There's all sorts of hidden treasure on the internet. Every once and a while an interesting piece resurfaces. Such is the case with the short called "Pencil Face", Directed by Christian Simmons. 

A friend of mine clued me in to this oldie (uploaded to Youtube May 15th 2008) but a goodie as seen on the SCADshorts channel. That creepy large pencil had an ominous presence to it to say the least (the music is an excellent addition). Sit back and enjoy:

Tracking down more info about where this came from was a little difficult.

According to SCAD(Savannah College of Art and design)Shorts' twitter, the entertaining branch was discontinued by  SCAD. As per the Youtube channel, it was a "Monthly series of shorts by the Dandy Dwarves". Dandy Dwarves do have a twitter but don't seem to have been active since May in 2011 at the time of this post. The website links to an other language site. 

If you like Simmons' work, there's a couple of other works by him on the old SCADShorts channel by clicking through to Youtube above. 

His IMDB listing is HERE

Got some other piece of internet creepy you want to share? Let me know through Facebook, Twitter or e-mail!

Thanks Mark for the heads up on this one

- Josh

V/H/S is an anthology of found footage movies with multiple directors (Adam Wingard, Ti West, David Bruckner, Glenn McQuaid, Radio Silence and Joe Swanberg.) The trailer boasts that it’s the “Official Selection” of 12 film festivals including Sundance and SXSW. MSNBC said it was “So terrifying it made people sick”.

When a group of criminals are sent to break into a house to retrieve a tape they know little about, they find a cache of bizarre found footage. When the house’s sole occupant is found dead in front of stack of T.Vs emitting eerie white noise, the guys take to watching the VHS tapes. What kind of horrible things have been recorded? Are they really as alone in the house as they think? 

… If it were a hamburger, the short found footage flicks would make up 5 patties - two with some taste, but all together rotting - and nestled  by crusted buns I couldn’t care any less about. While that’s being colorful, there really is few redeeming qualities and for that reason V/H/S gets a 4.5/10.

First the buns (The segments that tie it all together): Finding a stockpile of disturbing VHS movies is a good idea. Having the finders watch those movies in a creepy house with a dead man in it is a good idea. But having the finders be criminals who assault a young woman within the first 2 mins of the movie is a terrible idea. Next, they vandalize someone’s place. By the time they reach the house, the place has lost all its creepiness because the viewer’s rooting for the home to hurry up and kill them already. But first we have to watch the found footage.

The first Patty(“Amateur Night” Segment): Three “bros” go to the bar to pick up women and end up with squirrely looking lady who too easily makes known her affection for the guy with the camera glasses. All sorts of red flags go off and for good reason… It isn’t creepy. Not even scary. Interesting, maybe, as a part of a T.V. show or stand alone urban legend of sorts. It isn’t enough of a hook to live up to “So terrifying it made people sick”. By the end, you’re 30 mins in to the movie.

The Second Patty(“Second Honeymoon” Segment): Is really the downfall. With unlikeable core characters and an OK first entry, this second one is really off base. Here, a couple is vacationing when they notice a girl bumming a ride in the middle of the night at the motel they are staying at. They think to call the cops because of the disruption but don’t. Turns out that girlie can somehow get into their room at night while they’re sleeping though… SPOILER… it’s kind of a snuff film… and the guy's girlfriend was in on it the whole time (Which makes void the little amount of scary it had going for it)! While the rest of the movie anthology has a supernatural feel, this one’s completely different.

The Third Patty (“Tuesday the 17th” Segment): If you haven’t turned it off by now, there are some redeeming bits at the 55 min mark. A group of friends go on an outing in the woods where murders took place in years past. One friend has other motives than just a good time out. The storyline and characters suffer from the time constraints of the segment but make cool use of old camera effects. Like having dead bodies pop in and out of the screen as though only the camera sees them… the murderer appears as a blur in that way as well.

The Fourth Patty(“The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger” Segment): Begins okay with a woman connecting with an old friend and love interest via webcam. She thinks her place is haunted and connects with him when the ghosts are at play during the night. But there’s more to the situation than a simple haunting. The love interest himself is implicated somehow. The pay out in this one isn’t great and for its flavor is a lot like the first patty: just Ok .

The Fifth Patty(“10/31/98”): at 1 hr 28 mins in, the other redeeming section pops up, by then, too little too late. A group of guys go to a Halloween party to find the house empty. They scour the house in search of the party, mistaking supernatural forces at work for an elaborate gag – that is until they stumble upon some sort of cult event upstairs. The house really comes alive thereafter.  While predictable at parts and could well be faulted for overly flashy CG, it still pulls off a decent scare factor. Is easily the best section of the movie.

If you gotta watch it, the 55min and 1hr 28 min markers are the place to be, otherwise, you’re not missing much if you missed watching V/H/S in its entirety.

- Josh

“Mama” is a 2013 Ghost Story starring Jessica Chastain (The Help, Zero Dark Thirty, The Tree of Life), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Game of Thrones), Megan Charpentier (Resident Evil: Retribution’s “The Red Queen”) and Isabelle Nélisse (Who’s just starting out her movie career).  Directed by Andrés Muschietti (Maker of the short “Mamá” (2008).

After their father, Jeff (Nikolaj) killed their mother, he leads daughters: Lilly (Nélisse) and Victoria (Charpentier), who are but 1 and 3 years old respectively, into a snowy woods after their getaway results in a car crash. They happen upon a lone, abandoned house by a lake where they stay for what was suppose to be a brief bit while dad prepares to murder his daughters, probably to turn the gun on himself afterwards. Grisly indeed... But “Mama” saves the day. She guards the kids for two years while their uncle Lucas searches for them, hoping to find them alive or at least to provide them a proper burial. They’re found, by then quite feral, and while safe now, Mama lingers still, becoming jealous of new contact with other human beings. Caught up in all this is Annabel (Chastain), who doesn’t want to be a mom but is in an awkward position of being in love with Lucas, who takes custody of the kids. As the children open up to their new guardians and to psychologist Dr. Dreyfuss, so too does the story of “mama” and the real danger that lies hidden in “The walls”!

It doesn’t have the twists and turns I’ve heard of from some reviews. Forget the twists and turns. Other than there being a child psychologist in the movie, there’s little else psychological about it. It’s a ghost story, and a solid one at that. 

Chastain and the kids (Nélisse and Charpentier) are great, offering much in the way of character beyond the regular horror story staples of unwitting or fearful lead and creepy, vulnerable children. That isn’t to say they’ve escaped all horror movie conventions (Chastain’s wardrobe for one, and all sorts of wandering around in the dark for another). What’s great is that the flick offers some movement on an emotional level with what feels like natural relationship building between the girls and their guardians, making for a refreshingly grounded ghost story.

And the scares! “Mama” isn’t short in the jump out at you scares. I’m not a fan of those because I think they’re cheap. The way the music swells when that happens and then dies down to near silence thereafter is cheap. Mama’s got some of that. But she also has a great story (albeit with excess fat in the uncle and psychologist department) AND she’s got genuinely awesome horror! While the CG is a little too CG at times, it’s largely very well done. One GREAT part sticks out where mama stands, with a dislocated upright and slanted posture, at the end of a corridor. Victoria warns her sister not to look at mama because “she’s mad”.  And is she ever.

There are plenty of loose ends in “Mama” suggesting that parts were edited out or were just dead ends, but a worthwhile experiences rises above it. And that ending… It goes confidently where it wants to go and is something of a bittersweet if not thought provoking (the conflicting kind) finale. Mama gets an 8.3/10. Go and see it.

- Josh

Creepy webcomics like that of the ‘Bongcheon-Dong Ghost’ are always welcome here. Never heard of the Bongcheon-Dong Ghost story? Then check out the past post about it by clicking HERE. Do that first.

Looks like Writer and Illustrator Horang, of the above ghost story, followed up with another web comic known as the 'Ok-su station Ghost'. It’s a little late coming, but follow the link through to the comic and scroll down through the strip for a unique experience. Make sure to save this one for night time:

Oksu station is a real place. The event is portrayed as having taken place on the “Line 3” platform. 

Know about the "Posting and Picture on C bulletin board of D community website in 2009" that inspired this web comic? Know of any other web comics like it? Comment below. I would love to hear about it.

- Josh

Don’t be fooled by the video title, it's an Internet [HORROR] Story. It opens with:

“This is a true story about the internet. Please don’t go. It’s also a story of a treasure map and a murder”

...I just finished airing my dislike for stories that pretend to be real when they’re not, but since this one has tagged on it: Written and Directed by Adam Butcher, it gets a pass.

Story goes Adam went so far as to have a fake website and Youtube channel put up to support the backstory. Now that’s dedication. And the video… is an unsettling little piece worth sharing. Take a look for yourself:

Still uncertain if it's made up or not? Search the net for more. But remember that if you go searching, "Sometimes we just don't realize what we're looking for."

You can visit Adam Butcher's website by clicking HERE. You can find some interesting articles about the short there. He appears to have some promising talent.

also, visit his Youtube Channel by clicking HERE

- Josh

"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education" Albert Einstein

With education and mastery comes familiarity and often times rigidity of thought about the way things work. To be clear, education on its own is valuable and necessary. Trouble is, that setting into familiarity and rigidity likely stems breakthrough creative ideas that result in important change.   

Paula Scher, A graphic designer speaking at the Art Center Design Conference (2008), talks about the kind of important breakthrough creative ideas above. She calls it ‘serious play’.

Scher talks  about key points in her life where she produced ‘serious play’. 

On the subject of her early career and designs resulting from her hatred for Helvetica and the discovery of overseas fonts, she states:

Later she adds

The full TED talk is here:

In Steve Martin’s book “Born Standing up: A Comic’s Life” he says: 

From  Jonah Lehrer’s book “Imagine”: As per Dean Simonton, a psychologist at UC-Davis, Simonton “…has shown that physicists tend to make their most important discoveries early in their careers, typically before the age of thirty: The only field that peaks before physics is poetry.”

But Simonton also brings up mathematician, Paul Erdos, who had seen steady important productivity throughout his career and points to his having had the ability to explore his discipline in working with different people and problems to maintain the viewpoint of the outsider. 

Turns out continuing education and mastery may not be where creativity goes to die after all. That is, if we can be creative about keeping things fresh and be mindful about finding ways to keep our minds open.

Lehrer summarizes, “…Outsider creativity isn’t a phase of life – it’s a state of mind” 

- Josh

‘Creepy Pasta’ is a term used to describe creepy horror stories posted to the Internet, collected in areas like creepypasta.com and creepypasta.wiki.com. Many among them are written in a way that suggests they are real life accounts… which is a huge pet peeve of mine.

I’m not a fan of masquerading a story around as real to boost the creepiness instead of working the story to suspend a reader’s disbelief and immerse them by other means. That aside, the stories - taken lightly - are often great reads. Add to that: a narrator, creepy background music and an unsettling Youtube Photo backdrop and you have an awesome and unnerving experience waiting for you to take in.

Now, there are many ‘Creepy Pasta’ audio readers on Youtube. One of these is the very talented ‘Scarecrow1719’. You should give her a listen. Her Facebook page can be found HERE and a cleverly named Pasta reading channel called “Sugar, Spice and Dark Stormy Nights” can be found HERE.

She has a flare for Dramatic reading, has some great background music and even added sound effects at times. 

Question: What happens when you find a man standing outside your house every night between 2 and 3 am? 

He looks ill, with pale skin and tattered suit. When you wonder about him, you receive a makeshift letter in the mail that reads "There is no need for your concern". You find him outside the window again that night. Your curiosity takes over. What happens next? Take a listen: 

Now listen to this one for some great added effects including a well delivered ending:

For more, visit her channel!

- Josh

There's a creative challenge making its way through social networking sites that's getting some attention. Have you seen it?

This and Facebook status updates like it have been challenging the community to get the creative gears turning in a fun exchange that stands to be a great time. Creative pay it forward groups are sprouting up too. But how successful will the effort be? Will only those who already write and/or bake, and/or sow or engage in whatever creative endeavour take part? How keen will those who aren't the 'creative type'  be in stepping out of their comfort zone to tap the creativity we all possess? How apt will people be to play into getting an interesting creative treat from someone and have others accept the challenge from them? It's a great idea, but will it work?

Take the above quote and paste it into the status of whichever social networking system you use to see for yourself! Have fun with it!

- Josh

Machinarium, now there’s an attractive Point and Click adventure that’s been showcased on the Apple App store a while. Unfortunately, it isn’t for everyone. While the quaint and charming art style will attract many, its difficulty level will put off more than a few (Even when offset by the games hints and answers mechanism (which should be applauded but falls short in making the game as accessible as possible). 

Your adventure begins on a scrapheap on the outskirts of the city. Your mission is to save your robot girlfriend while disarming a big bomb and doing away with some baddies to boot. It’s a fun one, but the thin narrative loses steam easily with every puzzle roadblock and especially around the point where the world opens up about halfway through. By the time you race against the bomb’s count down timer, you’ll wonder where all the urgency had been hiding. To say the least, the adventure’s about the charming world, the music and the puzzles – not the flow of the story or building emotional attachment (though there’s a semi effective play on the latter via some thought bubble flashbacks).

Those puzzles! They’re very well thought out and intricate as hell. Learning to manipulate some can be difficult however. That’s because 'in game' hints can be cruelly subtle. There’s a hint option that will help you through but I’m thinking many will have to refer to the 'in game' answer book that can be accessed via a mini game. It’s a great way to do it, but more overt directions to solving puzzles could have improved success rates and players wouldn’t risk being taken out of the game as much trying to access the answer book to move forward.

Machinarium gets 4/5 stars if you like your Point and Click adventures but loses an extra star in accessibility for other gamers, myself included.  


- Josh