It’s been a while since I’ve contributed to the site, but I’ve been busy with school and, more notably, filmmaking. Earlier this week I completed my second short film, “Hearts & Fake Faces.” I’ll let the film speak for itself, but be sure to let me know what you think in the comments below! You can subscribe to my Vimeo page for more. (I’ll be producing my third short “Pitch” this summer.)

A short film about love, heartbreak and moving on.

Hearts & Fake Faces from Mitch Thompson on Vimeo.

Road Runner – Fur Of Flying from Animation-HD on Vimeo.

Awhile back, I read somewhere that WB was going to give Looney Tunes a comeback. It was easy to ignore since everything that was brought back in my childhood from Ninja Turtles to Transformers had a pattern with reminding me that being a little kid was not that cool; or the new updates just sucked balls.

Then this new business was uploaded last week. Coyote & Road Runner were some of my favorite cartoon shorts back in the day. This is probably because nobody spoke a word. There’s a certain timeless appeal of silent characters in short animation from Pink Panther to Tom &; Jerry. Thankfully, these new shorts are some surprisingly good reimaginings of the 2D classics. I would like to watch more. Matthew O’Callaghan is the director, Tom Sheppard is the writer, Greg Lyons is the producer, and Christopher Lennertz did the music. Since nobody can get Zombie Tex Avery to make anything nowadays, I think I’ll follow these new guys around and see where it takes me.

Road Runner – Coyote Falls 2010 from Animation-HD on Vimeo.

The bad news is since western animation instantly means “child programming”, these shorts are supposedly coming out on a new half-hour block called The Looney Tunes Show premiering on Cartoon Network next month. Since I get a hold of short video podcasts already, what I was hoping somebody would do is put their four-minute animations out there as a podcast/vodcast so my podcast catcher apps could let me watch short animations on my phone on my lunch breaks. I dunno how I haven’t found anybody who has done this yet. Why WB won’t give YouTube style web cartoon shorts its own podcast/”vodcast” is beyond me.

If Warner Bros. is back on the scene, can somebody point me toward the nearest “Bring back Freakazoid and Animaniacs” petition?

We end our Sunday SHOCK Theater with a real doozie, the 1988 Dutch film The Vansihing (Spoorloos).  Directed by George Sluizer, The Vanishing is regarded as one of the top 10 scariest movies of all time.  What makes The Vanishing so intense is not that it’s got a ton of gore or hoards of unstoppable monsters.  It’s frightening because it’s all too real and it strikes at inherent fears that lurk inside us all. 

Adapted by the novel The Golden Egg, The Vanishing  is about a young Dutch woman named Saskia Wagter (Johanna ter Steege) who disappears from a rest stop along a highway in rural France.  Her lover, Rex Hofmann (Gene Bervoets), cannot accept her disappearance and embarks on an obsessive search for her spanning years.  Soon Rex’s quest becomes laughable to everyone but two people; himself, and the individual who knows where Saskia is.

The writing and performances in this film are top notch, and the last hour of the film will have you on the edge of your seat.  So come join us for a haunting experience that will stick with you for quite some time; this Sunday, 7:00 PM CST on Xbox Live….See you there friends…

When I was a kid my Dad treated me to the classic horror movies of his day. Movies such as Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Wolfman were not only great films, but foundational to the horror genre that we know today. I think it’s important to revist these films this time of year and watch masters of their craft hard at work. Well this week we’ll be watching one of the last of these horror classics, the 1963 masterpiece The Raven. With a cast the like of Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, and Peter Lorre how could you expect a film to get any better?  What  if I told you it was directed by one of the masters himself, Roger Corman?  If you are a fan of the genre and have not treated yourself to this film, you definately need to show up and watch!

Loosly based on the poem by Edgar Allen Poe, The Raven follows the story of sorcerer Dr. Erasmus Craven (Vincent Price).  Craven has been mourning the death of his wife Lenore for over two years, much to the chagrin of his daughter Estelle.  One night he is visited by a raven, who happens to be a transformed wizard, Dr. Bedlo (Peter Lorre).  Together they brew a potion that restores Bedlo to his human form.  Bedlo explains he had been transformed by the evil Dr. Scarabus (Boris Karloff) in an unfair duel.  Craven and Bedlo decide to exact revenge on Scarabus and search for Craven’s wife’s ghost. 

This movie is a ton of fun and even has a few suprises and cameos of stars of today back when they were quite young.  See if you can pick them out when you join us this Sunday at 7:00 PM CST on Xbox Live!

Last year, a few of us got together and watched an hommage to the blaxploitation horror films Insane in the Brain.  It was by far one of the best times I have had watching a Netflix streaming movie.  Zombies, pimps, big afros, and really bad acting. What else could you want?  Well the truth of the matter is such films actually existed and this week my friends I bring you one of the finest in all its glory: Sugar Hill.  Realease by AIP, makers of such fine classics such as Blackula and Scream Blackula Scream, Sugar Hill tells a familiar story for the times. 

When her boyfriend is brutally murdered by some white gangsters, Sugar Hill decides not to get mad, but BAD!   Calling upon the help of aged voodoo queen Mama Maitresse, Sugar asks her to call upon Baron Zamedi, the Lord of the Dead, for help in gaining a gruesome revenge.  The evil Baron agrees to raise an army of the dead, but in exchange for her very soul.  Will Sugar Hill get revenge on the man?  Or will Baron Zamedi get the last laugh as he drags her soul to eternal damnation?  I don’t know about you sucka, but I can’t wait to join my Robot Panic friends this Sunday at 7:00 PM CST on Xbox Live to see some funky zombie action!!!

Welcome to SHOCKtober! It’s that time again. The air is cool and crisp, the leaves are falling, and it’s time to watch some blood splatter. For those who weren’t around last year, in SHOCKtober! (exclamation point necessary), we count down the month by featuring a new movie each day; one that’ll spook you, creep you out, or scare the living shit out of you. Last year, we tried to stay away from the obvious movies, ones that everyone knows about. But since we went through thirty-one flicks, we can’t make the same promise this year. So forgive us if we include the occasional classic or if we include a movie that doesn’t exactly fall into the straight-up “horror/slasher” genre.

Let’s begin with Ryker’s pick for this Sunday’s “Sunday SHOCK Theater:

This week I’d thought we start things off with a shorter entry, an hour to be exact, so you can ease yourself into the goodness that is Sunday SHOCK Theater.  Incident On and Off a Mountain Road was the very first episode in the Showtime series Masters of Horror.  Each episode would be a retelling of a short horror story directed by someone well known in the horror industry.  The narrative is taken from a short story by Joe R Lansdale and directed by none other than Don Coscarelli (best known for his work on the Phatasm series and the cult classic Bubba Ho-tep).   

It’s a dark and stormy night and Ellen (Bree Turner) is driving alone along a secluded mountain road (are you scared yet).  All of a sudden she loses control and almost hits an abandoned car.  While investigating Ellen discovers a trail of blood leading into the forest.  Does she follow it?  Of course she does, otherwise the movie would be over.  Ellen follows the trail only to find a deformed killer dragging his last victim.  Can Ellen escape the wrath of this unstoppable killing machine, or will she too suffer the same fate of his many victims?  Join us this Sunday at 7:00 PM CST on Xbox Live and find out!

This year, in a blatant attempt to get us all more involved in SHOCKtober (and hopefully scare the piss out of you) we are introducing the all NEW Sunday SHOCK Theater!

How does this thing work?  Well, that’s pretty easy.  Every Sunday evening, yours truly will be hosting a Netflix viewing party on Xbox Live where we can watch a spooky movie or short.  The get-together will begin at 7:00 CST with the movie beginning promptly at 7:15 PM.  If you are on my friends list, just look for me and join the party.  If you’re not, simply send a message and we will hook you up.  If the party gets full we can open up and host other rooms, or you can simply watch the show on your own. 

The Friday before Sunday SHOCK Theater we will have an article posted on Robot Panic with an overview of the film.  Then after the viewing we can discuss the film right here on the board.  Comments about what happened during SHOCK Theater are perfectly acceptable.   Here’s the spooktacular line up: 

October 3^rd – Masters of Horror: Incident On and Off a Mountain Road – Voted one of the BEST episodes of this amazing horror series.  

October 10^th – Sugar Hill  – Think Black Dynamite…with Zombies.

October 17^th – The Raven – A cult horror classic starring Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, and Peter Lorrie.  

October 24^th – The Vanishing – This is the original Swedish version of this tale.  Perhaps one of the most horrifying films of the 1980s, and one that will haunt you for quite some time.  

So that’s this year’s line up.  So grab some popcorn, turn down the lights, and join us each Sunday in October for some scary good times!

It’s a zombie movie, it’s a zombie game, it’s an advertisement for a Kiwi pizza chain. But most of all, it’s awesome!

Below is the first scene of a choose-your-own-adventure zombie flick about a pizza delivery guy trying to deliver a pie to a busty blonde who’s trapped by a horde of zombies. It’s up to you to make the decisions.

Enjoy!

You may remember Tony’s previous videos The Revenge with Lightsabers and The Sequel with Lightsabers. Well, the Hero is back, with more adorable-ness than ever before.

Enjoy!