I’m going to shake things up a bit and NOT talk about INFECTION 2010…at least for a little bit. This past weekend something pretty wild happened. A $1.8 million dollar horror film opened in theaters across the country and battled a $20 million film (Takers) for the number one spot at the box office. Takers did claim the top spot, but The Last Exorcism (a Lionsgate release) barely lost. Obviously the horror genre has gained in popularity in recent years, so while a horror film having a successful opening weekend isn’t exactly earth shaking, an independently shot ORIGINAL film with unknown actors doing so well (especially against a studio film) is worth noting.

While we have not seen The Last Exorcism yet, this doesn’t change the fact that this is a huge “breath of fresh air”. Damn, that phrase is so cheesy but I can’t think of anything better at this moment. Seriously though, it’s about damn time. When I discovered the news about The Last Exorcism almost conquering the box office, the mega-huge horror nerd in me couldn’t help but cheer. Our beloved genre has been over-saturated with cheap and mindless remakes of films we hold so true it seems the masses could care less if horror continues to be watered down. I don’t need to expand upon this topic, I feel most of you reading this know our stance on remakes and how we long for original horror, however I am baffled at how this happened. And to be honest, I don’t care. Whether it was all the pissed off horror fans that ran to the theater over the weekend, or teens trying to prolong their summer by just one more night, that’s irrelevant. As viewers, we tell the studios what we want to see with our ticket purchases and hopefully this is just the start of suits taking note that yes, we want original films.

Okay, John, how does this tie in with INFECTION 2010? The Last Exorcism isn’t about zombies, is it? NO! The Last Exorcism is not about zombies, but will be present during this weekend’s undead events. We worked some magic at Wizard World Chicago a few weeks back and will have a bunch of The Last Exorcism t-shirts and posters to give you for free. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t exactly magic rather conversations, but still, at both the Zombie Walk Kick Off Show and the Zombie Walk itself, you can get your little happy hands on some free swag. And who doesn’t love free stuff? You know who loves you? Us.

So if you enjoy fun times that are completely awesome be sure to come out to the Reptile Palace this Friday (for The Lemurs, The Suspirios and The Savini Effect, 10pm) and join the horde for INFECTION 2010 on Saturday and get free stuff. Sounds like a win-win situation if you ask me. No one asked me? Well, fine. And we cannot say this enough, support original horror. Watch the trailer for The Last Exorcism and if it trips your trigger, check it out. We haven’t seen it yet, so we aren’t saying it’s good or bad, all we are saying is that the outcome from this past weekend put a smile on our face. And smiles are pretty cool.

-John