RavensBlight

It was during one of my late night insomniac web surfing sessions that I first came across a very peculiar website called RavensBlight.  When I came across it, I knew that I had found something really special.  An ode to all things spooky and horrible.  Here you will find anything and everything you could possibly want for your horror pleasure!  A plethora of horror, all created and maintained by Atist, Musician, Filmmaker and Mad Scientist, Ray O'Bannon.

Mr. O'Bannon has over 300 images to view in his art gallery, such as the one above.  Some are painted, some drawn.....there's color photography as well as black and white photography, not to mention photos of some sculptures and even jewelry that he has made!  His art is varied, yet still maintains a certain fantastic Halloween vibe.  You know when you're looking at one of Ray's pieces. 

Art is but one part of the website experience.  Ray wanted his visitors to be able to come away from the page with more than just a memory of what they had seen, so he created a virtual free toy shop, in which you can download a TON of different paper-craft toys.  My personal favorite is The SplatterBot!  A rusted, bio mechanical horror that is not only fun to put together, but also looks great hanging out on my desk!  Not much of a toy person?  Like board games?  Well, why not try out Midnight Banshees?

 

Paper Toys and games not your thing at all?  More of a video game kinda person?  Ray's got you covered!  You can jump on over to the Arcade and download titles such as Zombie Alley, Grave Island and The Tomb of Count Yargle.  Good stuff and just the thing for when you're looking for a fun horror game to bide your time!

Perhaps you aren't looking to do anything interactive.  Perhaps you are looking for some music to set the mood for your relaxation?  No problem.  Head over to the Music Studio and download one of O'Bannon's EIGHT full length albums!  EIGHT!  My personal favorite is Corpse Dicer......great Grindhouse vibe to it!

Or perhaps you just wanna watch some great horror films.....well guess what?  The RavenBlight Theater has got 23 great short films just waiting to be discovered!  The shortest of the films runs 35 seconds, the longest runs 3 minutes, 50 seconds.  With Ray's kind permission, I present you with three of his films to whet your appetite.

The Butler's Demise.  This is a great one.  It perfectly showcases Ray's keen sense of humor!

Tricker Treat.  This one reminds me of an old episode of Tales From the Darkside, that was entitled Halloween Candy. 

 

The Victim.  One of the shortest films, running at 35 seconds.

It still packs a pretty good punch!

Those are just three of the almost two dozen films available to download!  If you loved them like I did, then head on over to RavensBlight and make sure to tell him that The Wizard of Vestron sent ya!

Zombie In My Pocket

Hey kids, it's your friendly Wizard here, and I wanna tell you about a great solitaire game that I like to play every now and then.  The name of the game is Zombie in my Pocket and it's a fantastic game from Jeremiah Lee.  It's a quick, addictive game that can be played in anywhere from about 5 - 15 minutes (Depending on your luck!)

You are in a house besieged by zombies!  You must locate the Evil Zombie Totem, which is located in the Evil Temple which is somewhere in the house.  Once you have located the Zombie Totem, you must bury it in the backyard cemetery before the stroke of midnight!  Fail, and zombies will take over the neighborhood and then the world!  Mwaaaa-huaaa-huaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!

The game is a tile placement/modular gameboard style game.  By flipping over facedown tiles, you create the layout of the house as you move along, creating a new layout every time you play.  The same goes for the outdoor tiles.  I've played this game countless times and I can't say that I've ever had quite the same outcome!

The zombies and all events are dictated by a series of event cards.  You start off at 9pm, in the main foyer of the house.  Every turn you flip over a new Event Card, which will tell you if you found an item (chainsaw, crowbar, gasoline......bones of a deceased relative...), attacked by zombies or other various happenings.  After each event card has been drawn, the player reshuffles the deck and the time now becomes 10pm...and so forth.  You must search the house, find the Zombie Totem and bury it all before Midnight. Should you fail, you lose.   Games can go by quite quickly (I've had games where I've discovered the Evil Temple right next to the foyer and the cemetery was right off the patio!) and I've had games that laster much longer (Evil Temple and Cemetery were both the last tiles of the respective piles).

This is a great way to spend a few ghastly minutes, packs extremely small (they don't call it Zombie In My Pocket for nuthin' ya know!) and can be played virtually anywhere you have a bit of a flat surface.  If you like to play games and don't always have a friend around to play with.....if you are tired of playing solitaire with a deck of cards.....if you just love zombies and wanna have a little fun...you owe it to yourself to check this game out!

Zombies In My Pocket is a free print and play game.  Go to the Zombie In My Pocket page at BoardGameGeek.com (just follow the link!) and you'll find everything you need to print out and play your game!  

Beware......the undead have risen from their graves.....and only you can stop them!

Bwaaaaaa-huaaaa-huaaaaaa!