Paranormal Activity 3

 I owe y'all a sincere appology.  My Grandmother has gone in for surgery and follow up appointments a lot in the last few weeks and I'm afraid that has caused to to shirk my responsibilities to my readers. This week a simple movie review and maybe next week I'll indulge y'all in something larger.

I am a big fan of the haunted house genre of film. My favorite horror movie right now happens to be Insidious. This film is brought to you by the same twisted minds that brought you the Paranormal Activity series and the Saw franchise. This is what brings me to this week’s topic: Paranormal Activity 3. Yes, I went and saw it and yes, I actually enjoyed it.

At first I was leery. I love the PA series as they have managed to bottle fear and project it onto a screen, but honestly how many times can we truly be scared by something we never really see? In this writer’s case, three times. The first PA movie I saw I was more than impressed with the realism of the situation. The film is Blair Witch Project in its execution without being hokey. The shaky camera work and amateurish acting at first had me very concerned. However as the story unfolded I was very pleased and impressed by how real the entire situation seemed. The second installment brings another piece into the puzzle. No one (in my opinion) is haunted by a demonic presence for no reason. Like any good sequel (and set up for a third) it also left us with more questions than answers. Here enters Paranormal Activity 3.

The hallmark of all of these films is the subtlety with which the problem (i.e. the haunting) is discovered. I can see myself in the near future using this film as a vehicle to properly explain the concept of dramatic irony.  Here we see the heroines of the first two films as children and watch the haunting that follows them initially enter into their lives. Many fun devices are used from bedroom sheets (I can’t help but quote Beetleguise in this moment), the Bloody Mary game, to children’s imaginary friends.

Overall I wouldn’t call this the “scariest” of the three films but I would call it the most unnerving. The last fifteen minutes of this film left a serious, indelible mark on my psyche.

Zombies Ate My Cupcakes

Bill Hinzman in Night of the Living Dead

I admit it… I’m in love with Zombies. There is just something amazing and fun to me about these undead creatures of the night. There are so many different kinds. The ones George A. Romero portrayed in some of his films like Night of the Living Dead or Dawn of the Dead are so very human with their shambling gait and decaying bodies. The ones from movies like 28 Days Later are far more feral and fast moving. In contrast though, there is Bill Hinzman’s character in Night of the Living Dead. He is the original ‘fast moving’ zombie. He has a category all unto himself. 

So needless to say when I received Lilli Vanilli’s book A Zombie Ate My Cupcake as a birthday gift, I couldn’t help but squeal in delight. This book is full of not only delicious recipes for cupcakes like red velvet or devils food but she takes the cutesy out of cupcake and turns them into a whole different monster. There are 25 different recipes including bleeding hearts, black roses, and even creepy eyes in your icing.

For my initial foray into the world of zombified baked goods I attempted the red velvet and buttercream brains along with butter cake cupcakes with her amazing vanilla frosting and gum paste roses. In her book the roses are black on a white vanilla backdrop. I tried something a little different; I made red roses that can look you in the eye.

I started by making 24 little balls of gum paste about the size of a pencil eraser leaving them to dry in a mini cupcake tin for about an hour. I then took standard liquid food coloring and painted the “pupil” and “iris” along with the veins along the sides. A toothpick came in handy for the vein work and also sinking in the pupil slightly allowing the color to pool.

 After that, I took the same white gum paste and tinted it pink, kneading it until it was a workable consistency. After that I just followed the book’s detailed directions for the black roses, wrapping the initial “cone” around the eyeball. By the time I was done they came out looking like this.I propped them up in the mini cupcake tin giving them another hour or so to dry before I painted them. 

Taking my cheep liquid food coloring again (using an egg carton for my palette) I painted the roses red. What I like about painting them red is it gave the petals a fabulous depth of translucent color just like a real rose petal. These I left overnight to dry. The same day I also baked the author’s amazing red velvet cupcakes but used a box mix for the butter cupcakes giving them plenty of time to completely cool prior to decorating.

The next day I made the recipe for vanilla frosting from the book and tinted it green with gel icing color from Wilton. Then taking a star tip, I piped a spiral across the top of the butter cupcakes to create a ‘bush’ for the roses to sit in. The red velvet cupcakes got butter cream ‘brains’ piped on the top using a round tip 12.

I’m very proud of the final result. These cupcakes ended up being devoured by a crew of hungry zombies and met with their approval. I would highly recommend the book. It’s a fabulous respite from the usual cutesy and unappetizing. You can order your copy here or use it as an excuse to pop down to the local book store. If you’re anything like me you’re always looking for a good excuse. Brains need feeding too.

Smell My Feet

In this second installment of the history of Halloween and its significance in the United States we will delve into the origins of “trick-or-treating.”

As we have already established, the modern holiday of Halloween, or All Hallows Eve, has its roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain. During the Irish potato famine of the 1840s thousands of Irish immigrants came to America, bringing with them many of their traditions including Halloween. From the roots of a New Year pagan festival with Christian trappings, the Americans added their own flavor.

Soul Cake

It is believed that the idea of trick-or-treating is derived from the 9^th century European custom of souling. A group of people (usually children) would wander from house to house on November 2^nd (All Souls Day) begging for “soul cakes.” The more cakes the beggars received, the more prayers they would say on behalf of the family’s departed souls stuck in Limbo. Shakespeare mentions the practice in his comedy The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1593), when Speed accuses his master of "puling [whimpering, whining], like a beggar at Hallowmas." 

The earliest reference to this “souling” in North America occurs in 1911. A newspaper in Ontario reports on small children going door-to-door visiting shops and neighbors alike and receiving nuts and sweets in exchange for rhymes and songs. 

Between the turn of the century and the 1920 there were many postcards printed depicting children on Halloween but none of them trick-or-treating. There is an isolated reference to trick-or-treating in Chicago in 1920 but the first “official” use of the phrase in a national publication didn’t happen until 1939.

While, at that time, pranks would often be committed on Halloween night (the favorite pranks in New England included tipping over outhouses and unhinging fence gates) there is no historical record supporting the theory that trick-or-treating was invented to bribe the children into submission. To the contrary, any forms of media including print and radio depicted children having to explain trick-or-treating to adults who often saw the practice as a form of extortion, with reactions ranging from rage to bemused indulgence. 

It wasn’t until the mid 1950s and the full recovery from the rationing of WWII that we begin to see the modern guise of trick-or-treating.

Works Cited

HalloweenHistory.org. History of Halloween. 21 10 2011 <http://www.halloweenhistory.org/>.

History of Halloween

I love Halloween. There is a catharsis in being able to hide from the world as someone else, even if it is only for a few hours. I have found though there is a lot of misconception and folklore surrounding the origins of Halloween.

November 1^st is the date the ancient Celts of Ireland, United Kingdom, and France celebrated their new year. It signified the end of summer and the fall harvest and the start of bleak, dark, and dead winter. The night before, October 31^st, was the night that the boundary between the living and the world of the dead became it’s thinnest and was marked by the festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). On this night, the dead would once again roam the earth. They would destroy crops, play tricks on the living, and cause general havoc. This was also the night the ancient Celtic priests, known as Druids, had their greatest power. The Druids would use their connection with spirits to make predictions for the coming year. In fact all people would take turns telling each other’s fortunes. What great people were to be born, who would die, and who would be married was all foretold on this night. The Celts were an agricultural society and relied heavily on these predictions to survive the harsh winters. Bonfires would be lit, the people would dress in animal skins then animal and crop sacrifices were made to the Gods to ensure a good harvest and survival through the bleak months ahead. At the end of the night, each person would take a piece of the sacred bonfire home to relight their hearths. This hallowed fire was thought to protect the household for the coming year. 

By 43 A.D. the Roman Empire had spread to Celtic lands and the traditional festival of Samhain took on some additions. The Romans celebrated two festivals at the end of the fall harvest. The first was Feralia, a day to celebrate the passing of the dead.  The second was a day to honor the Roman Goddess of fruit and the trees, Pomona. The symbol for Pomona is the apple and many scholars believe that this is the origin for the Halloween tradition of “bobbing for apples.”

In the years that followed, spreading Christianity left its mark on this decidedly pagan holiday. It was a common practice in Christian missionary work to set Christian Holy Days to coincide with the native holidays. 

The Christian feast day of All Saints Day (All Hallows) was set on November 1^st and meant to supplant the now devil worshiping festival of Samhain. Missionaries drew parallels between the Celtic underworld and the Christian Hell, making all the specters rising from this underworld demons and evil spirits.This new connection with the demonic did not succeed in killing off the holiday entirely. It is actually thought that the native peoples need for a connection with the dead (both good and bad) was too strong to be slaked by an abstract holiday celebrating Saints. 

A second attempt by the church was made to eliminate the holiday and in the 9^th century the celebration of All Souls Day was set on November 2^nd. While November 2^nd became a day to pray for all lost souls, people continued to celebrate Samhain, now All Hallows Eve as a time of the evil, wandering dead. People continued to please those spirits (and their masked impersonators) by setting out gifts. Subsequently, All Hallows Eve became Hallow Evening, which became Hallowe'en or Halloween. 

What does any of this have to do with trick-or-treating? Next time we'll find out.

History Channel. Halloween. 1996-2011. 17 October 2011 <http://www.history.com/topics/halloween>.

McGlynn, Katla. The History Of Halloween Plus 5 Things You Didn't Know About The Holiday! . 30 October 2009. 17 October 2011 <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/30/the-history-of-halloween_n_321021.html>.

Universal Studios Orlando Halloween Horror Nighs 21

Well Wednesday night I finally nit the bullet and went to Universal Studios Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights (HHN) 21. Admittedly I initially wasn’t looking forward to it. In previous years I’ve always felt that while they have beautiful sets and rather impressive scenery the scare factor just wasn’t ever there for me. With the rather weak icon of Lady Luck I had set myself up to not really enjoy this year. I admit now for the world to see that I was very much mistaken about HHN 21. 

This year I attended with my boyfriend and his mother. Turning it into a family vacation made it all the more fun. Within the first ten minutes of entering the park we saw these chainsaw wielding creatures with black mohawks and spades embossed over one eye. They managed to scare a woman so badly that she went a** over teakettle and about took her male companion down with her. We went to the right and entered the scare zone 7.

Wrath, I think

Gluttony's "Pet"

7: The description on the map reads, “By day, these seven Temptresses appear as a spectacle of beauty. But by night, they show their true fatal evil forms.” This was one of the only well lit zone in the park. However I fell that the concept of the seven deathly sins was somewhat lost. We spent a fair amount of time trying to identify each sin. The roaming “pets” made it slightly easier to understand. There was a lot of hissing and growling and blowing in people’s faces by some of these zombie “pets.” One of my companions even made a comment about needing a tic-tac only to be told, “Zombies don’t need tic-tacs.” Clever comeback, if not slightly disgusting. From 7 we made our way to Grown Evil.

Busty Bat in Grown Evil

Grown Evil (GE): I loved the masks and costumes in this zone; however their staff really discourages any kind of picture taking. The lighting was so poor as to render picture taking darn near impossible anyway. The lighting and fog was so bad I feel like the whole effect actually got lost. There were also several hissing raven/crow-like creatures. I found the hissing more confusing than scary. I have never seen a bird hiss. Next we made our way to Canyon of Dark Souls.

Canyon of Dark Souls (CoDS): The map has this to say about CoDS: “An overwhelming sense of death surrounds you, and the creatures that dwell within the Canyon are not welcoming.” This scare zone was…disappointing. It was a length of black pipe and drape down two sides of a sidewalk and standing within it were stilt walkers dressed all in black with oversized skull masks on. (I think they were meant to be a personification of Death.) That’s it. The lighting was terrible, I didn’t see any fog. Over all it was extremely second-rate. Our next stop was Nevermore: The Madness of Poe.

Facade to Nevermore

Nevermore: For those of you who either follow the haunt community or read my previous post on Howl-O-Scream (HOS) you will notice overlap here for both parks have a house named Nevermore telling the story of Edgar Allen Poe. We waited maybe 20 minutes for this house in the standard cue line. While the façade left something to be desired the interior of the house was beautiful as always. Periodically through the house you see Poe and his decent into madness as he gives into his alcoholism. Each room tells a different tale. I loved their ravens and their Black Cat room honestly is better than the one at Busch Gardens. The Masque of the Red Death was slightly unnerving with all the coughing but I found the pit and the pendulum room very lack luster. Which Nevermore is better? Depends on what you’re looking for. I like the actors and the visuals better in the HOS house but HHN’s definitely tells a better, clearer story. After Nevermore we moved on to H.R. Bloodengutz Presents: Holidays of Horror.

Movie projection

H.R. Bloodengutz Presents: Holidays of Horror (HR): This was the longest wait we made in a standard cue line. We waited a little over half an hour. Due to HHN’s amazing cue line control and distractions, it felt like no time at all. The concept for the house is you are witness to H.R. Bloodengutz final creature feature presentation before he’s taken off the air. As you stand in the cue you can watch, projected on the side of one of the buildings, the different introductions to the various Holidays of Horror films. Bloodengutz has one for St. Valentine’s Day, President’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Arbor Day, Easter, Independence Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas (I’m really not sure if that is a complete list). This is the tongue in cheek house similar to Zombiegeddon from last year. While the concept was fun, I can’t say I loved the house. There were a lot of spots in the house that would have made great scare spots for an actor and were completely unpopulated. However, their Thanksgiving “turkey” more than made up for it. After HR we continued to Winter’s Night and passed through Acid Assault.

Acid Assault: The concept here is that the people you see around you are the survivors of acid rain. Behind them projected onto the buildings is an incredible visual of crumbling buildings. While I didn’t manage to get any video of the affect, my recommendation to my readers is go find it on Youtube! The actors were fun with shopping carts and cow bells but here they had an incredible zombie-like creature in a wheelchair and that dude rocked!!! Just like his Charles Manson counterpart at HOS I enjoyed watching him (I’m assuming) take advantage of his lower stature and scare the dickens out of unsuspecting guests.

Weeping Angel

Winter’s Night: The Haunting of Hawthorn Cemetery: The entire atmosphere in this house is incredible. The majority of the house takes place in an outside cemetery so you see the snow and the crypts but also feel the chill in the air. This entire house is freezing. This is the only house to truly get me. One of the undertaker-like characters in the beginning of the house came around the corner and timed it perfectly. I jumped much to the amusement of my party. I wish the lighting had been brighter so the crypts could have been read and the ‘weeping angel’ characters up front made me giggle. I doubt they were in homage to The Doctor but I couldn’t help it.  Seeing as how we had made amazing time we advanced back into the park to see The Forsaken.

The Forsaken: OK yeah, I really wasn’t impressed with the story-line for this house. “Within an abandoned Spanish Fort, the mutinous undead crew of Columbus’s missing fourth ship has returned with a vengeance.” If you are unfamiliar with the stories of the Spanish fort, Columbus, and the crew of the wrecked Santa Maria here are two links to help you out. http://staugustine.com/stories/071206/civic_advocate_civav_1.shtml http://www.shipsofdiscovery.org/columbus.htm Frankly, I felt that the reference was too obscure and would render the house confusing and pointless. This turned out to be my favorite house of the night. The masks were amazing with their glowing the green eyes and the scenic made you feel as if you were on the lost ship, wet and cold with the crew. (Yes there were a lot of water effects. You will get damp.)The final scare was simply amazing! *spoiler alert* It was a bungee scare and probably one of the best executed I’ve ever seen. You just see these green eyes moving at you way too fast. 

The In-Between: This is HHN’s attempt at a 3D house and holy crow!!!!! You are deposited, by way of a nauseating spinning tunnel, into this 3D “phantasm of terror”. The lights are incredible, the effects are stellar, and Mom even managed to pull an a** muscle. Truthfully that’s how you can tell if a house is good, did Mom pull her a**. I can’t even begin to describe this house. There are effects that make you “feel” the lights and their incredible use of strobes make things appear out of nowhere.

Zombie Finger Cookies

 A few days ago I was flipping through a magazine and my daughter saw a picture of cookies shaped like fingers. She then declared that she wanted to make “zombie finger cookies.” When a six year old makes up their mind, it’s best just to go with it. 

Figuring it might be easier to try and alter a box mix, I found a sugar cookie mix and altered it by cutting down on the butter and adding flour until it was a consistency I could work with. After the dough spent about an hour in the fridge my Zombie Princess and I molded almost 50 fingers out of this dough. Much to both of our disappointments the cookies came out of the oven very very flat. They actually looked as though they had been run over. It was at this point my partner in crime abandoned me for a certain Cello sponge on TV. (I’m not a huge fan but grandma lets her watch it.) 

My cookie model

For my second attempt I made the cookie dough from scratch. I found a cookie press cookie recipe that required confectioner’s sugar instead of granulated and almost 3 cups of flour. I figured all of that powder would absorb moisture and these cookies would hold their shape in the oven. My biggest concern though is that this recipe only called for 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. With so much flour these cookies would taste like cardboard. I added a teaspoon of almond extract too, and that helped, but I personally still find the cookies somewhat bland.  (I will post the recipe at the end.) 

Once again the dough spent almost an hour in the refrigerator and I shaped over 50 fingers. Using a tooth pick and my own hand as a reference I marked off the knuckles. The final touch was adding slivered almonds to one end as a “finger nail.” 

"Blood" is still wet

Once I was done shaping and marking I placed them about 16 to a cookie sheet. While my severed fingers were the oven I emptied about half of a jar of strawberry jelly into a sauce pan and cooked it down over low heat until it was a saucy consistency. After the fingers came out of the oven and had cooled each one got dipped into the jelly. As I picked them up, a lot of my cookies “nails” fell off and I used my jelly/sauce/blood to glue them back on. In retrospect strawberry is the wrong color and I probably should have gone with either seedless raspberry or black currant. Another option would be to use red decorating gel instead of the jelly/sauce/blood. The benefit to the sauce is that it adds an additional flavor to a rather bland cookie. 

I would consider this experiment a success however I am still on the hunt for a better tasting cookie that holds its shape. I’m extending a big thank you to the October edition of Everyday with Rachel Ray for the picture that inspired my Zombie Princess. 

 

Final Zombie Fingers

Zombie Finger Cookies

·  1 cup butter, softened

·  1 cup confectioners' sugar

·  1 egg

·  1 teaspoon almond extract

·  1 teaspoon vanilla extract

·  2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

·  1 teaspoon baking powder

·  1 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 325 ˚F 

• In a large bowl beat the butter until creamy. Then mix in the sugar, egg, and extracts until smooth. Then slowly add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Once incorporated wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. 
• Take a heaping tablespoon and fashion into a finger shape using your own hand a guide. Place about 3 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Taking either a dull table knife or a tooth pick add the knuckle creases. 
• Then place a single slivered almond on the end. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until lightly golden brown. 
• Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack. While the cookies cool, cook the jam over low heat until a saucy consistency. Dip the ‘severed’ end into the sauce.

2011 Spike TV Scream Awards

Tonight was the 2011 Scream Awards on Spike TV and I must say I did enjoy them. Then again I always enjoy the spectacle. The set lends itself to a modernized Hell with fire and aerialists suspended from the ceiling. There was even a river Styx flowing through the center of the stage. Below, are some of the honors given tonight.

Best Thriller Nominees:  

Limitless

            Adjustment Bureau

Hanna

Red

Salt

Winner: Limitless

Best Supporting Actor Nominees:

            Alan Rickman- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Pt2

            Kieran Culkin- Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

            Peter Dinklage- Game of Thrones

            Rupert Grint- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Pt1

Tommy Lee Jones- Captain America: The First Avenger

Winner:  Peter Dinklage- Game of Thrones

Best Breakout Male Nominees:

            Michael Fassbender- X-Men: First Class

            Jon Bernthal- The Walking Dead

            Chris Hemsworth-Thor

            Joe Manganiello- True Blood

            Tom Hiddleston- Thor

Winner: Joe Manganiello- True Blood

Admittedly He had one of the best quotes of the night, “Werewolves do it in the daylight baby!”

 “Werewolves do it in the daylight baby!”

Best Director Nominees:

            J.J. Abrams- Super 8

Matthew Vaughn- X-Men: First Class

Edgar Wright: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

Darren Aronofsky: Black Swan

David Yates: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Pt2

Winner: Darren Aronofsky: Black Swan

Best Science-Fiction Actor Nominees:

            Daniel Craig- Cowboys & Aliens

            Chris Evans- Captain America: The First Avenger

            Harrison Ford: Cowboys & Aliens

            Matt Smith: Doctor Who

            Jake Gyllenhaal: Source Code

Winner: Matt Smith as Doctor Who

I must admit he is definitely one of my favorite Doctors. I won’t stick my neck out so far as to say he’s better than David Tennant or Tom Baker but for the youngest man ever to play this multi-dimensional character he really does a smashing job.

Best Comic Book Writer Winner: Ed Brubaker- Captain America, Captain America: Reborn, The Marvels Project, Steve Rogers: Super Soldier

Best Horror Movie Nominees:

            I Saw the Devil

            Insidious

            Paranormal Activity 2

            Let Me In

            Piranha 3D

Winner: Let Me In

I have a problem with this category. How do you even begin to compare a haunted house film like Paranormal Activity 2 or Insidious with a gore fest like Let Me In? There is very little that ties these movies together in a single genre. When it comes down to creativity and sheer ingenuity I would have rather seen a movie like Insidious win. Admittedly, that movie kept me up for days after seeing it. I highly recommend both the Paranormal Activity series and Insidious for audiences who enjoy films like The Exorcist or Poltergeist.

Best Science-Fiction Nominees:

            Captain America: The First Avenger

            Monsters

            Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Super 8

Tron: Legacy

Winner: Super 8

Best TV show nominees:

            Game of Thrones

            Doctor Who

            Fringe

            True Blood

The Walking Dead

Winner: Game of Thrones

Most Memorable Mutilation Nominees:

            Penis bitten off, then vomited up by piranha- Piranha 3D

            Transformed into swan- Black Swan

            Scalped alive by motorboat- Piranha 3D

            Head covered in molten gold- Game of Thrones

            The reverse bear-trap- Saw 3D: The Final Chapter

Winner: Scalped alive by motorboat- Piranha 3D

This category struck me as very odd at first. However it is hard to have an entire genre dedicated to making the audience squirm and scream without some mutilation and why not honor the best of the best?

The Ultimate Scream Nominees:

            Black Swan

            Captain America: The First Avenger

            Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

            Super 8

Thor

True Blood

The Walking Dead

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, Pt2

Game of Thrones

X-Men: First Class

Winner: Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, Pt2

It was amazing to see the exaltation of this decade long franchise. Daniel Radcliffe was there to accept their award and his humble speech was punctuated by the world premiere of the trailer to his new film, The Woman in Black. I am very happy to see Radcliffe return to film and this one looks very promising.  Harry Potter also received several of the honors including Best F/X and Scream-Play and Daniel Radcliffe won best fantasy actor as well as Ralph Fiennes was honored with best villain as Lord Voldemort. It was rather surreal seeing Fiennes with hair and that rather bushy beard. 

Ralph Fiennes

Most Anticipated Movie Nominees:

The Dark Knight Rises,

The Avengers,

The Amazing Spider-Man,

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, pt1

            The Hunger Games

Winner: The Dark Knight Rises

I’m really not looking forward to Anne Hathaway playing Catwoman. To me she is far too girl-next-door to bring the kind of sensuality needed to Catwoman. To me there will never be a Catwoman that surpasses Eartha Kitt.

There were other single awards given such as Visionary going to Paul Rubens for his portrayal of Pee-Wee Herman and Hero: Robert Downey Jr. I enjoyed his montage and enjoyed even more the world premiere of the trailer for Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. (I won’t get into it here about all the problems I have with RDJ portrayal of Sherlock Holmes. That is ENTIRELY off topic.) Maverick honored Nicolas Cage and was awarded by a far more prominent Maverick, Quentin Tarantino. My favorite though was Comic-Con Icon. That award went to the one and only June Foray. He voicing of so many memorable cartoon characters like Rocky the Flying Squirrel is legendary and to hear her voice again temporarily sent me back to my childhood. Ultimate Villain was given to Darth Vader and the awarding of the spike itself allowed for a rather humorous interlude with George Lucas himself. Personally, I don’t think Vader would be such a bada** without the iconic theme music provided by my personal God, John Williams.

Cuddly Vader?

Overall it was an entertaining exhibition and the many sneak previews given have me more than intrigued about some of the films coming out in the next year including Paranormal Activity 3 and The Woman in Black.

For the rest of the categories, highlights, photos, and winners you can go to  2011 Spike TV Scream Awards