murderpartymovie.com

…and crashing hard, too. This Monday’s a rough one, coming quick on the heels of the massive geek bender that is the New York Comic Con. How can I be expected to keep my mind on these videotapes that need dubbing when it was only hours ago I was hanging out with Batman and Mr. T and Dark Phoenix and an officer from “V” and however many dozens of Stormtroopers? And by “hanging out with”, I do mean taking staged photographs with a disposable instamatic, and by “Batman et al.”, I do mean highly motivated folks in elaborate homemade costumes. I envy them and live vicariously through them: the Pure Nerds.

It was like a medieval market bazaar mixed with Halloween for adults. I was like a raccoon in a trash can over at the dollar bins and came away with pounds upon pounds of old yellowed issues of The ‘Nam and Moon Knight and Vault of Horror and all sorts of shit….oh man, do I love the way old comic books smell.

Ivan Brandon– the editor of the sci-fi anthology 24Seven (vol. 2), which was recently nominated for an (*ahem*) EISNER AWARD!!!– gave me a robot gorilla t-shirt so that was pretty cool, if I do say so. Two of the stories in that particular collection were indeed written by Macon from Murder Party (hey, that’s me!) which is probably why I rated such a radical gift.

http://www.amazon.com/24seven-2-Ivan-Brandon/dp/1582408467/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208795270&sr=8-1

Rick Spears, who directed some of the Lab’s earliest efforts back in the day (what do you mean you’ve never heard of Hot Trash or Hot Trash 2?) and is now a big indie comic name residing in Richmond, Va., crashed at my place for the weekend. Rather, he crashed there after he passed out on the Q train and looped twice in and out of Brooklyn and only crawled his raggedy ass inside as the sun was coming up….but it was great to see my old pal again. Check out his company, Gigantic Graphic Novels: he’s doing exciting work over there, the least of which is probably the noir/horror/comedy Hellcity, penned by yours truly.

http://www.giganticgraphicnovels.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Hellcity-Macon-Blair/dp/0976303833/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208795712&sr=1-1

Now, of all the costumed characters I saw strolling the floor, there was not a single Brown Knight amongst them. (And I was not the slightest bit surprised: Murder Party has a long ways to go before its hero is as recognized and beloved as, say,  any single one of the Drednoks.) But wait– what’s this over here at the 2008 Horror Hound Weekend? Why that’s our new best friend Ed, from Lafayette, Indiana, dressed as poor ol’ Christopher S. Hawley and he even went so far as to carry around a load of pumpkin bread…brilliant! (I hope he used organic raisins.)

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.editAlbumPhoto&albumID=471611&imageID=21900815&MyToken=5e0de7c8-cc97-4344-b787-47e56f96b028

Thank you, Ed! You’re a true master and you’ve swollen our heads another notch. And speaking of swollen heads, check out this review from Rock Immortals…high praise indeed!

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=231135696&blogID=381599942

Rock Immortals, as always, you are too kind! (And I think ”cherubic” is code for “needs to eat less bread”.)

Well shit…I guess these tapes aren’t gonna dub themselves. (grumble) Back to work now. I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend as much as I did…and I hope you all have a great week coming up…

Take it easy!

So William and I went to the movies this weekend for a long overdue man-date. The one and only choice, of course, was Street Kings. The anticipation had been building all week, so much so that it seemed like we had already seen the movie in our heads long before we actually entered the theater. And while I felt that our version– the one in which all the characters constantly describe themselves as “Street Kangs!” who do “street thangs!”– was better than the one that we actually watched, it was still a fun Saturday diversion. Dumb and obvious maybe (and what isn’t these days?) but Johnny Utah got his butch on real good and the Last King of Scotland can yell like a motherfucker.

But because I am apparently magnetized to barn-raised morons whenever I go to the movies, we sat directly in front of the infamous Talkalot Crew from down abouts Mouthbreathin’ Way. Their signature move was ‘The Replay’, wherein they would loudly repeat to each other exactly what was just revealed on screen. For example, when one of the Street Kings lifts his head in horrified realization and hisses into the camera ”It was a set up!“, then our scalpel-keen neighbors to the rear make the cognitive leap, clap their hands and bellow “Ohhhhh shit–it was a set up!”

So it’s like we got two movies for the price of one. Three if you count the imaginary version we’d already seen. We win.

Anyways, let’s do some Murder Party reviews!

Here’s one from Enemy2Fashion, which applies a refreshing  less-is-more approach.

http://enemy2fashion.blogspot.com/2008/04/murder-party.html

Just the facts. Good. Thank you, E2F!

And here’s another one from GhostLikeSwayze, which will have to take a little medicine after the link….

http://ghostlikeswayze.wordpress.com/2008/04/07/murder-party-review/

In the spirit of “all press is good press”, your review is very much appreciated but there are a few points I have to make here…

1. “Check out the IMDB boards for Murder Party and the director gets on there every once in a while to discuss the film. They will not hesitate to write shit back to you if you bash the movie.”  It’s true that Jeremy (the Director) checks the message boards every now and then to answer specific questions or give thanks if he’s received a compliment, but only ONCE has he responded to someone who had bashed the movie. Here’s what he said in that case:

“I’m sorry you thought the film was a turd. We’ll try better next time. Just out of curiosity, what were some films you DID enjoy this year?  -Jeremy S (directurd of MURDER PARTY)”

Self-effacing, humorous, graceful. I hardly think that qualifies as “writing shit back”, do you? My point is that Jeremy (as well as the producers Chris and Skei) are far too adult and  well-mannered (not to mention busy) to engage in any contretemps with the online critics.

Not me though! Which leads me to my second point…

2. You might want to proofread your work before you characterize the people you’re writing about as “amateurs”, else you could have a pot calling the kettle black type situation.

All playful scrapping aside, thanks very much to GhostLikeSwayze!

And now….I’m off to do my street thangs.

Happy Monday, everybody!

We here at the Murder Party offices (a.k.a. my day job at the videotape dubbing center where I am an astonishingly bad employee) were thrilled to learn that we had been given a shout of support on F That Movie, a  fun-as-hell podcast in which a couple of wise-assy movie lovin’ guys (and gal) talk about the good shit they’ve seen lately (with occasional blasts of Tourettes karaoke, it’s uh….well, you’ll see.) We get the honor tap in Episode 56…here’s the link:

www. fthatmovie. com

Or you could friend ’em on this here MySpace situation…they’ve got hours of groovy content for your enjoyment. Thanks a billion (that’s up from our previous ’thanks a million’, Mr. Bernake, *ahem*) to Jake and Dylan and Brooke over at F That Movie!!

www. myspace. com/fthatmovie

Now, if you’re a regular reader here, you’ll know that Beryl Guceri (who played the Unfortunate Photo Assistant in Murder Party) and the younger Blair brothers, Brooke & Will, (who wrote the score) play in East Hundred, a genuinely fantastic band outta  Philly. (Honestly, they’re awesome: no nepotism here, we wouldn’t stand for it.) It seems they’re finally about to get some long overdue television exposure on an upcoming travel & music show called “On The Road Again” (or perhaps it’s not actually a full show, maybe just a segment on a show–I’m not really certain because my brothers write me incomplete emails with news like this.) Anyways, hooray for them and check it out here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHzN_LzI9Ak

And finally, let me just address the elephant in the room, that singular bit of news buzzing on everybody’s lips this week, the earth-shaking development that has turned the entire entertainment industry on it’s collective ear: 5.9 on IMDB, baby!!

Yes, yes: after many long months languishing under a 5.8 user review rating, we saw our prestige jump a tenth of a point this week and let me tell ya, it’s like living in a coal mine and finally coming to the surface for a breath of sweet, fresh air. And I’ll tell you another thing: six-flat is right around the corner! Fuck yeah!

To all the folks who voted us a positive on IMDB: you absolutely rule. If we knew who you were, you’d each get a personal thanky but since we don’t, I hope this blanket virtual hug that I’m now sending out will sufficiently convey our gratitude. Mmm-wah.

Annnnd that’s it for now, friends. Apparently there are some fun folks out in Seattle who are having a Murder Party Drinking Party later this week (take a shot of bloody tequila every time you hear the word ’dildo!’) so if we hear any details about that and if the people involved are not dead of alcohol poisoning afterwards, we’ll share that with you next time.

Take care.

UPDATE!

Damn. Me and my big mouth. We’re already back down to 5.8. Oh well….it was glorious while it lasted, a little slice of heaven up there at 5.9. The haters must have been threatened by our phoenix-like ascendancy.

But hey, check it out: Stacy Rock posted an new IMDB headshot and she looks freakin’ fantastic so it’s like we already broke even!

…MAD DASH.

Now, this is something that has been in the works since around the time MURDER PARTY screened at the South by Southwest Film Festival in 2007. As we are learning (and trust me, it goes totally against every grain of my being) the name of the game is “You cannot speak to anyone about this until the ink is dry on the contracts.” My own mother didn’t even know this was going to happen (well….to be honest, she knows now because I called her last night) and although, technically speaking, the aforementioned ink has not yet been applied to the aforementioned contracts, I have been given permission by the powers that be to announce that The Lab of Madness, as a filmmaking collective, has effectively reached a deal to write, produce, and direct the feature film MAD DASH for Sarnsley Media.

The direct-to-DVD production will be a modern reboot of the 80s horror classic LINK. The pitch is as follows:

“When two inner-city step dancing siblings fall into trouble with the law, they are sent to stay with their estranged uncle at his spooky countryside mansion. There, they meet Dash, their uncle’s hyper-intelligent orangutan servant and at first all is well as they show him their moves and enjoy their first taste of nature. But when a series of mysertious and deadly accidents occurs, the siblings begin to suspect that Dash is up to something far more sinister than the backspin and must convince their uncle to help them stop Dash before more people are hurt.”

The budget will be mid-six figures and casting will begin out of NY and LA in May. Shooting will commence in July in Asheville, North Carolina. Matt Parker of The Group Entertainment (who brokered the deal with Sarnsley Media) will executive produce. Chris Sharp of The Lab of Madness will produce. Paul Goldblatt of The Lab of Madness will be designing all of the Dash effects, which will be a combination of man-in-suit, puppetry, and modern digital effects. Jeremy Saulnier will direct from a script collectively written by The Lab of Madness.

Folks, as much as I love me some MURDER PARTY, I can’t tell you how goddamn good it feels to be moving on to something bigger and better. Life is all about forward motion, y’know? Thank you so much to everyone who has supported us with out first movie for without you, we wouldn’t be here about to embark on our second.

Special thanks to Mike Jeffway at Sarnsley and everyone at The Group Entertainment who believed in us and what we could do with a valuable property like LINK, that is to say make it a fresh and relevant orangutan horror-thriller for a 21st century audience.

More updates to come as we get closer to production and keep your eyes peeled for MAD DASH in 2009!

(Ooops! “Keep your eyes PEELED”…did I just give away one of Dash’s kills? Hmmm….maybe I did….)

april fool’s. we love you all.