any Christopher Pike fans here?

I think I have already talked about this at some point, but I think it was on IMDB... well, whatever.

Any current or former Christopher Pike fans here? He was pretty popular among younger readers in the late 80s, and through the 90s. Like, early teen and general teen readers, not as young as the R.L. Stine readership... Was anyone here ever a fan, maybe many years ago? Or, you could have found a cousin's or older siblings copies of the books lying around somewhere, in this century, and gotten into them, I guess.
Apparently there has been some discussion of making his Last Vampire books into a movie. It looks like they have probably put the idea on a back burner, but who knows, they could still do it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Vampire#Film_Adaptation


I have long suspected that the Last Vampire series might have been the inspiration for Twilight, God help us. Just because they were about a teen vampire in the Pacific Northwest, and the main character is a girl. But, they aren't teen romances, they have a shitload of Indian (the subcontinent) mythology for some reason, and there is a surprising amount of carnage and violence for books for younger readers. Wait a sec, just to mention this: the Last Vampire books start out in the Pacific Northwest, in Oregon, but in the sequels they end up in southern California. Also, there is a lot of back and forth in the main character's memory, constantly, to her life in ancient India. I remember I had the feeling the author originally might have meant to set more of the story in Oregon, but his mind just wandered elsewhere as the sequels went along.

Favorite Books

For those on the site who read, what would you say your top 5 favorite books are. Or if you can't name specifics. Favorite series, or genres.


My top 5 would be:
1.) Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
2.) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
3.) Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead
4.) Half Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
5.) Dorothy Must Die by Daniella Paige


My Top Series is: Vampire Academy and Bloodlines by Richelle Mead


And I gues my favorite genre would be Fantasy!


I want to hear y'alls!

Christmas Horror

Hey, it's Christmastime everyone - there needs to be a Christmas themed horror movie thread here at Trash Epics, right? RIGHT???

So this is it here. Post whatever you want about Christmas horror movies.

With Christmas being my favorite holiday, and horror being my favorite movie genre, it would only make sense that, when the two merge together, it has the potential to cure CANCER. No, I'm kidding. Just thought it'd be funny to say "CANCER" in a holiday-themed thread.

I love this time of year, I really do, and get all gushy over lights and decorations and yes, even the dreaded Christmas music. Call me a masochist, but I love that shit. And then there's the food. Oh boy. The food.

But back to movies. I watched Christmas Evil aka You Better Watch Out (I like this title better) the other night. I really enjoyed it, probably even moreso than the one time I saw it however many years ago. The movie isn't your traditional slasher flick, despite the fact that it's sometimes lumped in as one, and I think that's what I admired so much about it this time. If viewed as a twisted black comedy it seriously rocks. Brandon Maggart, the main dude who wants so badly to be Santa Claus and just make kids happy, is great in the role. I never knew this until recently, but he's Fiona Apple's dad, which I found interesting, for no particular reason really.

Anyway, I liked the film a lot, enough to possibly start including it in my yearly watches 'round this time of year, next to unbeatable classics like Black Christmas and Silent Night, Deadly Night.

So...post anything you want about Christmas horror films, recommendations, traditions you have with your own personal movie viewings, etc. Whatever.

Is this really what it's like having a girlfiend?

I met a woman a few weeks ago and we've been talking on the phone almost every night since. She keeps telling me I'm good looking, which sounds phony because I know I'm not. She said I looked like Ray Romano. She keeps saying how much we have in common. She claims to like horror movies. She claimed to like science projects. We've talked countless times now but she never manages to talk about anything that's relevant to anything. Just a lot of crap about people she knows and people she's worked for. I couldn't care less about stuff like that. I've told her people think I'm a child molester and they think I'm gay, and I told her I've never even been with a woman, and yet she still keeps calling me. It's getting to be a nuisance. It's awful. Why would she even be interested in me when she knows I have such a bad reputation?

If this is what it's like to have a girlfriend, I can't stand it. It's wasting my time and I can't get anything done.

Must horror be believable/ realistic?

It was last week when I got into a discussion how realistic or not a movie like Eden Lake (2008) is.

To those who love it as in being truly shocked and down (some for days) after seeing the flick the arguments are:
- could happen to anyone
- it feels realistic and believable

To the first point yes it could even though I don't think most would react or take action like the couple, especially the guy did really many things that were far fetched.

To the second point I think there were way too many unbelievable (and stupid) actions and especially too many coincidences that it stopped being believable and I couldn't take it serious any more. And I'm sure that the director intended it as a serious movie to shock its audience. He managed to do so with some (many?) viewers despite the many flaws.

It's true that people do stupid things when they are in panic but it looked like they lost any form of rational thinking. The rational thing is the couple packed their things when it was clear those pesky kids when not going to leave them alone, but that would have made a real short movie. But all the actions, coincidences they just seemed to prolong the movie repeating the same trick making it even predictable. The bleak ending was perhaps suprising but that it was going to be an unhappy end (even though more like a non ending) for the lady was to be expected. Like the rest of the movie totally unbelievable.


Apart from people doing stupid things or things they should not do (because they are in panic, scared, angry, sad) that would apply to many horror movies, movies in general and even real life. That it applies (or I think he meant should apply) to most horror movies like one user said I really disagree. I really don't expect everyone to be rational and do the logical thing but if a movie is intended to be taken seriously for me it shouldn't go overboard with stupidity. I guess that's just me and there is lots of people not seeming to care if anything seems possible and should be taken with a grain (lots of) salt. With that approach I might have enjoyed the flick but that's not how it works. You can defintely make a good movie without all the clichés, tricks and predictable actions and coincidences IMO.


From movies with a paranormal, supernatural or sci-fi theme I accept it not to be realistic or logical since that doesn not apply much there. I actually prefer movies with such themes. There should be rules however, the everything is allowed approach is still too easy (and lazy) IMO. Exceptions are comedies which are not to be taken seriously. Slashers also tend to have this inexplicable and illogical events but I do think most are not to be taken serious either.


But a movie that has the intention to be taken seriously and/or wants to be realistic in my book, should not use all the aforementioned tricks applied in Eden Lake.


What's your view on this?

2020 Black and White Challenge



The rules are very simply. You get a point for every minute of black and white that you watch. That means 3 hour movies and 5 minute shorts. The only thing different this year is if the video involves a pandemic you get 1 bonus point. It is going to start Monday the 6th at 12:00 local time and will run until midnight of the 6th of May (Or the end of the month not sure if this will confilt with anything, but Johan didn't seem like he was in a hurry to host this). Make your spot below.

Champagne and Caviar Mini Challenge

Starts Monday the 27th, runs until next Sunday

Rules are simple:
1 Point for a movie with a 7.0 or higher on IMDB
2 Points for a movie with an 8.0 or higher on IMDB
3 Points for a movie with a 9.0 or higher on IMDB
1 Point if you hate the movie
1 Point for FTV

•note you can double dip on points for the B&W challenge

A question about Martyrs (2008)

Now that Tromafreak mentioned the movie in his top 100 (calling it the best horror from the last 20 years or one of the best) and it's still in the running in the movie KO on MovieMeter, again a certain question popped up. One I have been wondering about not long after I had seen the movie the first (and still the only) time.

I had been critical of the movie. I reckon it is shocking. And I must say I was into it until about 45-50 minutes. I'm not saying it was great but it kept me curious enough to know what it was all about. And the revelation came why these girls were tortured to death. I was like yeah all right (still wondering if the motivation of the bad guys was either clever or just plain stupid but in the end I went for the latter) now we know and we still have like 30 or more minutes to go?


I was like the only thing that can happen next is that our main girl is going to endure similar torturings the old lady had been talking about. And that's what happened and as expected she was going to be that chosen one who could make the revelation the whole organisation was waiting for. The viewer waited for nothing since the old lady doesn't reveal anything and just commits suicide.

Of course those beatings and the crap she has to eat are not fun to watch but it gets so repetitive that its becomes tedious and boring (instead of shocking me more). It became more of an annoying exercise in patience to see if there is still anything interesting the movie could tell me. That didn't happen. For me it didn't matter if those scenes went on 5 minutes or half an hour. I already knew why, I already got the point, get on with it. I don't see the purpose to stretching it to such length with that knowledge you already gave me. To shock me until I looked way, well that didn't work. The movie went pretty fast from the start but the revelation came way too early, it stagnated and came pretty much to a halt and eventually there was no conclusion. Ok all in my point of view of course


Similar feelings I had with the final scene of Megan is Missing. It sucked for the girl but after 1 minute I knew she is not going to be rescued there is no point in stretching that scene for so long (to me anyway).


Anyway that's what I been wondering, no one else expected the main girl was going to be tortured? I haven't read or heard anyone predicting this.


I don't think I lack empathy but I think I'm still too aware I'm just watching a movie. Yesterday the local news showed some images of people in Ecuador literally dead on the street because of the Corona virus. That was very shocking to me.

Happy STAR WARS Day

Some people are crazy nerds about this series. I'm a moderate. However, I can appreciate some of its merits and visuals, and I wanted to make something for this "holiday". Hopefully, this shit works for you, and if it doesn't, you probably need to update your browser:

https://trashepics.com/app/star_wars/

Tiger King Scripted TV Series Starring Nicolas Cage

So, I just read that there is going to be a Tiger King tv series. At first, I thought it was a joke, but nope it's true. The best part is that Nicolas Cage will be playing Joe Exotic! I'll be watching this one. I can't wait to see how Cage plays Joe. I wonder who will be playing Carole Fucking Baskin? This is going to be amazing! 😄