Free (Legal) Download: Werewolf Cult Chronicles

It’s been a long time since the Front Office showed how to get a free download of the movie Pig. Too long, in fact. That’s why I’m stepping up to the plate with another free movie download. This time around, it’s an interconnected series of short films called The Werewolf Cult Chronicles.

Although filmed in Sweden during the early 2000’s, the series itself is in English and spans a variety of time periods and countries, from 1916 England to Canada in the year 2019. Although the idea for the series came to creator J. Pingo Lindstrom in 2000, it was not until 2003 that the first installment was released. Said installment, Chimera, pits unsuspecting soldiers against a werewolf during an attempted rescue mission. While its low budget gives the series a rough start, director Mike A. Martinez still manages to deliver some effective and creepy scenes. The opening sequence alone is a must-see and does somewhat balance out the fact that only one of the werewolf’s hands (or is that paws?) is seen for the bulk of the creature’s rampage. However, later installments of the series do show more of their lupine stars.

According to the official website, where you can also find the downloads, The Werewolf Cult Chronicles is allegedly responsible for the creation of both the first Swedish werewolf movie and the first Swedish Vietnam war movie! And to think, they’re kind enough to let you download it for free. As it has a Creative Commons license, it might be worthwhile for budding horror hosts to ask the filmmakers for permission to use the films on their program rather than use the same old (and sometimes legally dicey) public domain films that everyone seems to be using these days. Said host shouldn’t let the recentness of the films bother them, as the older hosts they seek to emulate used films that were relatively recent. After all, 1950’s horror hostess Vampira showed movies from the 1930’s, the equivalent of a modern host showing films from the 1980’s. In fact, the legendary Svengoolie played 1999’s Ragdoll in 2004!

What a (Pumpkin) Carve Up!

Ah, the soft, eerie glow of a lit Jack O’Lantern on Halloween night. What could be better? To help further this grand Halloween tradition, we here at Gravedigger’s Local 16 have compiled a list of helpful pumpkin carving-related links. So if you’ve exhausted your ideas for pumpkin faces, really want to dominate the next pumpkin carving contest or just want to do something different this year, read on:

First up, the Amazon preview of Great Pumpkins: Crafty Carving for Halloween by Peter Cole and Jessica Hurley has several spooky pumpkin design stencils.

Similarly, the Google Books preview for Shelley Wolson’s Budget Celebrations: The Hostess Guide to Year-Round Entertaining on a Dime has a few stencils, but you’ll need to use the “zoom” option in order to read the directions.

Although both DLTK’s Holiday Crafts and Activities and this Halloween Forum thread offer tons of free stencils, three particular names stand out in my mind when it comes to websites with great pumpkin carving stencils:

Zombie Pumpkins
The Pumpkin Lady
Ultimate Pumpkin Stencils
Although they are all businesses, they do also offer a generous selection of free stuff. The Pumpkin Lady even offers extra specials and free patterns to her Facebook fans and exclusive deals and other goodies to those who join her newsletter! Similarly, both Ultimate Pumpkin Stencils and Zombie Pumpkins offer special bonuses on their Facebook pages, and all of the sites mention numerous deals and freebies on their Twitter feeds. Zombie Pumpkins also deserves an extra special shout-out for kindly donating a year’s subscription to their service as a prize for our 2010 Halloween contest.

Although it doesn’t have any stencils, the preview for Tom Nardone’s Extreme Pumpkins does have some great tips on pumpkin carving, along with directions on how to make a “cannibal pumpkin.”

If you want to give your pumpkin a really unique and detailed look, be sure to read this three page article from an October 2007 issue of Boys’ Life.

Finally, this GdL16 entry from our first Halloween countdown has an amazing pumpkin-carving project for those of you who don’t fear a challenge. Oh, and you should definitely check out the Wikipedia entry on Jack O’Lanterns if you have some spare time. Not only is it very fascinating, but it also has a great selection of pictures that includes a preserved, turnip-based Irish Jack O’Lantern!

As noted in previous “How-To” posts, Gravedigger’s Local 16 is not to be held responsible for the content on or anything that may occur (be it good or bad) as a result of visiting any links on those sites (or constructing a project that’s detailed on them). Attempt at your own risk.

Free RPG Day Is Here!

The Local has covered Record Store Day, Free Comic Book Day, and is now spotlighting Free RPG Day.

Free RPG Day was started in 2007 with the intention of promoting role-playing games to those with little-to-no experience in such matters. To do so, participating stores give out free adventures and “Quick Start Rules” to customers. Besides the fantasy monsters that appear in games like Dungeons & Dragons, horror fans might be interested in the following RPGs (which had free giveaways in prior Free RPG Days):

Call of Cthulhu
Geist: The Sin-Eaters
Hollow Earth Expedition

And to celebrate in our own special way, here are the first two installments of our “Free D&D” series:

Free D&D
Free D&D: Second Edition

For more information on Free RPG Day, the participating stores, and what freebies will be available, please visit the official website and Wikipedia entry.

Happy Free RPG Day!

Free RPG Day Is Coming!

Don’t forget, Free RPG Day is on June 19th this year! So whether you’re a horror fan that already plays RPGs or are just interested in starting, mark your calendars and get ready for free role-playing game goodies!

Free (Legal) Download: Pig

Everyone seems to be offering free downloads lately. Rue Morgue has a free music album, Orbit Books and Black-Chandelier.com both have free wallpaper, and Yog-Sothoth has a monthly free download!

So it should come as no surprise that we want in on that action. Some of you might remember how Adam Mason’s mostly one-take gorefest, Pig, was briefly available at various horror sites for its streaming online premiere. Although that promotion is now over, you can still see it before it comes out on DVD. Just send a request to Mr. Mason via email and he’ll hook you up. He’ll even give you the HD quality version if you ask nicely! Oh, and tell him that Gravedigger’s Local 16 sent you!

It’s Free Comic Book Day!

Ah, Free Comic Book Day. A day of free comics and special sales at numerous comic book stores that falls on the first Saturday in May of each year. 2010 marks the 9th annual celebration of the event since its creation in 2002.

Although past installments have carried horror-related titles and there are plenty of tie-ins between comic books and horror, but comic stores deserve our support for also carrying horror magazines, trading cards, models, DVDs, etc.

For more information, please visit the official website and its Wikipedia entry. That’s where we learned something that should be of interest to our German readers: they’re getting their own version of the holiday on May 8th!