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31 Nights of Horror 2021

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Scary Movies at the Fort Robert Forto

31 Nights of Horror 2020

This year we continued with our annual 31 Nights of Horror extravaganza. We decided that this would be the year of Michael Myers. We watched all of the Halloween movies in three separate timelines. This was the first time we ever did this and it was interesting to see the similarities and easter eggs in all of the films.

Be sure to follow us on our Facebook Page at Scary Movies at the Fort and on Twitter @robertforto 

Here is this year’s list:

  1. Halloween (1978)
  2. Halloween 2 (1981)
  3. Halloween 3: Season of the Witch
  4. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
  5. A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
  6. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
  7. Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers
  8. Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers
  9. New Nightmare
  10. Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
  11. Halloween: Resurrection 
  12. Halloween (2007)
  13. Halloween II (2008)
  14. Halloween (2018)
  15. Halloween Kills (2021)
  16. The Old Ways (2021) on Netflix
  17. Trick ‘r Treat (2007)
  18. A Nightmare on Elm Stree 2: Freddy’s Revenge
  19. A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
  20. Sleepaway Camp
  21. A Nightmare of Elm Street 5: The Dream Child
  22. Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare
  23. Freddy vs. Jason
  24. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
  25. Bingo Hell
  26. Gretel & Hansel
  27. Get Out
  28. Pet Sematary
  29. The Revenge of Frankenstein
  30. Carrie (2013)
  31. TBA
  32. Carrie (1976)



 

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Horror Lovers Challenge: Creepiest Dead Body

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POLTERGEIST (1982)
Director: Tobe Hooper
Cast: Craig T. Nelson, JoBeth Williams, Zelda Rubinstein
Poltergeist’s climactic backyard splashdown is a masterwork of horror intensity. Actress JoBeth Williams, fleeing from a house overrun by demons, tumbles through a rainstorm into a hole dug for an impending pool. As Williams wails and flails, skeletons continually pop up from the mud all around her in a nonstop onslaught of terror.
By any circumstances, that’s scary. Now consider that the skeletons had actually once been inside of living human beings. According to JoBeth Williams herself:
“In my naivete, I assumed these were not real skeletons, I assumed that they were prop skeletons, you know, made out of plastic or rubber or something. But the skeletons were not synthetic. I found out from the crew that they were using real skeletons, because it’s far too expensive to make skeletons out of rubber and stuff. And I think everybody got very creeped out by the idea of that.”
Bruce Kasson, who worked as Assistant Prop Master on Poltergeist, confirms the claim, stating:
“Yes, the skeletons were real. They came from Carolina Biological. Replica skeletons did not exist, as far as I remember, at that time They’re now common and relatively cheap. And the rush to the bottom line for cost will dictate.” [Blumhouse]
DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978)
Director: George Romero
Cast: David Emgee, Ken Foree, Galen Ross
Dawn of the Dead, George Romero’s landmark zombie apocalypse epic, showcases makeup and special effects by Tom Savini that elevate the art form to new heights of gross-out greatness.
On one of the props, though, Savini had some help from Mother Nature. He unwittingly worked with a bona fide skeleton that appears early on, sitting up in the hall of an apartment complex, wrapped in a sort of hooded sheet.
Savini had borrowed the skeleton from a prop collector named Larry Winterstellar, who wasn’t sure where it came from. Afterward, Winterstellar sold the bones to Marilyn Wick, owner of a shop called Costume World. Once there, the skeleton sat in the front window as a decoration.
While dropping by Costume World one day, a police officer noticed the skeleton and thought it looked too convincing. He turned out to be right. A coroner determined the skeleton belonged to an unidentified 35-year-old woman, and she had died about 100 years prior to her movie debut.
In 1982, a judge ordered the remains to be properly buried in a cemetery. The woman was laid to rest in an unmarked grave until 2014, when fans of the film raised money to buy her a proper headstone. Costume World proprietor Wick donated the bulk of the money.
Today, the mystery woman is properly laid to rest under a marker with a name given to her by DOTD devotees: Dawn Doe. [Dread Central]
MEN BEHIND THE SUN (1988)
Director: Tung Fei Mous
Cast: Jianxin Chen, Shu Gou, Linjie Hao
Inspired by the all-too-horribly-true World War II atrocities committed by Japan’s General Shirō Ishii, Men Behind the Sun is a largely unwatchable cavalcade of human cruelty.
Chinese writer-director Tung Fei Mous has said he created the film to bring awareness to the crimes committed against his imprisoned countrymen (and women and children) as part of the sick and horrific biological warfare experiments undertaken and overseen by Ishii in the notorious “Unit 731.”
Boasting convincing visual effects too heartbreaking and stomach-emptying to even describe, Men Behind the Sun goes beyond fake blood and rubber guts. For a scene where a young boy is anesthetized and has his organs removed while alive, Mou uses footage of an actual child’s autopsy. Yes, you read that right. [Birth. Movies. Death]
BEYOND THE DARKNESS (1979)
Director: Joe D’Amato
Cast: Kieran Canter, Cinza Monreale, Franca Stoppi
Over the course of an almost impossibly prolific exploitation flick career, Italian splatter-horror guru Joe D’Amato churned out some of the most insane, explicit, and gloriously over-the-top outrages to ever stain movie screens blood-red.
Beyond the Darkness (BTD) is brutal and berserk even by standards befitting the filmmaker who also brought us Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals (1977), Erotic Nights of the Living Dead (1980), and Porno Holocaust (1981).
BTD, which played in America as Buried Alive, chronicles a mad taxidermist who digs up his fiancée’s corpse and attempts to resurrect her via home surgery. It doesn’t work, but we do witness him torturing, dismembering, and cannibalizing other victims in the process.
As noted, Beyond the Darkness immediately stood out upon arrival and then became legendary once rumors swirled that D’Amato illegally obtained human corpses and used them for the movie’s rambunctiously repulsive gore segments. A new extras-packed BTD Blu-ray explores the film’s frantic history in full. Don’t miss it — if you dare. [Severin Films]
UNREST (2006)
Director: Jason Todd Ipson
Cast: Corri English, Scot Davis, Joshua Alba
Unrest is an unsettling horror thriller centered on a dead body in a hospital morgue that seems to curse anyone with whom it comes in contact.
The movie’s atmosphere feels uncannily true-to-life (and death) and, in terms of jolts, autopsy imagery abounds. The former might be chalked up to writer-director Jason Todd Ipson being an actual medical doctor and a formerly practicing surgeon. The latter proves especially effective because Ipson incorporates film footage of legitimate post-mortem medical examinations.
When asked about the use of real human remains, Ipson said:
“I absolutely will not deny that, but I absolutely cannot verify it … Prosthetics are make-believe. I want people to really understand human anatomy and what death means … What we did was very respectful of the dead and their spirits.”
Ipson went on to make the comedy Everybody Wants to Be Italian (2007). In keeping with his commitment to authenticity, that film contains the use of some actual Italians. [Skewed and Reviewed]

Scuba Certified

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Some people live their lives trying completing to complete a bucket list. I too have that list that I think about and at 48 years old I sometimes wonder if I will leave my bucket half empty or half full. I guess it’s the way you look at it really.

For my entire life I have wanted to become a certified scuba diver. I have wanted to do this since I saw the movie Creature From the Black Lagoon on tv on Creature Feature when I was a little kid.

Then I saw Jaws and it was all over! I knew at some point in my life I would breathe under water.

When I finished up by degree last year at the University of Alaska Anchorage (yep another one of those items in the bucket), my wife Michele gave me a graduation gift that would take a lifetime to achieve. Dive with Great White Sharks in Mexico.

I quickly went online and found a trip and plopped down a thousand bucks for a deposit and scheduled my trip for November 2019. First I had to become scuba certified.

I headed down to one of the two dive shops in Anchorage and signed up. That was in March 2018. I breezed through the online course work and completed my confined water dives at the local high school pool in April. Then life got in the way–graduation, a summer expedition, dog mushing, rock concerts and roller coasters and even an earthquake!

I quickly realized that I had to have my dive course done in a year and if I didn’t jump on it fast I would have to start all over.

The dive shop that I did my confined dives with was either booked or had nothing scheduled so I went to the other guys, Dive Alaska. These guys were much more technical and require a lot out of their students.

I signed up for the next open water sessions, which are a weekend of dives in Whittier and a couple more pool dives.

Not only would I be getting my dives completed in the ocean, in February, but also in a dry suit and the certification that comes with that.

It had been almost a year since I have breathed underwater so it took a little bit to get my sea legs back. By the time we were in Whittier it was the middle of a massive snow storm where it dumped six inches of snow while we were underwater for our first dive!

I will admit it was a rough weekend. We couldn’t figure out the extra weight I needed to carry for me to sink. I know, if you have never done this you are thinking–you are crazy to want to sink to the bottom of the ocean!

By the time we figured out the weights, I thought I had 38 extra pounds on me. It ended up being 49 pounds.

I had so much weight that I couldn’t keep my head above water with my BC (sort of like a lifejacket that you inflate and deflate to keep yourself buoyant while diving) on. I felt like I was drowning every time we were on the surface of the water while we were waiting to do the next skill.

Underwater it was so awesome! There is no feeling like it in the world than to be literally floating in a world that many will never see.

The first day was rough but I felt good after I quit shivering. My dry suit did not remain dry and had quite a bit of water in it when I took it off. I finally got warm and headed back to Anchorage to the hotel.

Guess what was on that night? Creature from the Black Lagoon. I’m not making this stuff up. It just had to be!

Day two in the ocean was rough but I made it through the last two dives and the group headed to the local bar to debrief and learn we were certified divers!

YES! All of this for one reason–to dive with Great Whites in Mexico this fall. I can’t wait.

I was driving home in a blinding snow storm and this song came on SirusXM radio, Walk on the Ocean by Toad the Wet Sproket, a 90s classic. Again, I am not making this stuff up. Take a listen. Some call it irony. I call it premonition. What do you think?

Are you a certified diver? Let’s hear about your first dive and walking on the ocean.

Winter Expedition

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After months of planning, the first winter expedition class will be held through the University of Alaska Anchorage HPER Department.

Here is the course info:

2 credit course through UAA

Only EIGHT (8) spots are available!

Cost: $1000 and that includes all course tuition and fees

This course took over a year of planning to develop and we are excited to offer this opportunity. This is the only course in the UAA system like this. You do not need to be a full-time college student to take part but you will need to be registered as a non-degree seeking student. Contact UAA for details on this. You will need departmental approval. If you are interested in going let me know and I can give you more info on how to get this.

Schedule

Early November: Registration more info on dates can be found here:  UAA Spring Calendar

January 20: Pre-trip planning. This class will meet 6-9pm at UAA and we will go over the trip, planning, logistics, training, gear, paperwork and more.

February 18-19: Boot Camp/Skills Assessment. This will be held at Team Ineka in Willow. We will spend a night in the woods and will teach you everything you need to know about fat bikes, snow machines, dog mushing and more.

We will start the trip on Saturday March 11 by meeting as a group at Team Ineka.

March 11: Eaglequest Lodge. We are renting a cabin here at Eaglequest and they are going to provide an all you can eat spaghetti dinner. Breakfast will be available the next morning before we hit the trail.

March 12: Eaglequest to Yentna Station. We will travel approximately 35-40 miles on the river to Yentna Station. We will be staying in one of the cabins. Food will be available. The folks at Yentna are know for their world famous burgers!

March 13: Yentna to Talvista. We will travel via river and trail to the Talvista Lodge were we will enjoy a comfortable night which includes a prime rib dinner and a bonfire. This segment is also 35-40 miles.

March 14: Talvista to Eaglesong. We will travel overland to the famous Eaglequest Lodge. Dinner will be available. This segment is also about 35 miles.

March 15: Eaglesong to Redshirt. We will travel overland and on the rivers as we head toward the Nancy Lake Recreation Area where we will be staying in one of the public use cabins near Red Shirt Lake. Meals will be on you. Again about 35 miles.

March 16: Willow/Depart. This will be the last day of our trip and a relatively short run from Red Shirt Lake, around the Willow Swamp Trail and ending at the Willow Community Center. We will then return back to Team Ineka to unload the dog teams and the gear.

March 20: Debrief/Trip reports. We will meet at 6-9pm at UAA. This is a college course so their will be homework! Each day will will have “assignments” that we talk about on the trail. We will ask participants to provide an evaluation and a course end assignment that is due on this night in class.