Believe it or not, the fifth year of Killer63 is upon us. Ottawa's annual independent horror collective will return to the Mayfair on October 23rd. Deadline for submissions is October 12th. So get out there and start making horror shorts!

If anyone has any questions about the event, please feel free to contact me at: batturtle@gmail.com

Ghost World came out nine years ago!? Son of a bitch the passage of time from when a movie first came out is making me feel old lately! Did you realize that the first X-Men movie was the years ago!? A decade! Man.

Anyhow, the film Ghost World is based on the comic Ghost World, which was written and drawn by underground comics mastermind Daniel Clowes. Go buy a Daniel Clowes book, or go check one out at the library, they are all good across the board pretty much. The film was directed by Terry Zwigoff, fresh off of his universally acclaimed (and also comic book themed) documentary Crumb. Well, not exactly fresh off...it was seven years between projects.

Ghost World tells the fairly simple tale of a pair of high-school grad social outcasts living in a weird surreal suburban world. A strange lil place filled with strange lil characters going about their strange lil lives. Featuring a very young Thora Birch & Scarlett Johansson (well before her cat-suit, kick-ass Black Widow turn), and in a indie film cred one-two punch, the film features not only Illeana Douglas, but also none other than Steve Buscemi.

DC Comics, back in the 80's ran with a slogan which emphasized that DC Comics aren't just for kids anymore. Which kind of backfired, 'cause now no kids read comics at all. But that's a different rant. Ghost World (both book and film) is one of my go to examples for folks naive to the fact that comic books aren't just dudes in spandex hitting each other. Don't get me wrong, I love a good super hero comic as much as the next geek. Though still in this day and age of pop culture, folks still seem shocked that stuff like Road to Perdition or History of Violence or From Hell or 30 Days of Night do indeed come from comic book inspiration.



Ghost World is a prime example of a great comic book translated at it's best into an equally entertaining movie. Catch it at the Mayfair on July 25th at 9PM for Sunday Night Geek Night, as presented by Lost Marbles.

I lived in Vancouver when 'Quick and the Dead' came out. My mind escapes me on the name of the theatre where I saw it, but it was this great Mayfair type place that was right beside a bowling alley and showed Ed Wood movies, Planet of the Apes, animation fests and all kinds of cool stuff. I'm pretty sure they used it recently in an episode of Fringe (with the fake alternate universe movie titles on the marquee) but I might be wrong about that.

Anyhow, onto the topic at hand. Some people seem to dismiss this movie 'cause it stars Sharon Stone. Yes, I can't really admit to being a fan of hers either. If only for willingly appearing in movies the likes of 'Catwoman' and 'Basic Instinct 2' one should be heavily reprimanded.

Here is what she should be defended for though...especially for her actions in the year 1995 (or at least for her two films released in 1995). Her other movie that year was 'Casino', which of course was directed my Martin Scorsese. And Scorsese is a genius and can do no wrong and is the most respected filmmaker of our time if not all time. So if he wants to put that lady from 'Sliver' in his movie, clearly she's got some kindah talent hidden underneath there somewhere. She even got herself an Oscar nomination out of it.

The other movie she had released that year was the one for the blog topic at hand, 'The Quick and the Dead'. It's like a Clint Eastwood 'Man With No Name' type story, except change the man to a woman. In this case, that woman being Sharon Stone. She got a producer credit on the film, and used her Hollywood power of the time to throw her weight around on two interesting points of cinema history. One, she fought to give an unknown (to North America) actor by the name of Russell Crowe a lead part. Check out his imdb resume post and pre Quick & the Dead and see how that effected his career. Two: She also fought for a director named Sam Raimi who had just come off of a big flop of a movie that some geeks are a little bit familiar with by the title of 'Army of Darkness'.

So just for one night, put your Sharon Stone hatred aside, and come out to see a real kick ass western at the Mayfair.

Quick and the Dead, presented by Invisible Cinema – Sunday Night Geek Night – July 11th – 9:30pm

Happy Roller Derby Movie Night eve! Join the Rideau Valley Roller Girls for the highly anticipated special Sunday Night Geek Night screening of Kansas City Bomber (Sunday July 4th at 9PM at the Mayfair). What better way to celebrate the 4th of July than to cheer on Raquel Welch and a team of roller derby girls from Kansas?

Oops...here I went and found a kewl Alpha Flight picture on the old inter-web to make use of for a Canada Day best wishes greeting...then I forgot to make use of it. So a slightly belated 'Yay Canada!' to one and all.

I had to work last night tearing down one of the Canada Day stages downtown. You ever want a harrowing challenge for yourself? Head north on a street while tens of thousands of folks are heading downstream against you. Madness.