An interesting Kickstarter project, this story is seen through the eyes of Lorna Thompson (Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones), a lonely suburban schoolgirl, who joins a mutant gang of teenagers on a quest to discover their true identities.

They uncover a global conspiracy, which they must find the strength to fight before civilisation is destroyed. Battling this conspiracy won’t be easy, as they find out that the “1%” that control the finances and political offices around the world are actually aliens. These aliens arrived 34 years ago and have had plenty of time to integrate themselves, disguised as humans, into our world.

This film is epic and deals with themes of universal appeal, such as identity and self-discovery (who we are and how we fit into the world), loyalty, trust and abuse of power.

For more details or to help back this project, visit We Are Monsters on Kickstarter.

They’ve presented talks on how schools kill creativity, why victims of domestic violence don’t leave and why you should have more insects in your diet.

One subject I didn’t expect to see, though, was a TEDed session on what might cause zombieism.

Wyrmwood is the brainchild of two brothers, who “came up with the idea to meld Mad Max with Dawn of the Dead and make the best zombie film ever produced in Australia.”

The project is being funded through Indiegogo, which is similar to Kickstarter. (If you want to support a project, you can sponsor it at a range of different levels and get goodies for doing so.)

Check out the seven minute teaser trailer.

You can learn more about the project, including the support options if you wish by visiting the Wyrmwood page on Indiegogo.

This year we had about a foot of snow a couple of weeks prior to Halloween, which definitely put a dent in our prep work. Unfortunately, the snow didn’t melt in time, either, and Oct 31 was cold (about -12C) and foggy.

It didn’t seem to put much of a damper on the kids’ excitement though, we still had a good strong turnout of princesses in winter jackets, goblins in winter jackets and other assorted fiends and critters. All in winter jackets.

Check out some of the photos from this year’s haunt.

A father is suing Six Flags for $30,000 after his daughter tripped and suffered scrapes and bruises trying to run away from a park employee who was part of the Fright Fest event.

The first question that comes to mind is, wouldn’t you expect “scary” characters to be featured at a Fright Fest? And, wouldn’t you prepare your child or not take them if they weren’t ready for something like that?

The dollar amount mentioned in the law suit seems frighteningly high for a few scrapes and bruises, too.

At the same time, though, safety is important whether your yard haunt is a professional theme park or a simple home yard haunt. If a child is running away from you screaming or clearly terrified, why would you chase them?

Some basic safety precautions for your home yard haunt should include (at a minimum) the following:

• Make sure all electrical and extensions cords are kept out of the way of where people will be walking. If you must have them in those areas, make sure they’re well secured. I use pieces of wire coat hangers. Snip pieces about 10 inches long, bend them into a U shape and hammer them into the ground over the extension cord. I space these about a foot apart.
• Make sure any ropes, chains, wire, etc you’ve used for temporary fencing is “tear away”. A few years ago, I had two little superheros go screaming through the cemetery and into the fence I’d set up after I inadvertently scared them. Luckily, the dad (who was laughing), managed to capture them before they hit the fence. You can easily make tear away fencing by making sure the connecting pieces at each end are not too tight. Whether it’s a twist tie or twisted taffeta, it should be strong enough to keep the fence chains in place, but weak enough to break loose easily.
• If you blanket your neighbourhood in fog, like we do, make sure any tripping hazards have been removed or covered (safely) so people don’t trip on them in the dark or in the fog.
• If you’re using flood lights or other lighting, make sure it’s far enough away that it’s not going to burn a curious trick-or-treater.
• Open flames are a total no-no. If you do need real flame, make sure it’s either in an area nobody will get close to or have it safely enclosed. For lighting up pumpkins or witch jars, try using cheap bike blinkies.
• If your yard haunt does have significantly gory features or if it’s truly scary, be sure to have a clearly visible sign warning parents. You can easily tie the sign into your haunt theme, but at least that way you’ve warned people in advance.

Good luck with your yard haunt and keep it safe!

And, for those who like their entertainment to be more interactive, you can buy tickets to sit in the “splatter zone.”

For more info and tickets, visit The Pumphouse Theatre.

While there’s still no official launch date, there is some info on what season two will dish up for viewers.

Read more at cartermatt.com.

If the lack of hockey has got you down or you’re getting tired of boring football or baseball there’s always MMA or…. take part yourself in the 2012 Zombie Wars!

It’s 2012 and the world is in chaos since the spread of the undead infection. Hordes of undead have engulfed the planet, eliminating most of the human race.

Over a heavily infected area of western Canada, a biplane carrying the only known cure for the infection crashed landed on a small island.

The best remaining humans have been gathered to brave the infested island to save humanity from annihilation. They are called The Hunters, and are humanity’s only hope for survival.

The Hunters’ mission is to recover all the lost cure scattered across the island within a critical time frame. Should they be overrun, the hope of saving humanity from annihilation will be lost and the Zombie’s will have taken over the world.

Participants can choose to be either on the Hunters team or the Zombies team.

The event takes place Saturday, August 11, 2012.

For more details or to purchase tickets (proceeds go to Brown Baggin’ It for Calgary’s Kids and the Jesse Kinley Memorial Fund), visit http://www.apocalypsewars.ca.