I finally found it, but
before I reveal its current location and condition, I think it’s important to
tell you where it came from and why it’s an important cultural piece of
Louisville history.

The Louisville Triceratops was created by famous
Hungarian nature sculptor, Louis Paul Jonas, along with eight other life-sized
dinosaurs for a massive and popular exhibit at the 1964 New York World’s Fair.
The pavilion was called “Sinclair Dinoland,” and was sponsored by the Sinclair
Oil Corporation who had first sponsored another dinosaur exhibit at the Chicago
World’s Fair of 1934 for which they built a two ton, animated “brontosaurus” in
an attempt to draw a public correlation between petroleum deposits and the age
of the “Thunder Lizards.” That exhibit became so popular that Sinclair began
using the image of the dinosaur as a corporate logo and began selling plastic
and inflatable dinosaur toys at all of their gas stations.

When given the chance to get the attention of the
world in 1964, Sinclair built their elaborate Dinoland at the World’s Fair and
sold “Sinclair and the Exciting World of Dinosaurs” brochures and plastic
miniature versions of their dinosaurs in Mold-O-Rama machines where you would
insert your money and watch the high tech gizmo pour colored, liquid plastic
into a heated mold and make you a personal souvenir in just a couple of minutes.
Our Louisville Triceratops was prominently featured in Dinoland (SEE PICS) in
battle with the mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex! Millions of tourists marveled at our
triceratops during the Fair and afterward.

After the World’s Fair closed in 1965, the
Sinclair Dinosaurs took their act on the road. The company knew they had a good
promotional thing going so they hauled all nine dinosaurs around the country on
the back of flatbed trucks. They toured the country again in 1967 and 1968,
setting up in the parking lots of shopping centers and malls, before finally
being offered to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., who declined
their ownership. In the spirit of the World’s Fair, each of the nine dinosaurs
were then gifted to different US cities to use for their own purposes in museums
and zoos.

Both the 70 foot Brontosaurus and the T-Rex ended
up in Dinosaur Park in Glenrose, Texas. The Anklyosaurus also went to Texas,
where it is still in the Houston Museum of Natural Science. The Stegosaurus
currently resides outside the Visitor Center at the Dinosaur National Monument
in Harpers Corner, Utah. The Corythosaurus is at the Riverside Park & Zoo in
Independence, Kansas. The Struthiomimus went to the Milwaukee County Museum in
Wisconsin. The Trachodon resides at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago, Illinois and
the whereabouts of the Ornitholestes is unknown.

So where is the Sinclair Triceratops that was
gifted to Louisville in the early 1970′s? Sadly, this piece of World’s Fair and
Louisville (pre)history no longer resides at either the Louisville Zoo or the
Louisville Science Center, but it is currently still apparently under stewardship of the
Louisville Science Center. My search for the missing dinosaur drove me to the
Internet searching for clues, and a tip from a local dino-fanatic had me
searching the northwestern part of downtown on Google Earth where I found it.
You can see it from space!

Just around the corner from The Louisville
Stigmatorium (which I wrote about last week), you’ll find the Louisville
Triceratops sitting in a small field of grass near the back parking lot of the
Great Northern Manufacturing Co. at 901 S 15^th Street. Apparently,
Great Northern is storing the dinosaur for the Louisville Science Center, but
the years of sitting outside in the weather have taken a toll on the once great
creature. The paint is severely worn and there are cracks on the tip of one of
his horns and the tail. It’s a testament to how well this beast was built,
however, that it has lasted this long.

I don’t blame the Louisville Science Center at all
for the predicament that our beloved triceratops is in. It’s huge. It takes up a
lot of space and badly needs restoration. I doubt the budget of a non-profit
organization would allow such expense for a forgotten, locally invisible relic
of the 1960′s. Here’s the problem, in my ghostly opinion: Nobody in our city
knows what it is or where it came from. I certainly didn’t until I did the
research. What the Louisville Triceratops needs, after a little TLC restoration
and a new coat of paint, is a place where it can be enjoyed by all of our
citizens with a commemorative plaque in front of it explaining its origins so
folks can learn about its cultural history and why they should care.

The question of actual ownership of the dinosaur
will need to be worked out before it can be saved. Does the City of Louisville
own the triceratops or does the non-profit organization that runs the Science
Center who acquired it after changing names from the Louisville Museum of
Natural History & Science? I don’t have the answer, but I encourage anyone
who reads this and cares to try and find out. Call the city government and ask.
Call the Science Center and politely inquire about the missing dinosaur. I think
the only way to save and restore this piece of Louisville monster history is to
have enough people show interest in it so that the city has no choice but to
look into options for bringing it out of the shadows.

I know some very talented artists and craftsmen
here in this city that stand ready to put the work into restoring this dinosaur
to it’s original condition, and will do it for only the cost of materials, but
they’ll only get the chance if its current caretakers actually start to care
themselves.

Until the day that this dinosaur again rules the
Ville, I will look back fondly on this majestic creature and hope some of you
will as well. This is The Phantom of Ville heading back to the Jurassic Era
until next week!

12►

Hey kids, it’s The Phantom of the Ville checking
in with a story about a truly singular new curiosity shop/oddities museum/ punk
rock venue/ cult movie showcase at 1722 Maple Street in the industrial area of
downtown Louisville. After getting a tip from a friend at the Culbertson Haunted
Mansion, I decided to see the Louisville Stigmatorium for myself.

My hearse driver drove past the creepy warehouses
and construction sites that litter this part of northwest downtown with only an
address and instructions to, “Look for a building with a boat on the roof.” We
pulled into a sketchy looking alley in front of a large industrial building, and
sure enough we found an entrance with a large outboard motorboat perched atop
the roof. A skull covered sign let us know we were in the right place. Prepare
for a bit of a climb up to the front door as the front stairs are comprised of a
huge pile of timber logs with shipping pallets on top of them to make for flat
surfaces. If that already seems weird to you, then get ready to have your mind
blown by what you’re going to see inside.

As soon as I walked in the front door, my senses
were bombarded with an incredible variety of visual stimuli.The collection on
display isn’t easy to define. You’ll find skeletons in coffins, antique medical
equipment, cultural artifacts, life masks of Bela Lugosi and Vincent Price, cool
toys of our collective childhoods past like the Shogun Warriors Godzilla figure,
animal bones, various creatures in liquid filled mason jars, monster masks,
creepy dolls and many things I couldn’t identify but was too afraid to ask
about. Their motto is, “Nothing is too weird for us.”

Upon entry I was greeted by owner, Andy Harpole,
and his co-conspirator, Johny Walker. Harpole is the owner of both the space and
the majority of the objects on display and Walker is in charge of all related
programming of punk rock shows and B-movie nights, as well as being a low budget
horror film director himself. The Stigmatorium’s current museum room, which they
have plans to expand, is the front room in a large building that makes up
Harpole’s boat repair and storage business.

“At first we thought about opening a shop on
Bardstown Road,” Harpole says. “But someone brought to my attention that I not
only already have this space, but that this end of town already has the perfect
atmosphere for what we wanted to do.” Harpole says the Louisville Stigmatorium
is currently in “soft opening,” and he’s hoping for an official opening sometime
this Summer. Right now, the doors at the museum are open from 11AM until 3PM
Monday through Wednesday, but extended hours or a private showing can be
scheduled at your convenience by calling 502-544-9348.

“Not everything you see is for sale,” Harpole
says. “But we’re open to buying, selling and trading anything unusual.” Harpole
grew up in Oldham County and had an admittedly normal, comfortable childhood
before moving to the Crescent Hill area during his more troubled teenage years.

“There was this old guy who had an auction shop on
Frankfort Avenue,” Harpole remembers, “and one day I stopped in to see what he
was selling. He had all kinds of weird, old stuff and little by little I
starting collecting things. I’m fascinated by the history of Western medicine
and antique medical equipment. I think that’s where this collection started.”

While Harpole runs the museum, Johny Walker is the
event programmer who is busy generating a local following by presenting all ages
punk rock shows and triple feature B-movie nights twice a month. A low budget
horror filmmaker himself, Walker knows his cult horror stuff and sites “Plan 9
From Outer Space” as a major influence. On the week of my visit, he was planning
a show with films as obscure and insane as “Mystics in Bali” and “The Killing of
Satan.” He also regularly brings in touring punk bands from across the country,
and he’s in charge of a small gift shop that sells indie punk CDs, vinyl,
fanzines, horror magazines and other curiosities.

The Stigmatorium is the labor of love of these two
very unique individuals, and their interests & passions extend far beyond the
doors of their spooky operation. “One of the projects I’m very passionate about
is the restoration of Eastern Cemetery in the Highlands,” says Harpole, who
schedules regular volunteer days to help clean up the infamous decaying cemetery
which sits right next door to the immaculately kept, Cave Hill Cemetery.

“I’ve had meetings with the local government about
this problem,” he says. “It’s the saddest thing to me that we’re just letting
the place turn into ruins when so many people’s families and loved ones are
buried there.” The Eastern Cemetery and Crematory closed in the late 1980′s
after a scandal was exposed dating back as far as the 1920′s involving as many
as 48,000 people buried in only 16,000 graves. Vaults were filled to the top
with boxes of ashes, many containing multiple names. Since it closed, it has
been a victim of grave desecration and vandalism.

Andy and Johny welcome anyone to bring in their
weirdest stuff to show, trade or donate to the ever changing museum. New stuff
comes in all the time, and the quicker the museum overflows with weirdness, the
quicker they plan to add rooms to the tour.

Upcoming events include an all ages punk rock show
on Memorial Day, Monday, March 27^th, featuring the California
rockabilly sounds of Reverend Red and local punks, EXPO. The show starts at 8PM.
The next B-Movie night takes place on Saturday, June 8^th at 8PM. It
will showcase a triple feature of “Driller Killer,” “Basket Case” and “Beyond
the Door.” Food, popcorn and soft drinks will be available at the show. Check
out their Facebook page for more information.

Good Evening, My Loyal Friends. It’s The Phantom
of the Ville, here to tell you about one of my favorite weekends of the year
here in the land of bourbon and boos. As a longtime lurker of the creepy halls
of the Crowne Plaza Hotel during the area’s biggest Toy & Model/Sci-Fi Expo,
WONDERFEST, I have some tips regarding the guests, panels and film screenings
that might interest fans of classic horror and science-fiction that frequent
this spooky corner of the Internet.

The show takes place from Friday night, May
17^th, through Sunday evening, May 19^th, with Friday night
serving as a FREE addition to a paid admission for a one day or weekend ticket.
Adults are $25 for a one day ticket or $33 for both days. Ages 4-12 are $8 for
one day and $11 for both days. Ages 3 and under are free. You can also purchase
an Early Bird Ticket for $55 which pays for the whole weekend and gets you into
the Dealer’s Room two hours early at 8AM on Saturday morning. The
Admissions Booth will be open Friday Night from 5PM until 8PM and again Saturday
morning at 7:30AM. The Dealers Room will be open Saturday and Sunday from 10AM
until 5PM.

The biggest draw to Wonderfest is the world famous
model contest, and the show annually draws model builders from around the world.
Even though you’ll find everything from rocket ships to dinosaurs to full size
movie props and costumes from “Star Trek” to “Lost in Space” to “Alien,” there
has always been a connection to Halloween and the classic monsters of the silver
screen according to Wonderfest Head Programmer, Dave Cononver, “Sure,” says
Conover, “the modeling hobby probably began with most of us building the classic
Aurora Monster Kits of the 1960′s and 1970′s.”

The Aurora Plastics Corporation began producing
model kits for a young demographic in the early 1950′s, mostly World War I and
II aircraft models and “slot cars.” Aurora’s biggest success came when they
licensed the images of the classic Universal Monsters in 1961 and began
producing a series of monster kits based on Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolf Man,
King Kong, Godzilla and their whole devil’s brood. I was introduced to these
plastic wonders through the haze of the smell of cement modeling glue during the
Glow-in-the-Dark craze in the early 1970′s when Aurora re-released their monster
line with glow-in-the-dark heads and hands. One of the most memorable features
of the Aurora Monster models was the moody and evocative packaging artwork by
artist James Bama.

Just a couple of years ago, Wonderfest debuted a
documentary about this whole phenomenon, featuring an interview with Bama,
called “The Aurora Monsters: The Model Craze That Gripped The World.” It was
co-directed by Cortlandt Hull, who comes from classic monster lineage. He’s the
great nephew of actor, Henry Hull, Universal’s “Werewolf of London” (1935)
himself! He has also run a classic monster wax museum called “The Witch’s
Dungeon” (www.preservehollywood.org/) in Bristol, Connecticut since
1966.

This year, Hull and his partner Bill Diamond will
be debuting a new documentary on Friday night at 9:30PM in the upstairs Theater
A at the Crowne Plaza, “The Phantom of the Opera: Unmasking the Masterpiece.”
It’s a comprehensive look at adaptions of the Gaston Leroux novel through the
years, with focus on the silent Lon Chaney Jr. version, the 1943 version with
Claude Rains and the British Hammer Horror version with Herbert Lom. It will
feature interviews with Lon Chaney’s great grandson, Ron Chaney, Broadway
“Phantom,” Hugh Panaro and Hollywood make-up wizards Tom Savini and John
Goodwin.

Then Saturday night there will be a double feature
of classic creeps and monsters starting at 9PM in Theater B with a screening of
Roger Corman’s classic, “The Raven” (1963), featuring Vincent Price, Peter Lorre
and Boris Karloff. The real treat for classic horror fans is the fact that Boris
Karloff’s daughter, Sara Karloff, will be there in person to introduce the film
and talk about some of the later films in her father’s long Hollywood bogeyman
career. Mrs. Karloff will also be hosting a panel about her father’s career on
Sunday morning from 11 – Noon in Theater A.

Directly following “The Raven” at 11PM on Saturday
night, Wonderfest will present “The Ray Harryhausen Super 8 Tribute Show.”
Master creature effects creator, Ray Harryhausen, who just passed away last week
was the man who released the Kraken in “Clash of the Titans,” brought the
Cyclops to life in “The 7^th Voyage of Sinbad” and rose an undead army
of skeletons in “Jason and the Argonauts.” Guests will marvel to the clicking
projector sounds of Super 8 digest reels for some of Harryhausen’s greatest
work. The Super 8 screening schedule follows below:

MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (17 minutes)
EARTH VS FLYING
SAUCERS (8 minutes)
20,000,000 MILES TO EARTH (17 minutes)
7th VOYAGE OF
SINBAD Cyclops vs Dragon (8 minutes)
MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (17 minutes)
JASON
AND THE ARGONAUTS – Talos (8 minutes)
JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS – Skeletons (8
minutes)
GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD – ‘Making of’ Featurette (6
minutes)
SINBAD AND THE EYE OF THE TIGER (17 minutes)

Other panels of interest to horror fans include a
Saturday 4PM session with Scream Queen, Brinke Stevens (“The Slumber Party
Massacre,” “The Haunting Fear”), who will be made-up as something horrible by
special effects make-up master, John Goodwin. Lee Meriwether, who played
Catwoman in the 1966 theatrical “Batman” movie, will be giving a talk at 11:30 AM
on Sunday morning. Last, but not least, the Rondo Awards (www.rondoaward.com) will present the awards for the years’ best
efforts in the horror genre at 5PM on Saturday.

There’s much, much more going on at Wonderfest
this weekend, and I’ve only touched on the more monstrous elements of the show,
so I recommend you check out www.wonderfest.com for all the details. I’ll see you back next
week when we explore a very unique, very local and very strange new
attraction/museum/cult film/punk rock showcase that could only exist in the dark
shadows of the Ville!

This morning I received a strange email from
someone calling himself Gern Blanston, Chief Investigator for the Center for
Research of American Paranormal Activity (CRAPA). Blanston summoned me to a
press conference at the Frazier History Museum downtown at 829 W. Main Street.
In a room filled with local press, a slightly disheveled gentleman approached
the podium and began to show us photographs taken recently around the city
purportedly revealing the presence of legendary creatures in our midst: Bigfoot
in Cherokee Park, a sea serpent in the Ohio River and unicorns at Churchill
Downs.

Afterward, he took us out on Main Street to reveal
a “Bigfoot Crossing” (SEE PHOTO) sign that he claimed was intended to keep the
citizenry on “high alert.” I was then introduced to the Frazier’s Chief Outreach
Officer, Krista Snider, who ushered me quickly into an elevator which took us to
the third floor of the Frazier’s labyrinthine building. There I discovered an
amazing new exhibit that explores the roots of folklore and fables behind the
world’s most enduring mythical creatures from Asia, Europe, the Americas and
beyond.

Inside the mysterious rooms on the Frazier’s third
floor, you’ll be taken on a visual journey into the world of Cryptozoology in
search of the truth behind the legends. The tour is broken down into four themed
environments: Creatures of the Sea, Land and Air and Dragons. The first area
you’ll encounter is Creatures of the Sea, and right away you’ll discover that
most of the legendary beasts on display have been recreated “life-size” in their
full glory. The full scale Kraken’s tentacles have broken through the
floorboards and surround you as you make your way through the room. Special
lighting and sound effects make it seem like you’ve been transported 20,000
leagues under the sea.

A sense of scale is a part of the larger than life
stories behind many of these magical creatures, and Mythical Creatures: Truth
Behind the Legends delivers the intended feeling of awe. When you first enter
the 7,500 sq. ft. exhibit, you’ll encounter a 17 foot long dragon with a 19 foot
wingspan and a tremendous Chinese dragon snaking through the building overhead.
You’ll see a life-size Gigantopithecus, believed to be the foundation for the
legend behind (or at least an an ancestor of) the Sasquatch. You’ll come
face-to-face with a gigantic Roc, the mythical giant bird that Sinbad the Sailor
battled in the Arabian Nights tales. You’ll see a 10 foot unicorn in a magical,
dreamlike environment, a full sized Pegasus and much, much more.

For those with a deeper curiosity about the
cultures that spawned these creatures and the history behind them, you’ll also
find many artifacts including pre-historic fossils, textiles, paintings, stone
carvings, wooden sculptures and other cultural objects. There are also several
fun interactive stations, like one I toyed with where you turn the crank and see
a display of whale pods breaking through the ocean surface waves that could have
easily been mistaken as the humps of a sea serpent. All ages are encouraged to
touch the casts of a narwhal tusk, the lower jaw of a massive ape and the talon
of an eagle.

If you’re very lucky, and you keep your sharp
senses about you, you may even spot the legendary Sasquatch himself lurking amid
the exhibits! I spoke with the Frazier’s own, Krista Snider, about her own
experiences with the elusive creature.

“I lived in Arkansas for four years as a child,”
says Snider. “We lived in a neighborhood with a massive, dense forest right
behind it. People told lots of stories of Bigfoot sightings in the area. When I
was seven or eight years old, I had a dream of seeing Bigfoot walk right out of
the forest into my back yard in broad daylight.” At least she thinks it was a
dream. When pressed for Halloween memories from her childhood, she admits to a
classical love of traditional Halloween costumes. “I was always a black cat or a
witch. I like the classics!”

“Mythic Creatures” opens to the public on
Saturday, May 11, from 11AM until 5PM for a special Founder’s Day Celebration
which includes unicorn rides ($3 per ride) in the parking lot and animals from
the Louisville Zoo from Noon till 2PM. MozziPi will be offering authentic
Italian food and the Comfy Cow will be providing ice cream on the sidewalk. Kids
can make and take their own Medusa or Kraken headdress or their own Historical
Cyclops Magnet from 11AM to 4PM.

The exhibit will be on display through September
15 and is appropriate for children ages 4 and up. Operating hours are Monday
through Saturday 9AM to 5PM and Sunday 12PM to 5PM. Wednesdays are open extended
hours until 8PM and guests can take advantage of half priced admission every
Wednesday after 4PM! Regular admission is $18.50 for adults (18 and older),
$14.50 for students (ages 14-17 and college students with I.D.), $10 for
children (5-13) and free for children 4 and under. Discounts are available for
museum members, military, seniors and groups of 15 or more. For more information
visit www.fraziermuseum.org.

There is currently no word on whether or not the
Goatman of Pope Lick has been spotted at the Frazier History Museum, as he seems
to stick to his old haunts at the Pope Lick railroad trestle, but all this
recent cryptozoolological activity just may bring him out of his home creek to
check things out. My investigation with CRAPA is ongoing. Stay tuned for further
details.

What a week in the River City, my friends and fiends! An Orb won the Kentucky Derby, and I’m guessing some of you spook loving creeps and armchair ghost hunters might have a little extra cash in your pockets if you pick your horses by their names like I do. Now I’ve just received the word that ex-Misfits frontman and talented singer/songwriter, Michale Graves, will be returning to the Third Street Dive on Thursday, May 9th.

Currently on tour with his brand new album, “Vagabond,” Graves last stopped in the Ville last September on his solo, all acoustic tour. You can find the Louisville Halloween review here:http://www.louisvillehalloween.com/michale-graves-concert-review-third-street-dive/.  This time he’ll be bringing his entire band with their amps, guitars, drums and bass to rock out tracks from his new record along with some horror punk classics. If you’re lucky, you should be able to pick up a copy of the very limited new CD at the show. Local punk band, Dead Dick Hammer, will be opening the show which starts at 8PM.

Graves is also gearing up for a return to his horror punk roots. He has successfully fan funded an anthology of his horror punk classics called “The Lost Skeleton Returns” through Kickstarter and the CD is due for release on June 14th. Graves will be breaking out the skeleton greasepaint makeup once again for this new record which will include ten re-recorded classics like “Dig Up Her Bones” and “Crying on Saturday Night” from his time in the Misfits as well as solo material like “Earth VS Spider” and “Dawn of the Dead.” Most exciting for fans is the fact that “The Lost Skeleton Returns” will include four new horror punk songs, “Lost Skeleton,” “Zombie,” “Forbidden Planet” and “Something Wicked.” Find out how you can get a copy of the CD at the show and get the latest news at http://www.michalegraves.net/ .

The Third Street Dive is located in downtown Louisville at 442 South Third Street. The show starts at 8PM. Michale always hangs out after the show to meet fans and sign all of your CDs, shirts and other swag. This is the Phantom of the Ville, who will likely be lurking in the shadows of the dark corners of the Third Street Dive this Thursday night. Stay tuned for much more news later this week!

Gather round the bonfire, my friends, for
Walpurgis Night is at hand! I, The Phantom of the Ville, have awoken from my
winter slumber and have returned to my old haunts in the River City with
exciting news. In early June, Louisville Halloween will be unveiling a new,
improved website with a number of new features that will better serve your smart
phones and digital devices. Expect a much bigger media presence in the Ville
this year as well. There will be more news, new haunted houses, new contests,
movie screenings and reviews, horror convention appearances and panels and much
more spooky fun.

Six months of orange & black obsession begins
on May Day, the first of May, 2013. To kick things off, I might suggest you
light a candle, pick a horror movie on Blu-ray or DVD and celebrate Walpurgis
Night, also known as Walpurgisnacht. Like All Hallow’s Eve traditionally marks
the end of Summer and the beginning of Winter in America, Walpurgis Night is a
festival celebrated in much of Central and Northern Europe that marks the end of
Winter and the beginning of Spring.

Named after an English missionary, Saint Walpurga,
who was granted sainthood on May 1, she became associated with the holiday of
May Day. The night before May Day, which is celebrated with singing, dancing and
great community bonfires, came to be known as Walpurgisnacht. It is exactly six
months from Halloween.

Like All Hallow’s Eve, there is an ancient pagan
connection to witchcraft and sorcery. In Germany, Walpurgis Night is believed to
be a night when witches gather and light huge bonfires in honor of the old gods,
and like our tradition of trick-or-treat, youngsters often play pranks on
neighbors under cover of darkness. In the Czech Republic, April 30 is known as
“Burning of the Witches Night,” and straw witches and broomsticks are burned in
massive bonfires. In Estonia, people dress like witches and indulge in large
street carnivals.

Aside from the connection to witchcraft, the
common theme in almost all celebrations of Walpurgis Night is that of the
community bonfire. Folks gather together in the still chilly night air to sing,
dance, drink and warm themselves by massive fires on hilltops all across the
land, symbolically burning away the last of Winter.

There are a couple of movies that involve the
themes of Walpurgis Night and May Day if you’re looking for something to watch
to get you through the night. “La Noche de Walpurgis” (1971), more commonly
known in America as “Werewolf Shadow” and “The Werewolf VS the Vampire Women” is
actually the fifth entry in a saga of twelve werewolf films featuring Spanish
actor, Paul Naschy, as the cursed Waldemar Daninsky. Only tangentially related
to Walpurgis Night, two college girls awaken an ancient vampire-witch queen
during the course of the night and Daninsky’s werewolf character attempts to
rescue them, but eventually succumbs to the curse of the Full Moon and gets into
a knock-down-drag-out battle with the vampire queen.

The best movie ever made about May Day and its
connection to witches covens and ceremonial bonfires is undoubtedly Robin
Hardy’s “The Wicker Man” (1973) starring Christopher Lee. In this cult classic,
a police sergeant (Edward Woodward) travels to a secluded island in search of a
missing girl only to be confronted by one of the most unusual cults ever
depicted in a horror film. A must see film for the uninitiated, the climax still
has the power to shock modern audiences.

Commence with your own Walpurgis Night bonfire or
start a new May Day tradition, but come back and celebrate with us regularly now
through October 31^st for more news, reviews, interviews and
adventures in the Louisville shadows.

Greetings, Fright Fans, this is The Phantom of the
Ville calling from regions beyond to the human year of 2013. This post will be
short and very sweet. Old school horror fans gather ’round. It’s time to start
the year off with a proper scream, and tomorrow night you can celebrate
Halloween in January with a proper sequel to Tobe Hooper’s “The Texas Chainsaw
Massacre” (1974). That’s right, the new Leatherface film from Lionsgate isn’t a
prequel or reboot of the franchise, but an actual sequel to Hooper’s original
film set some years after the events of the 1974 narrative.

Several original “Texas Chainsaw” cast members
have returned to either reprise their roles or play new characters, including
the original Leatherface, Gunnar Hansen, as “Boss Sawyer,” Bill “Chop-Top”
Moseley (“Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2”) as “Drayton Sawyer” and even the only
survivor of the original film, Marilyn Burns. Perhaps the most exciting cameo
for local horror film fans is the return of Louisvillian, John Dugan, in the
role of the corpse-like “Grandpa Sawyer,” a role he originated in “The Texas
Chainsaw Massacre” under heavy make-up nearly 40 years ago.

Lionsgate Films presents an advance screening of
“Texas Chainsaw 3D” this Thursday night 01/03/13 at 10PM at RAVE Preston Crossing 16
Theaters at 9700 Preston Crossing Blvd in Okolona. John Dugan will be there in
person to do a live introduction to the film. Advance tickets are available at
the RAVE Preston Crossing box-office or on-line at https://www.movietickets.com/purchase/perf_id/697154497/movieid/119299 . The Saw is Family!

Seasons Greetings, my friends, it’s The Phantom of the Ville calling out to you from the icy grip of winter to tell you about a film that will wrap its cold skeletal grip around your throat when it opens on January 18^th. As a fan of fantastic cinema who often wanders the Earth seeking the most imaginative, shocking and talented new voices in the horror genre, I occasionally get to see new films before they are unleashed upon the unsuspecting multiplexes. In this case, I was haunting the renowned Alamo Drafthouse Theater in Austin, TX as a guest of resident King of Movie Geeks, Harry Knowles, at his annual secret 24 hour film festival, Butt-Numb-A-Thon.

For those unfamiliar with BNAT, this year marks the fourteenth annual event programmed by Knowles who started the tradition as a way to celebrate his birthday watching movies at his favorite theater with 200 of the most obsessed film fans in the country. Invitation only, attendees must fill out a lengthy application that tests and gauges their love and knowledge of cinema. Thousands apply, but only a handful get the golden ticket. Knowles secretly programs 24 hours of both vintage films and modern Hollywood premieres that sometimes screen for the select audience months ahead of their scheduled release dates. Both behind-the-scenes and on-screen celebrity talent often accompany the screenings, and past guests have included Mel Gibson, Vin Diesel, Bo Svenson, Mc G, Zack Snyder, Eli Roth, Jackie Earl Haley and Seth Rogen. Elijah Wood (“The Lord of the Rings”) and Jamie King (“My Bloody Valentine 3D,” “Silent Night”) are regular guests who attend the whole festival as film fans. This year brought out both Peter Jackson, who presented “The Hobbit” in 48 frames-per-second 3D, and Guillermo del Toro (“Pan’s Labyrinth,” “Hellboy,” “Blade 2,” etc.), who produced the new ghostly horror film, “Mama,” with first time director, Andres Muschietti, who was also in attendance.

Guillermo del Toro is clearly a fan of the classical haunted house film. He has recently been attached to the reboot of Walt Disney’s “Haunted Mansion” franchise, and he owns actual props from the original Disneyland darkride. Besides his own ghostly films like “The Devil’s Backbone,” he has also served as executive producer on the haunted house flicks, “The Orphanage” (2007), and the re-make of “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” (2010).

“Mama” shares a lot of common haunted ground with traditional Gothic ghost stories of the past, including tragic and violent death, vengeful spirits and foggy cliffs overlooking crashing waves below. It certainly recalls films like “The Uninvited” (1944), “The Haunting” (1963) and “The Innocents” (1961), but it also fuses those classical elements with modern ghost stories as diverse as “The Ring” (1998), “Paranormal Activity” (2004) and “Insidious” (2010). It’s a blend of classic creeps and modern crawls that works its dark magic well enough that I’d imagine that many grown men will be calling for their own mamas before the end credits when it opens in late January.

“Mama” opens with an unfortunately horrific event that has sadly become too common in our society, as we learn through news reports that an office executive has just killed his boss and another co-worker in an office shooting. We pick up the story just as he frantically arrives home from the murders, and when confronted by his wife, kills her as well. He enters the room of his two young children, five year old Victoria and toddler Lilly, taking them from their beds and putting them in the backseat of his car as he drives away to nowhere. His desperate state of mind and icy road conditions leads to an accident that strands the trio in a remote, barren location. He forces the girls to trek through the frozen woods until they stumble across an abandoned cabin where he starts a fire and begins to contemplate the final fate of himself and his daughters. What he doesn’t know is that something else also lives in the cabin; something as mad and tortured as himself and it’s watching. Unlike this man, however, Mama was once a mother herself and she has been suffering the loss of her own child for over a hundred years and can’t let anyone harm these innocent children in her home.

The story then switches gears and we’re introduced to the man’s slacker music producer brother, Lucas, and his girlfriend and wannabe rock chick, Annabel, played by Jessica Chastain (“The Help,” “Zero Dark Thirty”). Lucas can’t just let his nieces be forgotten, and has spent five years organizing search efforts to find them. Finally, his efforts pay off and two of his hired men find the girls still living in the dilapidated cabin kept alive by cherries left by Mama. Raised for five years by an insane spirit, the girls are nearly completely feral. As the oldest child when left alone in the wilderness, Victoria can still speak English, but Lilly is almost completely wild and communicates only in grunts, and one of the only words she knows is “mama.” A sympathetic but mysteriously curious physician, Dr. Dreyfuss, helps reunite the girls with their uncle Lucas and his girlfriend and they ultimately come to live with them in the suburbs in the hopes of social rehabilitation. For Lucas, it’s a winning situation because he has spent all his money on the search efforts and failed music projects, and the state is willing to pay for a home for the family as long as Dr. Dreyfuss can study the girls’ progress. Annabel, however, has rock star ambitions and isn’t ready for the responsibility of dealing with any kids, let alone damaged and unstable ones, and she certainly doesn’t feel she’s suited for motherhood.

The new, estranged family doesn’t move into the new house alone, however. Mama has followed the girls from the cabin to live in their bedroom closet and Lilly, especially, wishes to continue her nightly secret visits with her otherworldly parental figure. As Dr. Dreyfuss investigates a series of unusual deaths connected to the cabin and its family history, a tale of insanity and tragedy emerges, while Mama begins to get jealous of and angry at the girl’s new caretakers.

Ultimately, left alone with the children and under the baleful eye of an insane spirit, Annabel must face the demons inside herself as well as the real ones inside her home if she wishes to save herself and the children from the deadly rampage of Mama. Brace yourself. This is gonna hurt!

First time director, Andres Muschietti, manages to pull off at least as many jump scares as any “Paranormal Activity” movie, and at least one scene of nightmarish sudden terror caused chills to crawl up my spine and the hairs to stand up on my neck. Muschietii keeps Mama just off screen or lurking in the corners of the frame for most of the film’s running time, allowing the audience’s imagination to fill in the visceral gaps. This is a PG-13 rated film, but it feels much harder than the slickly produced, teen oriented PG-13 horror that the major studios grind out with regularity.

What sets this film apart from the “Final Destination” films and haunted/demonic possession films that seem to hit the multiplex every three months is the unique nature of its concept and the richness of the characters. While guaranteeing the audience’s emotional connect to the children in peril is a fairly easy task, Muschietti and del Toro create a tapestry in which all of the major characters are worthy of sympathy in spite of their flaws. This not only includes Lucas and Annabel, but ultimately Mama herself. She is certainly mad, twisted and murderous, but not necessarily evil.

The story’s climax indeed requires that the audience at least understand Mama’s condition either through a mother’s misunderstood and irrational love or just through horrified pity. This requires “the monster” to finally come out of the shadows and take center stage, and it’s at this point that some will feel the film literally loses its footing.

Ghost stories usually operate best with a “less is more” philosophy, and it’s what you don’t see that makes a greater psychological impact than what you do see. Robert Wise’s “The Haunting” proves this theory quite well while Jan de Bont’s 1999 remake of the same story fails utterly by spending millions of dollars on special effects to show the audience all the ghosts that money can buy to the complete loss of anything even remotely scary. Rare exceptions like “Poltergeist” (1982) allowed ILM to create a whizbang spook house ride that actually worked as a thriller, but if you aren’t Steven Spielberg or a modern master of popcorn cinema, you’re probably best taking the low road.

Moving Mama to center stage at the climax is a risky move, but I think it mostly works both because her character is so strong and because the creature effects are so well designed. Her visage is twisted and monstrous, but there is a sense of lost humanity in her eyes and labored movements. However, she is a completely computer generated creation and the more she’s on screen in sharp focus, the more that becomes apparent. This very same issue also plagued the Guillermo del Toro produced “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” at that film’s climax, somewhat deflating an otherwise excellent scare flick, but so much good will had been generated by the filmmakers by this point in “Mama” that I was willing let the admittedly great creature design work its magic for me. There were others in the same screening that felt the overzealous use of CGI at the climax dulled the edge of an otherwise sharp thriller.

Even if you end up in agreement with those clearly deluded folks, there’s a good chance that “Mama” will still not only frighten you while you’re in the theater, but will follow you home to torment your psyche hours and even days later. I think it stands a good chance of becoming the breakout horror film of the year. The icy cold of Louisville in January will be the perfect time and place to test your fragile psyche and jangled nerves at the multiplex with the warm embrace of “Mama.” Happy Holidays.

12►

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, all my little face paint Frankensteins and drugstore Draculas, the time is finally here for our twilight procession into the cold October 31^st night in search of haunted yards, Jack-O-Lantern lit front porches and Styrofoam cemeteries. There are only a few short hours after dusk to fill your treat bags and plastic pumpkins with sweet loot, so you’ve got to have a game plan. There aren’t as many neighborhoods that truly indulge in Halloween night festivities as there were when I was a kid, and four years of a tough economy has reduced the number of participating houses even further.

Indeed, a lot has changed over the last 30 years with regards to the American tradition of Halloween. Some of it good, some of it not so good. Halloween has gotten a lot bigger in scope, but the significance of All Hallow’s Eve has shrunk to almost a footnote. When I was a wee Phantom of the Ville, the thirty days before Halloween were just a slow burn build up for the main event which started about 6PM on October 31^st, rain or shine. Now Halloween starts about the second week of September when the local haunted houses start to open and the big box stores start putting out their seasonal candy and decorations. The Halloween party builds throughout the first three weeks of October until it finally coasts quietly to a stop before the actual day even arrives! I would often get the Post-Halloween Blues the morning after all the excitement was over, but now that same feeling hits me almost a week before Halloween. Maybe it has become too much of good thing; too many haunted houses, scary movies and pumpkin flavored food and beverages leads me to an early Halloween hangover. But I still say Halloween night, unless it happens to fall on a Friday or Saturday, has gotten too quiet!

The most recent news reports say that even the hootenanny on Hillcrest Avenue, which has become a grassroots neighborhood tradition, will be scaled down this year. Fewer houses between Brownsborro Road and Frankfort Avenue are apparently participating this year and crowds are expected to be between 1,500 and 2,000, down from the over 2,000 Trick-or-Treaters in the shoulder-to-shoulder madness of last year. I took a stroll down Hillcrest Avenue a week and a half ago, however, and the displays already built were nearly as elaborate as usual.

What I love most about the Hillcrest Halloween tradition is that it isn’t a civic event or a for profit endeavor. Quite the opposite, some of the participants spend upwards of $1,000 on candy alone. It’s not even an officially planned or publicly announced party. It’s something that grew organically by the neighbors of those two blocks out of the love of Halloween. Many of the home owners were ex-Trick-or-Treaters themselves who wanted to keep the neighborhood tradition alive. This year, participants are asking little ghosts and goblins to come early, as the police will clear the streets starting at precisely 8:45PM. I brought my camera with me to give you a preview of the early stages of what you can expect to see on Halloween night, but these photos just can’t do justice to seeing the neighborhood lit up, animated with stunt gags & props, spooky music pumping through sound systems and creepy characters wandering the streets. It truly is something to see.

Some of the themed yards I encountered included a Wizard of Oz yard complete with Munchkin village, a whole yard dedicated to “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” with animated scenes, a Ghouly Garden with a bone-yard, a scary Tiki themed yard, a torture chamber full of “forgotten prisoners,” a clown yard, an Area 51 with aliens and a flying saucer, Hillcrest Cemetery and a crazy skeleton wedding scene including Bridezilla and the corpse of the King, Elvis Presley, himself!

Wherever you choose to Trick-or-Treat or spend your Halloween night, The Phantom of the Ville sends you his best orange-and-black wishes for wonderful, memorable nightmares to look back on for many years to come. By the way, on November 1^st, you can all start referring to me as The Christmas Spirit of the Ville! I hope to see you all again next year.

“Jaws” was the first PG rated movie I was able to talk my parents into taking me to see in theaters, and Steven Spielberg’s modern horror adventure masterpiece made an irreversible mark on me. I’ve been chasing the thrill that “Jaws” injected into my veins ever since. I collected shark books, t-shirts and even shark pencil erasers and sought out every “Jaws” knock-off that Hollywood could chew up and spit out from William Girdler’s “Grizzly” (1976) to “Tentacles” (1977) to “Great White” (1981), aka “The Last Shark,” which Universal Studios successfully sued for copyright infringement. It has never seen an official home video release in the United States to this day, but I saw it three times in the theater!  One of things most of these “Jaws” wannabes have in common, including “Jaws 2,” “Jaws 3” and “Jaws the Revenge,” is that they were usually pretty disappointing. Even so, my hunger for Great White sharks on celluloid would not be satisfied.

That is until the SyFy Channel cured my urge to ever see a “Jaws” knock-off ever again. The last shark movie I saw with a budget worthy of a theatrical release was Renny Harlin’s “Deep Blue Sea” (1999), and even though Harlin’s sharks were mostly computer generated, I had a lot of fun with his modern “Jaws” homage. Then “Mega Shark,” “Shark Attack,” “Super Shark,” “Shark Night,” “Mega Shark VS Giant Octopus,” “Mega Shark VS Crocosaurus” and “Jersey Shore Shark Attack” sucked every last drop of life out the shark movie sub-genre while the SyFy Channel’s intentionally awful CGI special effects became the new normal for the entire nature-runs-amok genre.

If you were to see the DVD box for “Bait” (2012) sitting on the video store shelf, you couldn’t be blamed for assuming that this little shark flick was just another SyFy Channel piece of crap, but surprisingly this isn’t the case here. This film is actually an Australian independent film with a decent budget, a capable cast and a novel concept. Really? Yeah, really.

The story follows the lives of a group of characters who are all brought together in a supermarket near a beach when, during an armed robbery, an earthquake causes a tsunami that floods the entire shopping center, trapping good guys and bad guys alike inside with two hungry Great White sharks! The main character, played by Xavier Samuel (“The Twilight Saga: Eclipse”), is still suffering from the loss of his best friend to a shark attack a year previous which also caused a rift in the relationship he had with his fiance who was his best friend’s sister. The crisis causes them to re-examine their broken relationship while fending off sharks and robbers. One of the robbers, played by Julian McMahon (who you might remember as Doctor Doom in the “Fantastic Four” movies), is only doing this job to help get his son out of debut with a criminal organization. He’s a hardened badass, but one with an “honor among thieves” philosophy. His partner, on the other hand, is a total psycho. There’s a cop stuck in there too, so the tensions are high even though everyone eventually realizes they need to work together to survive.

The fun begins when everyone is stuck atop the store’s shelves on the upper level, while other characters are stuck in the lower parking lot, as the sharks swim in the aisles waiting for someone to fall into the water. Some of the poor folks in their cars in the parking lot are like fish in a fishbowl watching the sharks swim around their windows looking for a way in. Death is all around: sharks, electricity and sparking wires, the threat of drowning and armed psychopaths. Can love prevail? I can’t tell you that you’ll really care, but I can at least promise you a fun ride, a fair amount of gore and two 12 foot Great White sharks that don’t look like cartoons programmed by 8 year olds.

It’s all played straight, not for lowbrow camp like SyFy Channel shark movies, and “Bait” delivers a fair amount of suspense, drama and toothy horror. If you’re a reformed shark movie addict, like me, this one might actually cause you to fall back off the wagon. The sets are big and convincing and the water flooding into them is real and not computer generated. Some fun ideas are occasionally executed, like the “shark proof” diving suit constructed by the survivors out of wire store racks and everyday grocery supplies. While it’s still a long way from the high water mark set by “Jaws” in the Summer of 1975, “Bait” is oceans above most of the other copycats swimming the shallow waters on the SyFy Channel.

- The Phantom of the Ville

I love this town! I’ve been haunting it for a long, long time. Its city streets, neighborhoods and backyards are in my blood, and as Dracula is so fond of saying, “The blood is the life.” It’s up to all of us to “Keep Louisville Weird” in our own way. I thank all of you who’ve read and supported the Louisville Halloween website this season, as well as my own little contribution as The Phantom of the Ville, and I encourage you to continue to support all the local businesses that make this city unique. This Saturday, October 27^th, starting at Noon and lasting until every business in the Highlands area on Bardstown Road and Baxter Avenue closes, you can Trick-or-Treat  and find some great deals at shops and restaurants all along the route. Halloween costumes are encouraged and kids can get candy at all the participating locations. All those businesses officially taking part are listed athttp://www.thehighlandsoflouisville.com/BardstownBound.php .

Brought to you by the Highland Commerce Guild, this event is a great opportunity for both kids to go Trick-or-Treating in a safe and community sponsored celebration of Halloween and a chance for you to give back to the community by supporting the local businesses along the way. Eat lunch or dinner at any one of the dozens of local restaurants like the Bristol or Mark’s Feed Store. Order a local pizza at Bearno’s, BoomBozz, Impellizerri’s or Wick’s. Get some hot apple cider or a pumpkin latte at Heine Brothers Coffee.

Before I shuffled off the mortal coil, I spent a number of years living and working in the Highlands area, so I’m in a unique position to recommend a few stops that Halloween fans should check out when in the area on Saturday.

If you’re looking to rent or buy a scary movie to watch on Halloween night, I recommend Wild & Woolly Video at 1021 Bardstown Road, which just celebrated its 15^th Anniversary in the Ville with a Zombie Hike in the Jefferson Memorial Forest. The independent video store, which has one of the best Horror selections of any video store in the country, has hosted horror celebrity signings with such stars as Ken Foree (“Dawn of the Dead,” “Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw III”), Caroline Munro (“Maniac,” “Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter,” “Dracula A.D. 1972”), George Romero (director of the entire “Night of the Living Dead” series) and Rudy Ray Moore (“Petey Wheatstraw,” “Dolemite”). They’ve also hosted concerts with spooky music legends like Roky Erickson (“I Walked with a Zombie,” “Stand for the Fire Demon,” “Creature with the Atom Brain”). They always stock up on classic and cult horror DVDS in anticipation of Halloween.

WHY Louisville at 1583 Bardstown Road, a uniquely specific Louisville themed gift shop, always puts up a great Halloween display. Each year they design and sell a new local Halloween t-shirt created by a different local artist. Past years have seen a Louisville werewolf designed by Adrian Wright and a Frankenstein shirt that says, “Louisville, Gooood.” This year, WHY Louisville celebrates the local urban legend of The Pope Lick Monster with a “Goatman Lives” t-shirt (SEE PHOTO) designed by Carrie Neumayer.

Ultra-Pop at 1414 Bardstown Road is a great place to find imported vinyl monster toys and art design books. The owner is a huge fan of both classic horror and Japanese giant monster flicks, and you’ll usually find Godzilla, Ultraman and their friends playing on the big screen TV in the back. Ultra-Pop recently hosted a “Things That Go Bump in the Night” Art Show with monster and horror artwork all by local artists, and most of that artwork will likely still be on display until Halloween before they host another horror related event with the “Amigos de los Muertos” book release party on the Day of the Dead, November 2^nd.

If after a long day of shopping and Trick-or-Treating, you’d like to catch a classic horror movie in a theater, head to Baxter Avenue Filmworks at 1250 Bardstown Road on the backside of the MidCity Mall. Midnights at the Baxter presents “The Tingler” (1959) with Vincent Price at Midnight, October 27^th. This classic horror film was directed by gimmick master, William Castle, who actually rigged some theater seats to deliver mild electric shocks during the sequence when the Tingler gets loose in the movie theater during its original theatrical run. Expect some type of theatrical shenanigans from Midnight programmer, Beau Kaelin, and his tricky crew.

Treat yourself and your kids to Bardstown Bound Boofest in the Highlands on Saturday, October 27th! Happy Halloween!

Drunk and Sailor Pirate Show – 8:30 PM
Our two favorite pirates return for a night of debauchery, singing your favorite pirate songs.

Totally Boss!: 80s Acoustic Explosion – 10 PM
Music icons Chris Gadansky (Emily’s Garden) and John Scheker (LA’s The Pills) have joined forces to create the one thing the world was missing: a
kick-rear band devoted to all the best (and awesomely worst) songs of the 80s. This show will be TOTALLY BOSS.

Fleur de Lez Dance Party – 11 PM
The theatre turns into a late night dance fest. What???

Costume Contest – 12 AM
Yes, Bard Card prizes. Plus it will invariably lead to karaoke. Of course.

Saturday festivities include a Battle of the Bands by hellawicked Productions in addition to the food trucks.

Admission is free with a canned good donation to Southwest Ministries. Additionally a percentage of food sales will be donated to the Metro Parks Foundation.

Happy Halloween, my friends, it’s The Phantom of the Ville here, reveling in the colors of the Midwestern Autumn foliage during this beautiful last week before our favorite holiday. In the eccentric circles of horror fans, there is a tribal ritual of identification that is customary when socializing with other horror fans not unlike the similar practice of music geeks declaring themselves either a Beatles or an Elvis fan. You can like both of them, but your tastes, lifestyle and identity must loyally align with one or the other. In the horror community (particularly when discussing 80′s horror), you’re either a Jason, Freddy or Michael kind of fan. I’ve always been a Michael Myers kind of guy.

Yesterday I spoke with Fangoria writer and author of the upcoming coffee table book, “Halloween: The Complete Authorized History,” Justin Beahm, about his supervising role in new HD, 5.1 stereo screenings of John Carpenter’s “Halloween” as well as his working relationship with series producer, Malek Akkad, about the plans for bringing Michael back to theaters for the 35^th Anniversary of the original film next Halloween. “This is a whole new HD transfer,” says Beahm, “not the same transfer you’ll see on the Blu-ray, and I think fans will notice a whole new level of detail and see things they’ve never noticed before.” The screenings he is supervising with Screen Vision and Trancas International Films will be playing on over 500 screens across the country, and can be seen at three different theaters here in Louisville. Here are the participating theaters and screening times available for purchase:

October 30^th at STONYBROOK RAVE CINEMAS at 2745 S. Hurstbourne at 7:30PM

October 25^th and October 30^th at CINEMARK TINSELTOWN at 4400 Towne Center Drive on Thursday, October 25^th at 7PM, 9:30PM and 12:01AM and on Tuesday, October 30^th at 7PM

October 30^th at RAVE PRESTON CROSSINGS 16 at 9700 Preston Crossing Blvd. at 7:30PM

You’ll also be treated to the exclusive short film, “You Can’t Kill the Boogeyman: 35 Years of Halloween,” also produced by Justin Beahm, which takes a look at how Michael Myers has infiltrated the mainstream Popular Culture and become a cultural icon over the last 35 years.

Growing up in perhaps the most Midwestern of all Midwestern states, Iowa, Beahm was born with the Heartland of America beating in his chest. Its hills, valleys and vast farmlands pump Harvest blood through his veins. “My earliest memories are of the Fall season, the Halloween parties in elementary school and all all the festivities and decorations of Halloween,” he says. “I think the first movie I ever loved was James Whale’s “Frankenstein” with Boris Karloff.”

Beahm and I both share a common gateway to John Carpenter’s original “Halloween.” Both of us were just a year or two too young to see the film during its original theatrical debut, but we were both frightened by and curious enough about the TV trailer to seek out the paperback novelization by Curtis Richards who expanded the mythology set forth in the film to include a prologue set in Celtic Ireland detailing an ancient murder and a curse placed upon the descendants of the Myers family.

Beahm’s obsession with the “Halloween” franchise has ultimately led to his work on “Halloween: The Complete Authorized History,” which is a coffee table sized tome similar to the “Camp Crystal Lake Memories” book by Peter Bracke from 2006. Scheduled for release to coincide with the 35^th Anniversary of the original film in the Fall of 2013, the book will feature interviews with nearly every living person ever involved with the entire “Halloween” franchise. “I’m giving equal care and space to every film in the franchise from the original through Rob Zombie’s films,” says Beahm. “I’ve spoken to thousands of “Halloween” fans and every film in the series in somebody’s favorite sequel. That includes “Halloween III,” which was intended to spin the franchise off into different directions.” The third, infamous entry in the series was John Carpenter’s attempt to kill Michael Myers once and for all by introducing a new series of films which would debut in theaters each October with the only requirement being that the stories had to take place during the Halloween holiday. Evil would not die, however, and disappointed fans demanded the return of Michael Myers in the next franchise entry.

Even though the 35^th Anniversary of “Halloween” isn’t until next year, Beahm says fans should rejoice in all the recent activity in Michael Myers related screenings, collectibles and Blu-ray and DVD releases. “Bob Weinstein originally announced last year that we’d have “Halloween 3D” in theaters this season, but for a number of different reasons, that didn’t happen. I thought we should offer something to the fans to see in theaters as a replacement this year, and that’s why I worked to make this new HD, 5.1 stereo release of the original happen.”

“It’s an exciting time,” says Beahm. “There are new Blu-ray and DVD transfers of “Halloween II,” “Halloween III,” “Halloween IV” and “Halloween V” on store shelves now. There are new Trick-or-Treat Studios Michael Myers masks on novelty store shelves at this moment. You can get the new poster for the re-release for $17.99 at the official series website at http://halloweenmovies.com/, and we’re currently secretly plotting the next franchise film for a hopeful 2013 release.”

It was time for me to squeeze poor Justin for all the top secret information about the direction of the “Halloween” franchise that I could muster. Would the next film be in 3D as originally announced? Would it follow Rob Zombie’s story thread or would it completely reboot the series again? “All options are still on the table. A number of different story-lines are still under consideration,” admits Beahm. “These days films can be shot, edited and ready for theaters fairly quickly. The plan is still to have a new “Halloween” film in theaters by October of 2013 as a 35^th Anniversary tribute film. Everyone just wants to make sure we get the story right, and that the fans will be pleased with the end product.”

If you’d like the opportunity to squeeze Justin Beahm for additional information about his book or the next “Halloween” franchise film, he’ll have a booth at the HorrorHound Weekend in Indianapolis on November 16^th through November 18^th celebrating the biggest “Halloween” gathering ever assembled, featuring the FIRST and ONLY horror convention appearance by Jamie Lee Curtis!

You can also meet the original Michael Myers (as well as prolific screenwriter and director), Nick Castle, and “Halloween III” director, and fellow Kentuckian, Tommy Lee Wallace. Other actors who’ve worn the white mask include Dick Warlock (“Halloween II”) and Brad Loree (“Halloween: H2O” and “Halloween: Resurrection”). Other “Halloween” franchise stars appearing include Charles Cyphers (Sheriff Brackett in “Halloween”), Lance Guest and Leo Rossi (ambulance drivers in “Halloween II”), Brian Andrews (little Tommy Doyle in “Halloween”), Tom Atkins (heroic, but probably alcoholic, Dr. Dan Challis in “Halloween III: Season of the Witch”) and Gloria Gifford and Tawny Moyer (nurses in “Halloween II”). Rounding out the guest list are John Carpenter’s ex-wife and frequent leading lady, Adrienne Barbeau (“The Fog,” “Escape from New York”), Jamie Lee Curtis’ “Terror Train” co-star, Timothy Webber, and Curtis’ “Prom Night” co-star, Michael Tough. More guests are still being added.

It’s a great season to be a fan of “The Night He Came Home.” Evil is coming back to your own suburban neighborhoods, Blu-ray & DVD players and multiplexes this year. Indeed, it was the Boogeyman, and he lives still.

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The wait is finally over for millions of kids across America. The prime Trick-or-Treating season is at hand! When I was still a wee Phantom, we had to endure the long 30 days of October, watching each twilight as the shadows grew longer and longer and the dusk came earlier and earlier, until the night of All Hallow’s Eve finally arrived to indulge in two or three hours of neighborhood candy plundering. Thanks to the Louisville Zoo at 1100 Trevilian Way, today’s little ghosts and goblins can get a much earlier start on their Trick-or-Treating adventures, and “adventure” is exactly the right word to describe the huge experience waiting for them on a nighttime trek through the entire Zoo.

It’s The Phantom of the Ville here, reporting in with a preview of the wild and woolly, family oriented Halloween hootenanny taking place over the next two weekends at the Louisville Zoo. The party will be in full swing tonight, Friday October 19^th through Sunday October 21^st, and next weekend from Thursday night October 25^th through Sunday October 28^th. You can enter the Zoo anytime from 5PM until 8:30PM. Regular Admission is $8, but discount tickets are available at local Meijer Stores for $6.50. This year the Zoo is also offering a special Adventure Ticket for $13 that includes one ride on the Haunted Carousel and one ticket to “Dora and Diego’s 4-D Adventure” at the 4-D Theater. For Zoo Members, the Regular Admission price is $4 and the Adventure Ticket is $9. Parking in the Zoo lot is $5, but there is FREE parking available at the Cyril Allgeier Community Center at 4101 Cadillac Court with FREE shuttle service back and forth.

This is an extremely popular Louisville Halloween event. I was there on Thursday night, October 19^th, and the parking lot was nearly full when I arrived at 6:30PM. I passed the Zoo’s entryway to find the whole park buzzing with excitement. My first stop was the display of hundreds of lighted pumpkins carved with images of every Pop Culture subject imaginable from Rock & Roll icons to classic monsters to Disney characters. My second stop was at the feet of the Great Pumpkin himself. A giant, talking pumpkin greets kids as they arrive in costume before they set off on their Trick-or-Treat adventure. Then it was off to the Trick-or-Treat path which winds its way all the way through the Zoo through 15 different themed areas, each with its own treat station.

First you pass through the doorway of a classic style haunted house and find yourself in Fairy Tale Land filled with storybook characters, highlighted by a giant enchanted castle with thrones fit for little princes and princesses. Next you’ll pass a Western Town inhabited by the “Toy Story” characters before arriving at Hogwarts where you’ll meet the characters from the “Harry Potter” series. In perhaps my favorite Louisville Zoo Halloween tradition, next you’ll be given the chance to encounter the Headless Horseman from Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Since the Zoo trains are still closed, they’ve opened up the Gorilla Trail as a great winding path to find the Headless Horseman, and some really wonderful actors will perform as storytellers, taking guests through the classic Halloween tale before meeting the headless specter.

Next you’ll enter Classic Video Game Land, decorated with scenes from Super Mario Bros., Pac Man, Donkey Kong and a really cool Tetris display incorporated into the treat booth! Then your sweet tooth will be indulged in Candy Land as giant lollipops and bags of popcorn surround you. Then every dinosaur loving kid will encounter a couple of giant inflatable prehistoric animals in Dino Land. The Zoo’s newest, multi-million dollar Arctic exhibit, Glacier Run, is where you’ll find all the classic monsters of the silver screen. Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love the classic Universal Monsters, and I was as ecstatic as all the children around me to see Dracula, Frankenstein, the Bride of Frankenstein, the Wolf Man and the Mummy represented in this amazing attraction.

The second leg of this amazing journey will take kids and kids at heart through a huge disco dance party area down into the rabbit hole and into the world of Alice in Wonderland presented by Louisville’s own Halloween headquarters, Caufields Novelty Store! Then it’s down under the sea to visit with Disney’s “Little Mermaid,” but watch out for the great white shark while you’re down there. Follow the Yellow Brick Road to Emerald City for a great photo opportunity with Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion from “The Wizard of Oz.” Then Spider-man towers above the City of Superheroes as you enter The Islands. Into the home stretch, the big finale will be an encounter with the rascals, scoundrels, villains and knaves from “Pirates of the Caribbean,” including a pirate ship docked by the Zoo’s lake. I enjoyed all the themed music pumped into each scene along the trail and was especially pleased to hear “A Whale of a Tale” from one of my favorite fantasy films, Disney’s “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” in the pirate themed climax.

Trick-or-Treat adventures don’t get much more epic than the one the Louisville Zoo has in store for you and your kids this Halloween at The World’s Largest Halloween Party. Don’t miss this adventure, and stay tuned as I’ll be back soon with more Halloween and Trick-or-Treating news in the days ahead.

Making Candy for 121 Years, Schimpff’s Confectionery in Jeffersonville is Your Local Trick-or-Treat Stop for the Most Unique Handmade Halloween Candy in the Kentuckiana Area.

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Good Evening, Trick-or-Treaters young and old, it’s The Phantom of the Ville reporting in from the Candy Museum in the back of Schimpff’s Confectionery at 347 Spring Street in Jeffersonville, IN. The museum here is like a time machine that transports visitors back through the history of the candy business, including a section devoted to vintage Halloween candy (SEE PHOTOS). You can see the World’s Largest Gummi Bear amid the region’s best collection of vintage candy containers and advertising memorabilia. It’s not just the museum that’s full of nostalgia, the 1950′s soda fountain and vintage steel ice cream equipment can serve up the best pumpkin milkshakes in town. You can also watch Schimpff’s candy being made on turn-of-the-century equipment during frequent candy making demonstrations.

During my visit, Warren and Jill Schimpff were making these AMAZING Red Hot Devil suckers (SEE PHOTO) using one of Schimpff’s most famous recipes for Cinnamon Red Hots. These Red Devil lollipops are made EXCLUSIVELY for the Jeffersonville High School Red Devils girl’s basketball team and are sold ONLY by the cheerleading squad at Jeffersonville girl’s  basketball games. I can’t think of a better reason to attend a Friday night girl’s basketball game this Fall!

A family owned and operated business for 121 years, Schimpff’s in Jeffersonville was started by Gustav Schimpff, Sr. on April 11, 1891 and has been passed down through four generations of the family, but they actually started making candy on Preston Street in Louisville in the 1850′s. Twelve years ago, Warren and Jill took over ownership of the business which has since been featured on the Food Network, Paula Deen’s show and the History Channel’s “Modern Marvels,” the episode of which can be purchased on DVD at the shop. They actually live upstairs over the shop!

Originally from the Chicago area, Warren was a chemist who nows applies his knowledge of chemistry to making candy and Jill was a college English teacher who now applies those skills to giving history lessons and tours to visitors on a daily basis. “My favorite Halloween treat as a child would have to be homemade caramel apples,” says Jill Schimpff. “I always sought out the houses giving those away on Halloween. Warren has an interesting theory on Trick-or-Treating,” she continues. “He grew up on the streets of Chicago and went Trick-or-Treating in large groups of Chicago neighborhood kids. One Halloween, Warren suggested they all go to the rich neighborhoods to get candy, and one kid with a little more experience said that was a terrible idea! He said, “Poor people give out much better candy! Rich people got rich by not giving away anything!”

If you’re looking for the best Halloween candy around for your own little Trick-orTreaters, you won’t find it at the big box stores, but Jill admits that most folks buy their big load of give-away candy there. In fact, Halloween is actually only Schimpff’s fourth biggest sales holiday. Christmas is their biggest season, with around seven busy weeks of brisk sales followed by Easter which is their second busiest week, but their single biggest day every year is Valentine’s Day, when customers are looking for something really unique for that special someone.

If it’s something unique you’re looking for, check out some of the pictures I took of the Halloween candy on display at Schimpff’s. You’ll find white chocolate bones, bats, jack-o-lanterns, ghosts, rats (!), haunted houses and bloody hands as well as handmade candy corn, pumpkin face taffy and Peanut Butter Kisses wrapped in orange and black paper. Schimpff’s is also famous for it’s caramel-covered marshmellows, known as Modjeskas, and it’s Hard Fish Candy. Don’t forget their most famous candy, Cinnamon Red Hots, made from the ingredients and instructions found in Gus Schimpff’s hand-written recipe book from the 1880′s. It’s this very recipe used in the Cinnamon Red Devil Suckers sold exclusively at Jeffersonville High School girl’s basketball games!

Schimpff’s Confectionery is open Monday through Friday from 10AM until 5PM, during which lunch is served at the Deli from 11AM until 3PM. They’re also open on Saturday from 10AM until 3PM, with lunch served between 11AM and 2PM. They are closed on Sunday. Tours can be booked in advance at (812)283-8367. Although there is no set production schedule, as they make candy when needed, you can always call in advance to see if candy is being made when you plan your visit.

 Universal Studios legacy of classic monster movies dates back to the silent film era with “The Phantom of the Opera” in 1925 and encompasses “Frankenstein” (1931), “Dracula” (1931), “The Mummy” (1932), “The Creature from the Black Lagoon” (1954) and, of course, “Werewolf of London” (1935) and “The Wolf Man” (1941). The studio’s rogues gallery of monsters helped establish them financially in the early years and has served them well over the last 100 years. Modern remakes of the classic monster films have varied wildly in both quality and at the box-office from hits like Francis Ford Coppola’s “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1992) and “The Mummy” (1999) franchise to creative disasters and box-office flops like Kenneth Bragnah’s ambitious but critically flawed “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” (1994), Stephen Sommers’ bloated, CGI video game-styled abortion, “Van Helsing” (2004) and Joe Johnston’s remake of “The Wolfman” (2010).

The project that eventually became, “Werewolf: The Beast Among Us,” began life as a script intended to be the sequel to “The Wolfman” starring Benicio Del Toro and Anthony Hopkins, but after a tepid box-office and lukewarm critical response to the theatrical release of that werewolf thriller, the script was retooled into what was to be a complete reboot of the “Wolf Man” franchise. Budgetary concerns arose and the whole project was relegated to the direct-to-DVD & Netflix purgatory bin. Thus, “Werewolf: The Beast Among Us” has dropped into our Halloween baskets just in time for All Hallow’s Eve. Is it worth your time? Well, that depends upon what your expectations are. Let’s break it down into the Good and the Bad, shall we?

The Good:

The location cinematography: Shot in and around Eastern Europe and Romania, “Werewolf: The Beast Among Us” looks pretty good for a low budget werewolf flick. The misty forests, ancient castles and old world architecture give this period piece thriller a cinematic boost and instant atmosphere not unlike the British Hammer Horror films of the late 1950′s and 60′s.

The cast: Most of the cast is pretty decent here, and some needed class is given by slumming respected character actor Stephen Rea (“The Crying Game,” “V for Vendetta”) in a supporting role.

The script: Although a little convoluted at times, the script does keep you guessing about the identity of the titular werewolf and the possibility of any other classic monster appearances, and I’ll personally give the screenwriters credit for referencing the concept of the Wurdulak (even if only hardcore monster fans even know what that means!).

The Bad:

The special effects: If you watch the extras included on the disc, you’ll hear a lot of lip service paid to honoring the legacy of the classic Universal Monsters. Well, any fan of those black-and-white chillers knows that a lot of the credit for the iconic monsters featured in those films goes to make-up artist, Jack Pierce. Most of what was actually good about the 2010 “Wolfman” can be credited to Rick Baker’s practical werewolf make-up design. If you watch the bonus features about the beast itself, you’ll see that they actually did use a practical werewolf suit during principal photography (which looks a lot like the werewolves in the “Underworld” franchise), but 95% of the creature’s final screentime is computer generated. The CGI is a step above the average SyFy Channel junk, but several steps below what would be considered good enough for a theatrical film.

The star of the film: Although most of the cast is fine, the worst actor of the lot is given the starring role. Ed Quinn plays the central werewolf hunter of the movie, and sometimes he seems to be completely out of his element. Maybe it’s because he’s the only cast member without a British (or some other) accent. I’m not even exactly sure where the movie is supposed to take place. The film never says. It might be Colonial America, which would make his country accented rifleman most appropriate, but would make almost everyone else seem out of place.

The pace: Due to the budgetary restraints of its direct-to-DVD origins, big action set pieces are pretty much out of the question. So be prepared for a lot of talky sequences during the first hour of the film, peppered with brief bursts of action and horror, as the film saves its pennies for a small scale monster bash at the climax.

The end results are mixed at best. Werewolf fanatics looking for a fix this Halloween could do worse, but classic Universal Monster fans will probably feel this mostly digital beast fails to live up to the studio’s legacy of monster classics. I was mildly entertained by this tale of werewolf hunters hired to protect a village from the savage attacks of a mythical beast, but my expectations were low enough for me to overlook a lot of what is clearly lacking and just appreciate having a new Universal werewolf flick that revels in full moons, gypsy curses, monster bashes and period costumes. Enter at your own risk.

-The Phantom of the Ville