H.P. Lovecraft is not always easy to figure out; some might say you could go mad trying. But SOTA Toys seems to have a firm grasp on his creatures in their Nightmare line. This tribute to the eldritch author comes in the form of some of the most ornate and detailed sculptures available for public consumption.

With a Darren Lynn Bousman-directed remake on the way, the time is right for a look back at the 1980 exploitation classic MOTHER’S DAY. The film follows three women whose lives are drastically changed forever when they are kidnapped by a sadistic family.

American author Kim Paffenroth (pictured) and the zombie subculture appear to make unlikely bedfellows, but there is a reason for the associate professor of religion’s obsession with the shambling, gut-ripping undead: His works generally focus on the timeless battle between good and evil. In 2006’s GOSPEL OF THE LIVING DEAD, he tore into George A. Romero’s films to show how they utilize Christian imagery, via well-researched, in-depth synopses and analyses. It made for a great read and garnered Paffenroth a coveted Bram Stoker Award.

Rockstar Games embodies the industry standard: They set the bar, then they raise it. The GRAND THEFT AUTO franchise laid the foundation for their cash-vacuum production, and yet they continue to improve on the model. RED DEAD REDEMPTION not only continues the time-honored tradition of wreaking havoc in an open-sandbox environment, it redefines it with topnotch story-writing and character depth, positioning itself as a Game of the Year candidate.

Last week, the church of heavy metal lost a god. Ronnie James Dio is dead. He didn’t die fighting wizards, knights, demons, dragons or any other mythical beast he wrote about. No, he left this mortal world on a hospital bed in Houston after a six-month battle with stomach cancer. There were rumors of his death spreading around the Internet as early as last Saturday night, however it wasn’t until Sunday afternoon that his wife and manager, Wendy Dio, posted this announcement on her late husband’s official website:

As this year’s Cannes Film Festival winds down, news has been coming in consistently about movies being picked up for distribution in various territories, and a pair of genre features have been secured to play in the U.S.

FANGORIA has been DEAD central all week, as we have been presenting exclusive video chats with horror great George A. Romero (see yesterday’s installment here). In part three (of three) of our meaty interview, which you can watch after the jump, Romero tells Fango’s Tony Timpone about his future plans (two more DEAD films?!) and how he doesn’t want to make a first-person-shooter movie.

Though we only worked together for maybe five weeks or so, former ’80s FANGORIA editor David Everitt, who passed away May 7 at age 57 from Lou Gehrig’s disease (see item here), affected my life in so many profound and wonderful ways. Fresh out of college, he showed faith in me that not even I had in myself when I started at FANGORIA as a lowly editorial assistant in July 1985.

Are you sick and tired of lifeless, synthetic CGI monsters filling the multiplexes? Do you long for the glory days of Japanese monster movies? Own all the Godzilla movies at home? Want to kick back with Rodan and Mothra?

It’s a mild Saturday night, the evening before Mother’s Day. I should be home with the mother of my three kids, but I’m standing on a line in front of New York City’s Cinema Village at 9:30 p.m. Why? At 11:30 p.m., I’m going to see a free FANGORIA-sponsored screening of the new sci-fi/horror film SPLICE, starring PREDATORS’ Adrien Brody and DAWN OF THE DEAD’s Sarah Polley. Attending will be none other than the film’s director, Vincenzo Natali (the man behind CUBE and CYPHER). So I am really pumped.

We just posted the trailer for the Australian chiller THE OUTBACK yesterday. Today, we have the poster, along with some grisly photos of people possessed by an evil supernatural force (and one more pleasant pic…).