he cinema of fear gets some intense and loving scrutiny at Icons of Fright, a fan-built Web page focusing on horror films and everyone associated with making them. Convention reports, celebrity sightings and photos galore—not to mention interviews with horror personalities from Uncle Creepy to the women of The Evil Dead—are just a few of the macabre delights available on this quirky site.
The backbone of the Icons Web page is its archive of reviews: short, snappy commentaries on a wide range of horror flicks, with notes about any special features included in the DVD editions. These reviews are supplemented by two specialized sections: the Vault of Forgotten and Obscure Movies (think Terrorvision, Megaforce and Blood Diner) and This Month's Trilogy, a monthly event that creates suggested triple features along a variety of themes. November's theme is horror-comedy flicks, while previous months celebrated religious scarefests, zombie movies and vacations from hell. To round out the chatter about movies big and small, Icons of Fright offers horror soundtrack reviews, fan art, an extensive links section and an area covering the oft-ignored horror comic genre.
Horror film sites tend to be heavily sponsored by e-vendors looking to sell DVDs, so it is a pleasant surprise that Icons of Fright is less commercial than most, with a much smaller pool of ads and sales links. The site focuses on having fun, providing behind-the-scenes gossip to movie fans and publishing the straight scoop on horror pictures. Looking for a good scare, an offbeat and creepy occult flick or one of those unintentionally humorous gorefests that pop up, now and then, within the horror genre? The Icons Web team is ready and waiting to suggest just
the right film.
—A.M. Dellamonica
Site of the Week—November 28, 2005
t's a far cry from a Jedi Holocron, but the Star Wars Wiki is still crammed with enough information to keep even the most studious padawans occupied for months.
The wiki's 16,400 entries exhaustively detail the six Star Wars movies as well as the myriad spinoff media, from the Clone Wars micro series to the Knights of the Old Republic games to the two Ewok TV movies. As with most wikis, the quality of the entries can vary greatly, but the best ones—such as those for Boba Fett and Mace Windu—are exceedingly detailed, offering full bios, lists of appearances and behind-the-scenes information. Less detailed entries can also be found, but thanks to the site's open nature, any one can easily edit or expand a writeup.
Where the self-described "Wookieepedia" may be most useful is in filling in the gaps in the official Star Wars mythology, particularly for those who may not have read every novel or comic book. Answers to questions like "Why does Mace Windu have a purple lightsaber?", "Who is General Grievous?" and "How did Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas know to commission the Clone Army years before it was needed?" abound in the wiki and make for enlightening reads.
—Ken Newquist
Site of the Week—November 21, 2005
hat does one give the SF collector who has everything, from a Chronicles of Narnia sword to his very own King Kong costume? With the holiday season now only four weeks away, this problem can become rather urgent. Luckily, Monsters in Motion might just be the solution to an otherwise thorny gift-shopping problem.
For those whose loved ones want nothing less than a Predator cookie jar, a replica of Mace Windu's lightsaber or a toilet-brush holder shaped like a skull, this site is a fannish paradise, offering collectibles and tie-in merchandise for just about every SF, fantasy and horror film imaginable, as well as a few that haven't been made yet. Dinosaur models, film posters, anime action figures—the range of items available will boggle the imagination. The browsing potential of the Monsters site is limitless, in other words: Every click brings new marvels and unbelievable oddities.
Though the core of this site is its selection of figurines and spaceship replicas, film fans not in the market for a full-sized Gollum collector's bust or the Jupiter 2 Moonbase can go straight to the Monsters DVD and soundtrack sections. For those of a more hands-on bent, the site has a wide range of model kits of varying difficulty.
Monsters in Motion is a store, pure and simple—one with a massive catalog, to be sure, but one that exists solely to sell its often zany merchandise. Site visitors looking for extras—like links or collector-oriented discussion boards—will have to look elsewhere on the Web. (The page does allow guests to sign up for mailings of its newsletter, "The Eyeball.") Straightforward, easy to navigate and filled with hilarious tie-in products, what the Monsters site does offer is some of the most outrageous and entertaining electronic window shopping on the Web.
—A.M. Dellamonica
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