CIRCUS CIRCUS Announces New Interactive Spongebob Squarepants Dark Ride

Circus Circus Las Vegas,  a family favorite resort, today announced that a new SpongeBob SquarePants Dark Ride will be added to the property and operational this winter. Created by Sally Dark Rides and inspired by the hit Nickelodeon animated series, the new $6 million amusement ride named ‘SpongeBob’s Crazy Carnival Ride’ will be a hilariously entertaining, interactive attraction sending guests through seafloor scenes brought to life through vibrant sets, special effects, animatronics, and vivid integrated projections, fully submersing riders in the nautical nonsense of SpongeBob SquarePants.

Carnival Graveyard: Rust In Pieces Joining Universal Halloween Horror Nights

Universal Orlando Resort reveals an all-new original content haunted house coming to Halloween Horror Nights 2018 – Carnival Graveyard: Rust in Pieces. As guests trespass into a dilapidated carnival, they will find a maze of decayed rides and games – and soon discover they are not alone. Horrifying guard dogs, a grotesque ‘tunnel of love’, gleefully vicious performers loaded with deadly weapons fabricated from old rides and more will stalk guests’ every move as they try their best to escape.

Lighthouse International Film Festival Announces 2018 Lineup

The Lighthouse International Film Festival (LIFF) has announced the complete lineup for its tenth annual event, which will take place June 7-10, 2018 on Long Beach Island, New Jersey. The Festival will open with Madeleine Olnek’s acclaimed WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY, a rousing Emily Dickenson comedy starring Molly Shannon that brought audiences to their feet at SXSW 2018.

Mermaid Museum Coming to Hollywood

Open to the public from March 22 to the 25; come celebrate with a free ticketed event in honor of the mythological, mysterious, and beloved creatures with over five activations and take part in the upcoming International Mermaid Day, which coincides with the series premiere of Freeform's "Sirens" on March 29.  Featuring a live mermaid, a speakeasy-inspired fishing store, numerous photo structures and a 360° underwater immersive experience; the museum will celebrate and bring mermaid culture to life.

“At Freeform, our goal is to defy expectations and bust stereotypes of theme for our programming,” said Tricia Melton, senior vice president, Marketing, Creative & Branding at Freeform. “Mermaids have long been portrayed as timid objects of desire, but our new series ‘Siren’ flips the narrative quite literally on its tail, and we can’t wait for consumers to immerse themselves into the experience at The Mermaid Museum.”

Nintendo Environments Coming to Universal

Imagine the fun of stepping into a larger-than-life Nintendo adventure. Gigantic Piranha Plants spring to life.  Question blocks, power-ups and more surround you. And Mario and all his friends are there to pull you into a brand-new world.

You will enter an entire realm filled with iconic Nintendo excitement, gameplay, heroes and villains.  And it is coming to three Universal theme parks around the globe.

RiffTrax Live: Carnival of Souls Haunting Theaters 10/27 & 10/31

Following the recent success of their MST3K Reunion Show, Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett take on the spooky 1962 cult classic Carnival of Souls with their unique commentary. “RiffTrax Live: Carnival of Souls,” will be broadcast live to select movie theaters across the country on Thursday, October 27 at 8:00 p.m. ET / 7:00 p.m. CT and tape delayed to 7:00 p.m. MT / 8:00 p.m. PT, with an All Hallows’ Eve encore on Monday, October 31 at 7:30 p.m. local time. This event will be the first big screen presentation of the recent full-color restoration of Carnival of Souls, a process that took over 50,000 man-hours to convert the original from black and white.

New York Asian Film Festival 2016 Lineup!

Looking for KUNG FU MADNESS!!??!! I'm not talking your average Kung Fu madness...i'm talking the kind where a guy gets cut and bleeds for 3 hours as the credits roll at the end. THIS IS THE SORT OF THING I HAVE WITNESSED AT THE NEW YORK ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL!! Granted, the lineup is not always so blood soaked, with plenty of offerings to be seen involving drama, comedy, lust and female assassins with machine guns for arms...and sometimes butts. The thing to focus on here is that there is NO better place to watch amazing current Asian releases as well as a classic or two that may make your head explode. No promises....but I do see Stephen Chow's name down there...

The Film Society of Lincoln Center and Subway Cinema announced today the complete lineup for the 15th New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF), which will take place from June 22 to July 5 at the Film Society and July 6 to 9 at the SVA Theatre (333 West 23rd Street). North America’s leading festival of popular Asian cinema will showcase 51 feature films, including one World Premiere, one International Premiere, 16 North American premieres, 2 U.S. Premieres, and 14 films making their New York City debuts. Featuring in-person appearances by more than 30 international filmmakers and celebrity guests from Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia.

Fantasia Announces 1st Guests and Titles for 20th Anniversary

The Fantasia International Film Festival will be celebrating its 20th Anniversary in Montreal this summer, taking place from July 14-August 2, with its Frontiéres international co-production market and Industry Rendez-Vous weekend being held July 21-24. The full lineup of over 130 feature films will be announced July 5th. In the meantime, the festival is excited to announce a selected first wave of titles, along with several special happenings.

LEGOLAND Coming to New York

It's OK to be mad at us. We of the tri-state areas are spoiled rotten. We've got every convention imaginable, smaller monthly toy and comic shows, museums, multiple stadiums and....the Crayola factory. Now we find that Merlin Industries has begun laying down the building blocks (go on and groan) for a LEGOLAND theme park in Goshen, New York...and you'd better believe thousands of grown up geeks are already preparing to line up...

Activision Blizzard Media Networks Announce ESports Broadcast Newtork

Today at the 2016 IAB Digital Content NewFronts, Activision Blizzard Media Networks (ABMN), a division of Activision Blizzard, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI), announced the launch of new content, broadcast experiences and distribution partnerships for its MLG.tv streaming platform.

MLG.tv debuted its Enhanced Viewing Experience (EVE) at the event, a High-Definition video stream with a built-in algorithmic system that provides viewers with match statistics, up-to-the-minute leaderboards, and situational insights based on the competition they are watching.

Steampunk World's Fair Roars Into Piscataway, NJ May 16-18th

Consider this your heads up! The sleepy little town of Piscataway, New Jersey plays host to an industrial revolution/scifi retrofit next weekend as the Steampunk World's Fair takes over two hotels and their surrounding courtyards...which are still barely enough space to contain all the fun!

As most of you are well rounded geeks, I'm sure you are aware of Steampunk as a style of costuming incorporating Victorian era dress with cogs and bronze and top hats with goggles mounted upon them, as well as those who choose to goth it up a bit, incorporating these retro-techy elements to garments that would make Bram Stoker's Dracula (the Gary Oldman version for our purposes) blush with pride. SO...you are pretty much guaranteed this spectacle as costumers from novice to super-uber-advanced parade past you in every hallway, but that's only scratching the surface of what this event has to offer.

Shamble Yo Ass to the New Jersey Zombie Walk!

As we shuffle aimlessly toward our holy holiday of Halloween, Asbury Park, New Jersey, gears up for its once-a-year celebration of the living-challenged and their screaming, flailing, running food of choice. JOIN US!! Here's the info...

The New Jersey Zombie Walk will take place in downtown Asbury Park (Convention Hall, 1300 Ocean Ave.) on Saturday, October 30th, starting at 11:00 am. Zombies of all ages are encouraged to participate in this free, day-long, and family-friendly event. Come in costume, or visit one of a team of professional makeup artists that will be on hand to give zombie makeovers. (Please note that there will be a fee of $20 to have your makeup done.)

In addition to the walk, there will zombie-themed events and entertainment throughout the day, and many of Asbury Park's restaurants and shops will be offering zombie-themed menus, specials, and discounts to all Zombie Walk participants. This year the New Jersey Zombie Walk will once again partner with the Central Jersey Blood Center of Shrewsbury. A mobile blood bank will be on-site during the event and will accept donors throughout the day.

New this year is the first annual “ZombieCon”, a convention dedicated to all things horror and zombie. In addition to costuming and makeup supplies, the ZombieCon will feature local artists, filmmakers, musicians, and vendors. Also new this year, the New Jersey Zombie Walk will attempt to break The Guinness Book of World Records' record for the “World’s Largest Gathering of Zombies”.

For more information please visit the Official New Jersey Zombie Walk website.

Schedule of Events:

11 a.m. - Zombie “Base Camp” opens in the Convention Hall building located on the Asbury boardwalk. At base camp participants can register for an event wristband, have their makeup done, and visit the ZombieCon vendor area.

3 p.m. - The main count of zombies for the Guinness World Record attempt begins on the beach adjacent to Convention Hall.

5 p.m. - Following the Guinness World Record count, the Zombie Walk begins! Zombies will pour out of the Base Camp and up onto the Boardwalk. They will begin lurching down the Boardwalk, towards the Carousel House and Cookman Avenue.

Following the walk downtown Cookman Avenue will be closed off to traffic to host a variety of contests and performances including a costume pageant and a Jello-brain eating contest.

There are other evening events throughout Asbury Park following the walk. Zombies can attend a Halloween Dance Party at Convention Hall or go to the Asbury Lanes for a Halloween Carnival (for those 18 and up) with a horror-themed line-up of bands and performers. Tickets for both events will be available to Zombie Walk participants at a discounted price.

Dread Central's Best & Worst of 09

Click the graphic and dive into the choices for best and worst of 2009 by my favorite crew of deviants (including meeeee!)

Thoughts on Avatar

1. When you make a hulking, unstoppable exo-suit, make sure to give it an big ass fighting knife in a sheath on it's hip..so he doesn't get mugged.

2. Cat women don't wear shirts...but they are tiny so it's ok.

3. I haven't seen the smurf episode of South Park so I can't make those jokes. Sorry.

4. The greatest, most valuable mineral in the galaxy is...UNOBTAINIUM!! It's like a scary future where George W remains president for life and gets to name anything newly discovered as part of his executive powers.

5. It's OK to steal music from The Hunt for Red October. No one will notice.

6. You can spend millions of dollars on special effects and it may still look like soldiers fighting the baddest motherfuckers from toon town.

7. I'm taking it upon myself to name some of the beasties that weren't named in the movie. Presenting the Helilizard, a pack of Ravagogs (because they looked like Ravage from the Transformers cartoon) and the plants that jump away from your touch will be henceforth called the Shyvag (thats a soft G). I'll let you mull that one over. You're welcome.

8. I feel like Jake Sully was a character on My So Called Life.

9. Was I the only person who kept waiting for the chief to look at the dumb marine and tauntingly say...Tatonka...?

And yes, I actually did like the movie. It was incredibly formulaic and has been done a thousand times now, but they did it right and pulled on all the proper heart strings. Certainly a powerful movie in places and extremely ridiculous in others. It's like "Dances With Giant Cat People". I'd like to cast a spell turning Avatar and 2010 into wrestlers and watch them fake beat the shit out of each other. GO SEE IT!!

Movie Ushers to Twilight Fans: "GO HOME!"

It's no mystery to any movie loving soul that Twilight: New Moon opened this weekend, raking in over 140 million in it's first days of moaning infancy. The crowds seem to mirror video footage of ladies watching The Beatles and Michael Jackson (in other countries), though maybe without much of the frantic behavior behind it. They sure do have the screaming down! An usher from an undisclosed location in New Jersey dropped me an email to weigh in on the psychotica she observed on opening night. Keep in mind the writer is young(ish) and wrote this shortly after her ordeal...

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Why Twilight, (Or as I constantly refer to it as-Twatlight), is such a phenomenon, is beyond me. It's emo, bland, cheesy, whiny, and just damn idiotic. Yet, all these dumbass tweenyboppers flock to it like it is a frigging life or death situation. They clearly believe vampires are real and that they do indeed sparkle, which leads me to believe that they have not one ounce of a brain in their heads.

Working Twilight opening night last year was ridiculous. Hundreds of people lined up hours ahead of time, all decked out in their Twatlight shirts. They screamed at everything, all while on the frigging line!! We had to expand our holding areas just to make room for these dumb asses. When us ushers had to open the ropes for them, they ran like Godzilla was about to eat them, (If only he had). I would walk into the theater just to watch their stupid reactions and, boy, was it ear piercing. Whenever Bella or Edward (what immensely cheesy names) appeared on the screen with their useless expressions, these girls screamed their lungs out. It was just plain annoying and unnecessary.

Now working opening night for New Moon this year, I knew it'd be worse, and it was. This time, the shows all sold out and later shows began to in advance. They did their typical routine of getting here hours ahead of time. We put them in holding areas that can only contain so many of those wasteful lifeforms. They lined up throughout our lobby because these lines were long. Everywhere I looked, all I saw were these idiot girls (and adults too) standing there in their waste of money Twatlight shirts. "Team Jacob", "Team Edward". I love how they root for this Jacob dude, knowing he does not get the anorexic bitch!! You read the crap filled books now didn't you?? We all know you spent your parents cash on these tree killer books.

Each time us ushers went past, they gave us the look of, "Let us the hell in!". Myself, being an avid Twatlight hater, wore my "Twilight Sucks" pin with pride. They did not like this. I like good franchises, fools. "Have you ever seen Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings?" I wanted to ask them but let's face it, they probably can't even spell Mississippi or count backwards due to their lack of intelligence. Hell, how smart can one be if they truly believe vampires shimmer in the sun? They frigging burn you suckers!

Whenever we opened the ropes, it was the usual run for your lives to the theater fiasco. But this year, they screamed louder and shoved each other harder. In the theater, not one seat was empty compared to last year. 500 seat theaters were sold out. It is utterly ridiculous for this piece of crap. Because this was wayyyyyyy bigger than last year's opening night, we had to run around constantly to clean up their HORRENDOUS messes, so I barely had time to go into the theaters to watch these idiots, but I caught them at the film's brainless ending. When that happens, these twats burst out loud with gasps and screams as if, like I said before, they didn't know this was coming!! They act like it was truly a shock!! Come on now! They cheer on end for endless minutes while the credits roll with yet another bland "song".

Then I watch them finally get off of their Abercrombie asses to leave, but do they leave in peace? Hell no. They open their yaps and all I hear were nails on a chalkboard about the damn movie. "OMG I LOVED THAT PART!!" "POOR JACOB!! THAT ENDING!! GASP!!" I even saw girls crying. CRYING!!!! The pretty boy werewolf lost the ugly ho to an expressionless "vampire", boo hoo. Give me your address so I can send you flowers. Jesus. Don't even get me started on the messes we cleaned that took FOREVER. They threw their paper towels into mountain piles in the bathrooms.

Overall, it was hell all night. It was the worst night I have ever worked at the theater and I have been there almost 2 years. The night felt never ending. I came home with my joints achy as hell. It's sad how society flocks to this shit. This series was written by a sad housewife who was bored and probably wanted to write out a fantasy her own tween self dreamed of. That is a lame life for any kid. I've been forced to watch both movies days ago and it was needles in my eyes and ears. I got halfway through number one and fell asleep on and off throughout number 2. The dialogue, story, characters, "action", "acting", look, "actors", just everything are downright terrible, wasteful, useless and ludicrous. Every Twatlighter out there needs to watch The Lost Boys. Now those, my little dumb asses, are real vampires.

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So, yea, she felt strongly about this. In the interest of fairness, I thought I might grab one of the die hard fans off of the IMDB forums for the film to answer some of the questions posed in the above rant like "How can you watch this??" and "WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU!!??!!" Well, not really, but she graciously answered some questions on why she liked the film. Her name is "Erica Says Go Dance" ...and she loves the Twilight...

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I consider myself a pretty big fan of this franchise and there are multiple reasons for it. I am a huge fan of fantasy and have been for all my life. This series embodies all of my favorite aspects of fantasy, namely the supernatural elements, and the romance factor. I don't scream for the actors, I scream because I love this series soo much and am excited that a visual personification of it is being unveiled. I love the stimulus of the crowd and it just gets you hyped up.

Even though I knew what was going to happen, I found myself delving headfirst into the movie and really concentrating on the plot line. Having prior knowledge actually helped me stay focused on the movie since I was excited to see how my favorite scenes were gonna play out on the screen. I didn't compare the book scenes against the movie scenes until after the movie was over though. When you have read passages from a book for years, its totally satisfying to have a visual companion to it.

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Wow. That was..more coherent than I expected. Honestly, when you dislike a movie this much, it's easy to get caught up in bashing the fans that loved it completely, and I suppose I'm guilty of that to a degree. Regardless of what anyone thinks, an over 200 million world wide take (and growing) is astounding and slams one simple fact upside your head.

THIS MOVIE FRANCHISE IS NOT GOING AWAY ANY TIME SOON.

BEWARE.