Leave It To Cleaver

 photo cleaversopranos_zps24bc81ba.jpgIf you were ever yearning for a direct to DVD mafia slasher movie within an HBO show, Cleaver is the way to go, especially because it might be the only one to fit that very specific category. As a huge fan of The Sopranos and a horror fanatic, I was amused when the two worlds began to merge in the 6th season.

 
Christopher Moltisanti wrote the film’s story which seems to mirror his own life. His ideas for the film were inspired by his tensions with his mob contemporaries and the possibility of an affair between his fiance Adriana and his boss Tony Soprano.
 
The premise of Cleaver revolves around a mafia killer who gets betrayed by his people and they kill him and cut him into pieces that they leave all over the city. The body parts come back together (possibly supernaturally) and he comes back to life to exact revenge on those who f*cked him over. Every slasher needs a memorable killer and in Cleaver it was The Butcher, who was aptly named for a movie originally titled Pork Store Killer. Sounds like an upcoming Asylum picture.
 
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWZehc-K2O4]

Described in the show as “SAW meets Godfather II” or “The Ring Meets The Godfather,” the mob/slasher movie eventually got it’s own mockumentary which is included in The Sopranos complete series DVD set and posted above thanks to YouTube user bufflo. There’s also a cult following for the film which spawned memorabilia like t-shirts and mugs.
 
Horror fans not acquainted with The Sopranos would appreciate it because it never held back from showing explicit violence and gore. Some scenes in the series were pretty horrific at times, especially when Christopher’s movie project was getting the spotlight. After the series ended there were tons of rumors floating around about a Sopranos movie, but instead, a real Cleaver movie would’ve reached beyond just viewers of the show and into the massive horror audience all over the world. Are you reading this Michael Imperioli?

Insidious II’s Patrick Wilson Discusses NJ

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Patrick Wilson stars in both Insidious films as well as The Conjuring, and I enjoyed his performance in all of them. For some reason feedback on his performances seem to be mixed and I can’t seem to understand why. To me, he comes off as a very regular, likable guy and in terms of horror films that’s necessary in order for the audience to relate to characters. Plus, he lives in New Jersey so don’t knock him!

November 2009’s Garden State Playmate, Chelsea Handler, had Patrick Wilson on the show recently to promote The Conjuring and they had a funny conversation about him taking up residence in New Jersey.

CHELSEA: “I heard that you moved voluntarily to the state of New Jersey…”
PATRICK WILSON: “I did!”
CHELSEA HANDLER: “I’m from New Jersey and people don’t move there, they move out!”

Chelsea asked Wilson why he would you do such a thing and he went on to explain that he basically wanted a backyard. He had a tough time selling his wife on the idea though, since she’s a New Yorker, and she didn’t even want to step foot in Jersey, but eventually, they found a place that they both liked and he really “digs” living here. As if starring in WatchmenThe  Conjuring, AND the Insidious films wasn’t enough, Patrick Wilson’s words about The Garden State boosted his position on the cool list even more.

An Insidious Double Feature

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On Thursday I went to the Red Door Double Feature of Insidious and Insidious Chapter 2. I have to say, it was a cool experience and I haven’t had such a blast watching a couple of horror movies. The Conjuring was, if I can sound Boston for a second, a wicked time, but the Insidious films contain just the kind of old school chills that make them so much fun and scary at the same time. Viewing the two films back to back is recommended.


There were two reasons why I jumped at the chance to go to the red door event. First, it was a double feature, which doesn’t happen too often in first run theaters and multiplexes, and secondly, I wanted to see if the movies tie together cohesively. I can honestly tell you that they fit together so well and Chapter 2 even maintains the cliffhanger from the end of the first one for the first several minutes of the movie, which suspends the suspense for even longer. My eyes were glued to the screen waiting to see how it resolved.

The imagery in the Insidious films is so damn insanely incredible. There were 10 eyes in that sentence, I mean i’s. It would look creepier if it was eyes though. And I don’t think I’ve ever written a sentence with ten i’s until this very day. Glad you could share the moment with me. But yeah, the use of the color red as a theme in both films is not only presented in an artistic way by making the color almost become a character of its own, but also adds an elegant quality to a genre film in what’s typically a realm of often cheaply made films featuring the bulk of the budget going into designing convincing death scenes. The ghostly makeup, lighting, and the set design were all superb and helped create an eerie atmosphere that spans both films.

So far the Insidious franchise has single handedly dictated where the next movement in horror should go. Even though many of us have been yearning for a film exactly like Insidious for years, because not everyone wants to see cheesy death scenes with eyeballs popping out of peoples heads, OK, well, that was a bad example, we all want to see that. All I’m saying is that it’s been a long ass time since I went to the theater and had this much fun watching a horror film. As I mentioned, The Conjuring, was a blast too, but in a different way. Not to spoil anything if you haven’t saw it, but it ultimately becomes an exorcism film, while Insidious is just full of plain old fashioned hauntings and outer body experiences featuring demons, creeps, and ghosts.

Friday the 13th Juice Boxes from The Holidaze!

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Cliff from The Holidaze blog has created his own line of horror movie inspired Hi-C juice boxes. Since I’m a huge fan of the Friday the 13th franchise, and F13 is based in New Jersey, I wanted to share these with you. These are badass! Cliff did an awesome job with them. I LOVE the vintage Hi-C style box on the left that I grew up with as a kid. That one takes the color scheme of the Friday the 13th Nintendo game that was recently made into a highly collectible action figure. Check out more at The Holidaze via the link above.

This Year’s Halloween Header Is Inspired By…

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For the past several Halloween countdowns I’ve created custom blog headers to enhance the celebration. Many of them have been parodies of horror film posters or inspired by things that remind me of the season. For example, I’ve parodied The Lost Boys poster, and last year I was inspired by Lodi, New Jersey’s own, The Misfits. This year I incorporated both horror and New Jersey. The source material is a bit obscure, but not to the horror maniacs out there.

Filmed in Paterson, NJ in 1976, the independent horror film Alice, Sweet Alice starring a young Brooke Shields inspired me this year. The creepy movie has a cult following amongst horror fans, but isn’t super well known otherwise. If you can get your hands on a copy, it’s definitely worth adding to your Halloween viewing agenda this season.

Click Here to Read The Sexy Armpit’s review of the film which features opinions of other horror bloggers as well.

Mother F’N Monster Mania Recap August 2013

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The 3 Ts of Monster Mania. sTop buying more shiT you money wasTer.
I don’t need anymore fucking t-shirts. Seriously. I have about 450 damn t-shirts. I’ve written about t-shirts over a hundred times at this blog. I wear one every single day. But did I really need to buy 3 more of them? Read on my friends as I answer that burning question as well as give you a quick recap of the Monster Mania convention that went on in Cherry Hill, NJ this weekend.

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Friday the 13th Blood-splattered Lunchbox

Many people who go to conventions like Monster Mania go with an objective. Within the last couple of years they’ve become very routine to me and I’ve been heading there just to browse and meet up with friends to shoot the shit for a while. Usually there’s at least one thing that I’d like to pick up. Sometimes it’s a DVD and rarely there’s a lower tier celebrity appearing who I have a very specific question for. This past weekend became a ridiculous impromptu party with Dino Drac, Freddy in Space, and myself, but I’ll let Dinosaur Dracula do what he does best as he explains that one right here at this link.

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Random sculpture of Hollywood Hulk Hogan’s skeleton still putting himself over in the afterlife

Anyway, what do I always wind up buying? T-shirts. Always t-shirts. My life is consumed by them. It’s a love/hate relationship. This time around I came home with 3. What’s even more insane is that I was flirting with the idea of buying 2 others! That would’ve been 5 shirts in one Monster Mania con.

The first shirt was devised by Shit Movie Fest and Curious Goods, with art by London 1888 and I picked it up for a reason. “Where’s the Fucking Bourbon” is a line from Nightmare on Elm Street Part 3 and it never fails to amuse me. I read last year that the aforementioned crew was making this tee and I thought it was an awesome idea, but par for the course, I forgot all about it. Luckily, they had some left when I stopped by their setup this weekend.

Next up is the incredible tee from Electric Zombie. Lots of old school WWF inspiration over there. Check out their awesome horror related art. This tee called “Camper” has a hottie backpacking through the woods near Camp Crystal Lake. Notice the Jason mask hanging off the backpack. This is just a sampling of the kick ass creations they were offering. I really wanted to buy more, but I had to stop myself.

And finally, I supported our monstrous friends, The Ghouligans with their logo shirt. They have new episodes on the way so stop by their official site.

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Killer Workout from VHSPS

In the DVD department, I stopped by the VHSPS store and picked up the ridiculous cheese-fest known as Killer Workout a.k.a Aerobicide which was recommended to me by @thedarkhours from KillerReviews.com. This tweet of mine made him aware that this sort of thing IS my bag baby. By the way…this movie is so fucking AWFUL.

This installment of Monster Mania exceeded my expectations for reasons other than the crap that I brought home with me. Like I said – check out Dinosaur Dracula’s run down of all the insanity that went on there.

Conjuring Up Some Jersey Connections

Usually I wait for the crowds to die down before seeing a brand new movie while it’s in the theater. Ever since Insidious and Sinister boosted my confidence in the horror genre, The Conjuring trailer had me wanting to see the movie right away. I was anxiously waiting to see it, but I held off until the second weekend to avoid crowds. On purpose, as I usually do, I chose an odd time to see the film, thinking I would avoid obnoxious people. Turns out that my strategic planning didn’t make a difference, but it didn’t matter because the experience I had watching the film overwhelmingly outweighed the annoying people who surrounded me.

Judging by both box office receipts and reviews, I can tell you that The Conjuring is a superior horror film and it’s success is no fluke. It seems like behind every success story is some type of New Jersey connection. The Conjuring made me feel like I was part of the Perron family as they moved into an old, possibly haunted farmhouse in Rhode Island. Eventually the audience is just as mortified as the Perrons are, but they shouldn’t be shocked at what they see since they moved there from New Jersey – a minuscule bit of trivia that is only mentioned nonchalantly by Roger Perron, the man of the house, in all his ’70s glory, played perfectly by Ron Livingston (Office Space). Roger’s wife, Carolyn (Lili Taylor), enlists Ed and Lorraine Warren, a real life couple of paranormal investigators who also teach classes on demonology.

March 2013’s Garden State Playmate, and now well known for her incredible performance as Norma Bates on Bates Motel, the lovely Vera Farmiga, plays Lorraine Warren while Patrick Wilson, star of Watchmen, and Montclair, NJ resident, plays her husband Ed. Together they visit houses that may be haunted and try to get to the source of the issue by postulating realistic reasons for what caused their “bump in the night.” That isn’t all they do for the Perron family though. You’ll have to go see that for yourself.

The Conjuring is a throwback. It’s the type of creepy film that they just don’t seem to make anymore, and damn it was just plain fun. Director James Wan and his team mixed classic movie thrills with practical effects to create an extremely tense and scary atmosphere. Wilson and Farmiga carry the film, but Taylor, Livingston, as well as the actresses who played Perron’s daughters all give outstanding performances.

Friday the 13th HAS COME BACK to BLAIRSTOWNNNNNN!!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcJYZl46NH0?rel=0]

“The night HE came home” refers to the tagline used for Halloween, but here in New Jersey we are awaiting the homecoming of our own iconic horror film to the big screen. Filmed in Blairstown, New Jersey, the original Friday the 13th is being shown at the historic Blairstown Theater on Friday September 13th, 2013. 9-13-13 sounds like a day destined to be filled with bad luck, but it’s quite the opposite for Jersey area horror fans.
Sporadically in the past several years, the Blairstown Theater has presented a screening of Friday the 13th on the actual date of it’s namesake, but they haven’t done so in a couple of years. I keep an eye on their website frequently to make sure I don’t miss it like I did the last time.
It’s a bit of a pilgrimage for local horror fans and fans of the F13 franchise. There’s something special about flocking to the theater to relive one of the most prominent slasher films of all time, right in the town where it was filmed. There’s something in the atmosphere, similar to visiting the Goonies house in Astoria, Oregon.
Unlike many of the loose connections I point out here at The Sexy Armpit, New Jersey shares a very clear, indisputable kinship to Jason, his psychotic mother and Camp Crystal Lake. The original Friday the 13th was filmed in Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco (Camp Crystal Lake), Hope, and Hardwick Township, NJ. *Information provided at a few sites including a site called Nation Master claims it’s never specifically pointed out that New Jersey is the setting for the Friday the 13th films. One only has look back at previous posts here at The Sexy Armpit to see plenty of evidence to the contrary.
 
Click the link below to purchase tickets to the screening (advance tickets are discounted)

NJ T-Shirt Tuesday 107: Camp Crystal Lake Day Care

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Buy this shirt HERE

Is your present babysitter is just not CUTTING it? Well, don’t fret, because there’s help out there. Why leave your kids with an overpriced teenager who ignores your kids so she can watch her phone and wait for texts messages to come in? Your kids deserve better! Why not drive them into the middle of the woods of Northwestern New Jersey and let them breathe in the fresh air and admire the scenic landscapes? What if I added in the bonus that there’s a chance they’ll come back so completely scared shitless that they’ll never make any trouble again? Sounds tempting already, right?

This summer, you have all kinds of things that you wish you and your spouse could do, but, nowadays you just don’t get enough time. The kids have soccer practice and gymnastics every weekend, but in a few weeks there’s that concert you really want to go to, or maybe you feel like having some drinks and acting stupid with your wife. Or perhaps you just want to catch The Conjuring this weekend without having to get roped into seeing Turbo and spending $87 on popcorn and soda. Heck, Monster Mania is coming up next month, but you can’t even afford because those mangy kids need new school clothes.

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Listen, your kids can’t stay in the air conditioning every day of the summer playing video games, they need to start getting in touch with nature and enjoying some recreation that doesn’t involve electronics or cell phones. The answer for you isn’t sending your kids to Young People’s Day Camp, it’s the flexibility and fun of Camp Crystal Lake Day Care.

Your kids will love playing outdoor games, swimming with kids their age, and hearing ghost stories by campfire, all the while under the caring, compassionate, and watchful eye of our experienced counselor, Jason Voorhees. Register your child TODAY!

NJ T-Shirt Tuesday 106: KILL Tour T-Shirt from Fright Rags

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Often, when something “limited edition” comes down the pike I just have to own it. A prime example is the KILL tour t-shirt that was released as a special edition by Fright Rags recently. Fright Rags is known for printing up genius, one of a kind horror tees, and this may be one of the best they ever conceived. Check it out and you can be the judge of that.

The KILL Tour T-shirt is inspired by the Destroyer album cover art from my favorite band, KISS. Anytime the world of horror combines with KISS, it’s a win-win. The t-shirt art includes Freddy, Chucky, Jason Voorhees, and Leatherface taking the place of KISS. What knocks this baseball style tee right out of the old Roosevelt Stadium is KILL’s tour stops are listed on the back just like an old vintage concert t-shirt! On KILL’s Decades of Destruction Tour, in honor of the release of the original Friday the 13th film, the band’s May 9th, 1980 tour stop was at Crystal Lake…in NEW JERSAAAY!

Previous releases that I also HAD TO HAVE included G.I Jason (the GI Joe/Jason Voorhees mashup) and one of their beautiful Friday the 13th The Final Chapter tees. Artist Jason Edmiston was responsible for the artwork on both the GI Jason tee as well as this KILL tour shirt, but the new one may take the cake. It’s a dead heat for me. What do you think? If you own the regular black t-shirt version of “KILL,” it’s slightly more accurate to the Destroyer cover, but I opted for the larger KILL logo on the baseball tee.

You can now see why I felt so compelled to make this shirt part of my wardrobe. But surprisingly, this shirt wasn’t released without criticism since it’s hard to please everyone. The flack on this shirt was that Michael Myers should’ve been in the artwork instead of Chucky. I’m not sure why that happened, but if Myers was on the shirt instead it would indeed be perfect. I’m not complaining one bit though, I think it was an awesome idea and I’d like to see more cool ideas like this from Fright Rags.