Tuesday, September 29, 2015

The Green Inferno: Review

I wanted to post this earlier, but I'm trying to keep my Tuesday posting schedule straight...but I was given the opportunity to see The Green Inferno on September 21st, and it was CRAZY, you guys.
Here's the trailer if you haven't already seen it:


I got the invite through Moviepilot.com, so I had the chance to go in as press, which was awesome in itself. We were checked in and sent up to the top floor of the Regal theater on Broadway in Union Square- the final stop on the Green Inferno fan appreciation tour.

Upon arrival, we were greeted with wine, soda, beers...the whole ordeal was kind of surreal. I felt like a modern-day-creepy-female-Gatsby. I was handed a glass of white wine and I was excited to mingle around with other horror lovers...and then Eli Roth walked out.

Roth and Lorenza Izzo (the star of the film) sat at a table to sign posters for fans and screeners. Naturally, I made a fool out of myself by standing there and staring, and making a joke about how the Red Band trailer made me need to stop eating my bacon, egg and cheese on a bagel. But really, if your film can stop me from eating, it's intense. I eat a lot.

We were slowly filtered into the theater, and once everyone was seated, we were introduced to Eli and Lorenza again, along with the producer of the film, Nicolás López.
The film was deliciously disgusting, incredibly gory, and at one point I felt the wine roiling in my stomach, trying to make its way back out of my throat. BUT I persevered and held it down, and from the particular scene (eye-gauging, tongue-extracting and bone-cutting) on, I was okay. Mostly.
I did have to tell myself to breathe quite a few times because I caught myself holding my breath. I also started craving chicken tenders at one point, so I don't know what kind of person that makes me.

It's incredibly graphic, though. Roth told us at the beginning of the screening that he was trying to make the most violent film ever created. I think he succeeded...and surpassed anything that will be made for a long, long time. 
Also, fun fact, the tribe that he filmed with had no idea what electricity was, so the crew brought a television and a generator and showed the tribe Cannibal Holocaust and they though it was some kind of hilarious joke, and that's when they agreed to portray greedy, crazy cannibal people. 

Anyway, I don't want to give too much away, but the film is insane and beautiful and awesome. I highly, highly suggest it for anyone looking to be grossed out, thrilled, horrified, or all of the above.

Giving this film a rating out of 10, I give it an 8.5!! Make sure you check it out; it'll be in theaters on September 25th!



Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Burnt Scrolls: A Review

Over the past year, I've had the pleasure of coming in contact with some really incredible people in horror. I won a giveaway and met Zach Bohannon who is now one of my good friends, and through him, I was put in touch with Shannon of Nightmarish Conjurings. Afterwards, I followed someone on Instagram, and it turns out he's a really, really amazing writer...Mr. Jeremy Megargee.
Now, I've reviewed Jeremy's work here before. You may remember me reviewing his novel Dirt Lullabies and totally fangirling over it. His descriptive language is impeccable. His storytelling is beautiful. So when I got a message asking if I'd like a copy of his newest creation, Burnt Scrolls, I almost fell out of my chair, but "calmly" responded "oh yeah sure cool thanks!"
I just recently moved out of my house (a little over a week, when you all read this) so I ran home to pick up a few things (a Harley Quinn costume, a tea infuser...the essentials), and I had a package! I shredded the thing apart when I saw who it was from. I held the book up to the ceiling Lion King-style, and smiled. My book of short stories and poetry was here!! And it had the sweetest note inside!
I took Burnt Scrolls to work with me. I hoped it would be slow. It was. So I sat and I read, and as usual, I blew through another one of Megargee's books in 48 hours.

There's something about the way he writes; it's like a fine wine. You marvel in its beauty with each sip you take, and eventually you're so consumed by its delectable flavor that you drink and drink and drink until you're incoherently drunk. That's the best description I can give of what happens when I read his work- I become drunk on literature, and I can't consume enough.
This book is a little different than anything he's written before- it's much more personal. "Cathartic", as he puts it. It's a book of short stories and poems, and for those of you that have read his other works, you're in for a treat! The short stories (3 of the 4) are "prequels" and stories of characters from his other novels. The poems are a journey; some are horrific and creepy and others are personal and sweet.

Let's talk about a few of my favorites:
All of the short stories are totally consuming, but I'll talk about my top 2 as to not give away much more than I need to.
Welcome to Rust Valley takes place ten years after the events in Dirt Lullabies. As always, it's beautifully written, and the descriptions of the cave that Benjamin travels into...it practically had my mouth watering, it was so stunning. The characters, as usual, are fun to connect with and although the story is short, you find yourself rooting for them.
Black Rose Petals tells the story of my girl Thorny Rose from Dirt Lullabies. Before I go any further talking about this story, let me tell you a little something about myself: I have the tendency to fall in love with certain characters, specifically the underdog of most stories. Now, when I read Dirt Lullabies and I learned about Thorny Rose, I started doing my makeup the way she was described, I wanted to be her friend, I wanted her to come over and drink tea with me. SO when I saw that she got her own short story, I nearly fainted. Okay, maybe not literally, but I was way too excited. Her story is sad, believable, and tragic. She's every Halloween-lover's dream. I can't get enough of her. She's amazing and this story is amazing. Yes.

As far as the poetry goes, it's all very personal. You can tell that the topics are from a deep place within Jeremy's soul, so reading it is like sitting down across a table from him while he tells you about the deepest, darkest places of his mind. It's really an experience that I wasn't expecting, but I was deeply thrilled by the end of the book.
A specific poem in particular really touched me: The Stray. I wont' tell you what it's about, but what I will tell you is that I messaged Jeremy to let him know that I was sitting at work crying like a fool because of it.

All in all, this book is a solid read. Like I said, you can blow through it with the intensity of the stories- they reel you in and don't let go until you hit the poetry, which then takes you on such an intense roller coaster ride that you may end up crying. I don't know, maybe it's just me.
However, I highly suggest it! If any of you guys pick it up and read it, let me know! I'll link the page where you can buy it here: http://www.amazon.com/Burnt-Scrolls-Collection-Tales-Poems/dp/1515352250/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

You can follow Jeremy on Facebook and on instagram at @xbadmoonrising!

Until next time, ghosts and ghouls, stay spooky!
Taylor Terrible <3

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Welcome to the Toy Chest!

Hi, my creepy ghosts and ghouls!

I'm noticing lots of new traffic to my blog, and I assume it's because many of you have seen my new web show, titled after my blog!

This is such a huge deal for me- I'm so excited that I have all of you here as part of the Terrible Toy Chest, and I'm glad you liked the video enough to make your way over here!

For those of you that are readers but didn't know that I had a webshow, follow the link here!
The show will also be posted on YouTube on the Lucky Six Productions page.

For those of you that are viewers that are just stumbling across this page now- hello! I'm so happy you're here, and I love you already!

Some things will be cross-posted- sometimes I'll be doing videos of my posts, and sometimes I'll be doing posts related to my videos. But most of the time, I'll just be doing my thing, talking about horror and loving every second of it...regardless of where I'm doing it!

Alright, creeps, this was just a quick post to get you all acquainted with each other...and with me! I'll be posting again on Tuesday, so I'll see you then.

Until next time, stay spooky!
Taylor Terrible <3

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

The Horror Shelves

If you've been here from the very beginning, I did a really brief post on some of the cool horror stuff I have laying around my bedroom. Since then, what I call the "horror shelves" as it's my entire desk, have grown exponentially.
In the original post detailing my shelves, I had room to keep the bottom shelf totally open to use for my computer. I had a few of my MoodyVoodies dolls there, but that was it...
The shelves now look like this (and this is the view from my bed, which is amazing to wake up to in the morning):
The photo is from my Instagram: @taylorterrible ...go follow me!!

So let's talk about some of the new additions to that bottom shelf...
That little guy laying back on my other Voodies is a Bughuul doll from Sinister! He was, of course, made by MoodyVoodies, and is signed by Nick King! I believe I talked about that in my post about Haunt Faire.
I had to move my POP!s to the bottom shelf as well to make room for the resin Puppet Master statues on the top shelf, so they've all been lined up on the bottom. Since I took that picture, I added Pinhead to my POP collection as well (of course, are you surprised?) :)
I got a gorgeous case to put my horror mystery minis in from The Container Store, so those are the little shelves you're seeing front and center with those minis on them.
The Pinhead canvas you see on the far right came from my final Horror Block. I miss getting Horror Blocks every month, but adult life says you can't have nice things so my plan is to go back and subscribe again eventually, but until then, I'm just trying to pay my bills. -sigh- The cool t-shirts were awesome.
I've also acquired one of my new favorites: it's behind the Puppet Master collection so it's probably near-impossible to see, but my other half's mom (might as well be my mother-in-law) gifted me her Rocky Horror Picture Show original record from when the film came out!
I had a Bughuul mask made that I'll be wearing for Halloween and that's what you see on the far right, and not pictured is a canvas painting of Bughuul so basically my Sinister collection is exploding.

That's what I've got so far! Maybe one day I'll do a full overview...but who knows when the collecting is going to stop (the answer is probably never)?

This post is queued before the video is set to go up, so I'll edit it when it's released: if you haven't seen it already (I post about it on the Terrible Toy Chest Facebook page) some of my articles are being turned into a little web show so you guys have a better opportunity to connect with me!
If you don't already follow the Facebook page, I'll link it here so you guys can follow along and connect with me more personally there as well!


Until next time, loves, stay spooky!

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Interview with Zach Bohannon

Hi there, my ghosts and ghouls!
It's September! Do you know what that means? We're one month closer to Halloween, and we are officially entering the month that puts us in FALL!!!!
This week's post is going to be a little bit different than what I normally put up; it's going to take you to another website.
I was given the opportunity by my good friend Shannon over at Nightmarish Conjurings to interview another friend of mine, author Zach Bohannon (Empty Bodies, The Witness). Instead of essentially copying and pasting the interview I wrote for her to here, I'll just link you guys on over to the interview, if you're interested!
http://nightmarishconjurings.tumblr.com/post/127794140323/zach-bohannon-interview

If you get a chance, check out Zach's work. He's incredibly talented and an all-around awesome guy.
Let me know what you think in the comments!!
Until next time, stay spooky <3