RIP Marilyn Burns (Sally Hardesty): May 7th, 1949 - August 5th, 2014

Some sad news hit the horror community last week. I was pretty shocked when I heard the news, and have wanted to wait until I could really take the time to sort my thoughts and speak my piece regarding the matter.

Marilyn Burns is oft overlooked in favor of Jamie Lee Curtis when the term Scream Queen is brought up in conversation amongst horror fans and non-fans alike. She was the original surviving lady, the original scream queen and she helped stoked the fire that would eventually become the raging love of horror that I have today.

Her passing is untimely (she was 65 years old), and it's made even sadder by the fact that we are now celebrating the 40^th anniversary of the film that gave her the greatest role that she would ever play, that of Sally Hardesty in Tobe Hooper's seminal The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. She helped create one of the greatest horror archetype's, that of the strong woman who defies the odds and bests the maniac on their trail. Marilyn endured the summer heat, the dangers of the chainsaw and endless bruises, scrapes and injuries that went along with the filming of TCM. Even the fake blood used was a painful endeavor to remove once the cameras stopped rolling.

While the film ended up hurting her career in terms of mainstream success, she starred and co-starred in several other films throughout the years, including Eaten Alive, Kiss Daddy Goodbye, Texas Chainsaw 3D and The Butcher Boys. She also took on the role of Linda Kasabian, real life member of the Manson family, in the 1976 television mini-series Helter Skelter.

While she focused on stage acting in the later years of her life, horror fans the world over would still flock to appearances she made at various horror conventions in order to snap a picture with the iconic scream queen herself.

While it's very sad that we had to lose Marilyn at such a young age, it is important that we take the time to celebrate her life and the monumental impact that she had on the genre that we all love so much. If it weren't for people like her, the horror landscape would be a very different beast than what we have today.

RIP Marilyn Burns, May 7^th, 1949 – August 5^th, 2014

RIP Karen Black AKA Mama Firefly, Rayette Dipesto

It's a sad day for horror fans as word broke that Karen Black, the voluptuous vixen of horror, lost her fight to cancer on Wednesday. 

Karen Black got her big break when she was cast as a prostitute who takes LSD with Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda in 1969's Easy Rider and went on to star with Jack Nicholson as his starry eyed lover in Five Easy Pieces. While she worked with Nicholson again, her true calling came in the form of horror where she played quirky, strange and always terrifying roles such as Nancy Pryor in Airplane 1975 (Alfred Hitchcock's last film), Faye Greener in The Day of the Locust and a variety of roles in Trilogy of Terror. Throughout the years she was in many films, television roles and is a fan favorite as Mama Firefly in Rob Zombie's House of 1,000 Corpses. 

Karen Black will be missed and will be remembered by her full lips, curly hair, her full bodied laugh and her inexplicable ability to make you smile, no matter how dastardly her on-screen antics are. 

RIP, Karen, you will be missed.

- Rg Lovecraft

RIP Ray Manzarek, Founding Member of The Doors

Today marks a very sad loss for the music world. Ray Manzarek, founding member of The Doors, passed away an hour and a half ago in Germany. He lost his battle against bile duct cancer, and as a huge Doors fan, I’m pretty torn up about it.

While this blog is devoted to the world of horror films, we can all appreciate truly great musicians that not only did something great for their time but were able to create something that continued to influence new generations over the course of 40 years and beyond.

We’ve all talked and gushed over Jim, but spin an album tonight for Ray. Every time you hear those keyboards in Light My Fire, let his spirit live on. We’ll love and miss ya Ray, hope you’re already sharing a cold one with Jim.