Richard Brooker: RIP to the Man in the Mask

Probably best known for portraying the famed masked, machete wielding maniac, Jason VoorHees, and ironically was the actor that first put on the hockey mask that would forever be associated to Jason, Richard Brooker has passed away at 58.

[Richard] Brooker began his career in the Friday the 13th Part 3 which in turn lead him to other acting spots such as the film Deathstalker (1983) and an episode of Trapper John M.D.. Brooker was also a stuntman and an avid polo player. Originally from Europe he trained as a trapeze artist and performed throughout the world as a circus stage manager.

After his brief stint as an actor, Brooker turned his sights towards production and directing. He is credited for directing 42 episodes for Bill Nye the Science Guy.

He was set to appear at the 30th Anniversary of the Iconic Hockey Mask from Friday the 13th along with Kane Hodder at the Calgary Horror Con in September.

How Masked Horror Villains Should Jump the Medium

Ah, yes. What I am sure is going to be the next “low-rent” re-hash of one of my favorite horror flicks makes it’s way to the movie theaters today. “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” has had some worthy notes to the franchise and some rather full fledge duds as well. And this latest incarnate of Leatherface has me feeling that this is on the latter side of the sequel/remakes.

This time around “TCM” gets a name makeover to the awesomeness of “Texas Chainsaw 3D” (yes, for whatever the fucking reason we get to see Leatherface in all his gory glory in 3D… yay! And yes I am being sarcastic when I say “YAY”). Hollywood seems to still have a hard-on for that for some moronic reason. Sure we have the supper hot Alexandra Daddario for our heroine but is that enough to make me cough up ten plus dollars to sit in the theater, and in January no less. Because we all know that January is the dumping ground for crap movies. That and I have been fucked over too many times with these updates/reboots that have just sucked. (“Friday the 13th” anyone?)

Hey. I am all for a good telling of the same old story. (Just ask any of my friends who get to sit through one of my drunken retellings of days gone by to anyone new and/or willing to listen.) I think with how horror has finally jumped mediums and moved into television we can truly explore some of the old 80s villains. (Hell, they already have Norman Bates & Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lector cued up, ready to go.) Just look how widely respected “American Horror Story” and “Walking Dead” have become. This makes me think that it might be time to explore that thinking. How good of a story do you think can come out of story lines like “Hellraiser” if given a 13 episode run instead of trying to pound 3 lbs of shit into a 80-90 minute flick? Same goes to Freddy, Jason, and the aforementioned Leatherface.

Hopefully Hollywood is watching and taking note if “Bates Motel” takes off. Imagine the great TV horror fans and fans of the great masked villains would be given.

Until Next time…

"The Zero Boys" My Sixth Must See Pick for the Halloween Season

What do you get when you take “Wrong Turn” and add a bunch of wannabe survivalists/paint ball game players and make it in 1986?

You would get “The Zero Boys” that’s what.

By 1986 the horror market, especially horror set out in the backwoods (think the “Friday the 13th series) was rapidly growing stale and I found the “The Zero Boys” a nice, if not a cliché, departure from the big three (Jason, Michael, & Freddy) but still giving us all the basic needs when it comes to the genre: babes, babes for fodder, dudes for fodder, booze, sex, and we can not forget the main attraction: that being crazed hillbillies living in the backwoods doing dastardly things to un-expecting saps that happen to run across them.

The film opens up with a red hearing, the surrounding countryside appears to either be the intro of one of those 80’s apocalypse films that B-movie Hollywood loved to turn out at the time or this it could be a suburb of Tijuana. They both look pretty much the same. However, both choices are wrong and it turns out to just be a paintball survival game.

We follow our heroes to the path of victory as the main Zero Boy, Steve (Daniel Hirsh) puts a well place blob of paint goo into the forehead of a dude dressed as a Nazi SS officer, and in effect winning their little side bet. That of SS guy’s girlfriend, Jamie (80’s Scream Queen, Kelli Maroney).

After a little tension and an early version of a bad music montage where we see the rest of the team get together with their girlfriends and head out for a long weekend away from the city we finally get out to the woods and learn a little backs story on why the Zero Boys call themselves that. I won’t go into the full details other than they used to suck as a paintball team and they didn’t get awesome until they started training with REAL weapons. (Don’t all awesome paintball teams train that way?)

Of course while the group is out playing in the woods Jamie thinks that she sees someone running in the distance. Of course, at first, no one believes until they hear a woman scream from off in the said distance. Which then leads them the group to discover -and to forget about the scream- a house and barn off the well beaten path. At first the group thinks they have stumble upon some rich dudes haunting lodge and do what any normal person does when they find someone else’s house in the woods: make themselves right at home.

And this being horror all the fun comes to a crashing halt when Steve and another of his posse stumble across the fun and excitement that is the barn. Turns out the owners of the house have set up a sweet little snuff movie production pad out in the barn. And now it looks as if the Zero Boys are next of the play list.

So check it out. While not the best of production values it does hold up well with the other 80’s offerings of horror and in my opinion surpasses some of the mainstream sequel retreads early mentioned.

Until next time…