The Weeping Woman is a Creepy Winter Romp

Poster Art by Mark Welser

Mark Steensland is a filmmaker friend of mine. He has made several creepy short films including Peekers, Lovecraft's Pillow, and the comicbook-based Dead@17. His latest film, based on a short story from UK horror scribe Paul Kane is titled The Weeping Woman.

Set in the rural snow-covered countryside of Erie, PA, The Weeping Woman follows the tale of Harry, a businessman who takes a shortcut and has a fateful encounter with the titular weeping woman.

The cast includes Stephen Geoffreys (Fright Night's Evil Ed) and newcomer Melissa Bostaph with special effects from "Monster" Mark Kosobucki (Bloody Inheritance) and a haunting score from Fabio Frizzi (The Beyond).

As an avid fan of anthology shows like The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery, I've always been a fan of short films. The format allows for some great creepy tales that wouldn't benefit from the feature length expansions. (Check out some of Stephen King's films  and you'll see what I mean.)

Steensland has proven time and time again that he is a master behind the camera. He gets shots into his short films that one would might expect from bigger-budget fare and The Weeping Woman is no exception. That great cinematography, combined with the snow-covered on-location filming and Frizzi's eerie score make for a film that the above mentioned shows would have been proud to include in their libraries.

There are not very many characters in The Weeping Woman but the few that are seen are very well done. The main character Harry is played by Stephen Geoffreys, best known for corny sidekick roles in 80s horror flicks like Fright Night and 976-EVIL. In The Weeping Woman, Geoffreys takes some leaps into a slightly more serious role, even though he lets that cornball side slip into the film's opening sequence. The creepy "weeping woman" is played by actress Melissa Bostaph in her premiere role. She does a great job of portraying a creepy, ghostlike hag that I definitely wouldn't want to run into on some lonely snow-covered night.

I won't give too much of the story away since The Weeping Woman will be making the film festival circuit throughout 2011, but if you get the chance to check it out, you won't be sorry.

Update: You'll get your first chance to catch the film with the world premiere at Motor City Nightmares (April 15-17).

Update 31 March 2011: Check out the teaser trailer for the film (with a blurb from "you know who")...


Related links:
Mark Steensland - official site
Paul Kane - official site
Mark Kosobucki - official site
Mark Kosobucki - Twitter
Mark Welser - official site

Blinky (short film)

Max Records (Where the Wild Things Are) stars in this short film about a friendly household robot with a not-so-friendly malfunction.


Blinky™ from Ruairi Robinson on Vimeo.

Happy St. Patrick's Day - Muppet Style!

Have a good one, mates!

Geeks Unite for Japan!

If it weren't for Japan, we'd have no Nintendo, anime, giant robots, Godzilla, or sushi. In case you've been living under a rock (or stuck playing the latest Call of Duty) for the past week, Japan was recently devestated by an enormous 8.9 earthquake, followed by many aftershocks and tsunamis with death tolls currently topping at over 10,000. It is now in threat of a nuclear meltdown.

In reponse, our good friends at The Geek Girls Network have teamed up with Mercy Corps to help aid Japan in its time of need.

I saw the strength and passion of my fellow geeks last season with my Kids Need to Read tweetathon so I know that we can do this! Let's help 'em out!

CLICK HERE TO DONATE NOW!

Engage!

Updated: As an added bonus, Who's Got the Button? will donate 10% of all button sales this week to the Geeks with Heart drive.

Related links:
Geek Girls Network
Mercy Corps

Library Girl (music video)

Here's a cute little ditty that about the girls who hang out at libraries and bookstores.

"Extra frothy!"

I have a feeling that this one will go viral. It's just too awesome not to.

Check out the rest of musician Reina del Cid's videos on her YouTube channel.

Sleepless Nights and a Book Recommendation

Have you ever had those nights where you can't go to sleep because your brain is just too wired? I don't mean the ones where you're thinking about work tomorrow, how you expect to get that bad muffler checked out on your car, or why McDonalds doesn't sell Shamrock shakes all year 'round. I mean the ones where you really don't have anything to worry about or think about but your brain just won't shut off. If you haven't had those nights, consider yourself a lucky cat (or kitten). I have barely slept for two nights and I can already tell that tonight will likely be night three. So why am I telling you this on a blog that you normally come to for comic, movie, or video game news? I'm writing this for no other reason than to pass the time and try to burn my brain's fuel up so that I can sleep.

That said, since you're here and you've read this far, I'll take a moment to recommend a great book for your reading lists. I just finished reading Scott Westerfeld's Behemoth. This is the second book of a trilogy that's set in an alternate history during World War I. It revolves around a young girl who disguises herself as a boy to join the British Air Service and a young prince who is fleeing his homeland after his parents were assassinated. The cool part? It mixes in a lot of steampunk and sci-fi elements. In this alternate world, the British (and a few other countries ) have developed a science of changing and/or combining animals into new lifeforms. These new lifeforms, called beasties in the slang of the novel, are used for everything from communication (as is the case with messenger lizards which can mimic human language and run messages back and forth) to military vehicles (as the great flying whale-hybrid Leviathan of the series title). These beastie countries are at odds with the "clankers" of Germany and Austria where science has developed along a mechanical path rather than biological. These countries have great zeppelin airships, giant robot walkers, and cannons that fire electricity. Naturally, the plot (which I won't ruin here) brings these opposing forces into conflict and the main characters are constantly astride the dividing line between both of these worlds. To top it off, the novels are illustrated with stunning art from Keith Thompson. If you're into steampunk, sci-fi, rousing adventure, romance, comedy, or just a damned good read, you could do a sight worse than Westerfeld's novels.

That's it, gang! Go read. I know that's probably what I'll be doing instead of sleeping.

A video trailer for the first book in the Leviathan series:


Related links:
The official Scott Westerfeld site
Scott Westerfeld on Twitter
Keith Thompson's official site

She Don't Like Firefly (music video)

This fan-made tribute to Joss Whedon's Firefly is brilliant!

Spoiler warning: The lyrics contain a spoiler if you haven't seen the film Serenity.

Other than that... enjoy the Browncoat goodness!

The 1st Full Trailer for James Gunn's Super

As a fan of James Gunn and comic books, I've been following his superhero comedy Super closely. The premise seems a lot like Kick-Ass in that it's about normal people trying to be superheroes. In this case, the normal people are Rainn Wilson (The Office) and Ellen Page (Inception). There've been a few clips floating around the web but nothing has gotten me as excited as the first real trailer that was recently released!

What are your thoughts?

Mine?

Dwight Schrute + Juno + Capt. Hammer + that guy from Footloose = WINNING!

Here's the trailer (possibly NSFW)...

And to save you some YouTube searching, here are the other clips...

Dr. Who Opening Credits - Buffy Style!

Presented without comment (as I am in awe at the sheer winning).

The Red Skull Revealed!

Entertainment Weekly just released an awesome high-res pic of Hugo Weaving as The Red Skull from the upcoming Captain America film. I expected Marvel to keep more of a lid on the iconic villain's actual image but, I must say... if this were my villain, I'd want to show him off too!

Captain America hits theaters July 22.