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Writer/director David Cronenberg is well known for his science fiction and horror films, with grotesque gore gags and body horror prevalent throughout much of his work. This is the man who brought us the nightmarish Brundlefly mutant in "The Fly" and the freaky surgery sex of "Crimes of the Future," but one of his most impressively shocking moments came early in his career: the head explosion in the 1981 movie "Scanners." In the film, 237 people have become "scanners," or beings capable of immense telepathic and psychokinetic powers. Early on in the film, powerful scanner Darryl Revok (Michael Ironside) uses his powers to explode the head of a rival scanner (Louis Del Grande), and it is truly grotesque. Gore shoots in all directions as the scanner's head explodes, his face trapped forever in a moment of surprise. It's gross, it's gory, and it's glorious. It was also surprisingly simple to create.

The gang in "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" are always getting themselves into trouble, but the series creators can't be quite as reckless as their characters. As lawless as the series may seem, they have to abide by the same safety codes as every other major network show. The much-needed protection of unions and insurance has made it so cruder methods used in the filmmaking days of yore are no longer kosher on set. Unfortunately, that means that certain dangerous practical effects from the gritty New Hollywood era have gone the way of the Dodo. So when the "Sunny" creators wanted to mimic an effect from acclaimed filmmaker David Cronenberg's early career hit "Scanners," they ran into a major roadblock.

An important moment in American history is re-imagined in "The Gang Cracks the Liberty Bell," in which the gang's timeless adversary Rickety Cricket gets his head blown off violently (albeit accidentally) with a musket.

Moose and Dean are coming to you all day this Halloween Wednesday, the best day of the year, with a marathon of epic proportions. Some of Sam and Dean's most fright-filled Supernatural episodes will play throughout the day on TNT, but if you just can't wait, check out the Supernatural marathon video. Also: Horror-Rama 2018's new event poster revealed and three exclusive photos for Mass Hysteria.

Watch TNT's Supernatural All-Day Marathon Video: "This Halloween, TNT is bringing fans spooks, chills and thrills with an all-day

Supernatural marathon, starting at 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., spanning four seasons of the most terrifying episodes from the fan-favorite series. From hauntings to ghosts, zombies and even Bloody Mary, TNT is your destination for getting into the Halloween spirit.

In the series, Sam Winchester (Jared Padalecki) and Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles) lost their mother to a mysterious and demonic supernatural force twenty-six years ago.

When isn't it cool to see Dee Wallace, Louis Del Grande, Martha Gibson, Richard Band, Linnea Quigley, Lynn Lowry, and Ghoulish Gary Pullin? Well, those in the Toronto area are in luck, because Horror-Rama Toronto has all of those guests and more this November! Also: Fandor's list of movies to stream for Halloween, Fathom Spotlight's Twilight theatrical screenings, ZombieCON's La Comic Con premiere details, and Ithaca Fantastik 2018's final lineup.

Horror-Rama Toronto 2018 Guests Announced: "Get ready to blow yer brains out, Toronto! Horror-rama - Toronto's Only straight-up Horror and Cult Movie culture convention - is coming back for its Fifth and Freakiest year!

Special guests announced thus far are The Howling and Cujo legend Dee Wallace, Scanners, Seeing Things and Of Unknown Origin star Louis Del Grande, Re-animator and From Beyond composer Richard Band (in his first Canadian appearance), Return Of The Living Dead icon Linnea Quigley, artist Ghoulish Gary Pullin (Rue Morgue.

Toronto's Horror-Rama 2018 has announced a howling good time with appearances by David Naughton (An American Werewolf in London) and Louis Del Grande (Scanners)! If that wasn’t cool enough, Horror-Rama’s inaugural International Short Horror Film Festival has been revealed as well:

"A Naked American Man Is About To Steal Your Balloons...

Get ready to bark at the moon, Toronto! Horror-rama - Toronto's Only straight-up Horror and Cult Movie culture convention - is coming back with a Vengeance for its Fifth and Freakiest year!

And hey...the American Werewolf himself is joining us!

David Naughton, who - among many other credits - starred as the doomed werewolf David in John Landis' 1981 horror masterpiece An American Werewolf In London, is the Headline guest at this year's show. His First Toronto convention appearance!

We're also exploding with excitement to announce the First Ever Convention Appearance of elusive American/Canadian actor Louis Del Grande,...

He stayed home during his family's vacation to work, but businessman Bart Hughes (Peter Weller) might lose his mind instead in Of Unknown Origin, and with the 1983 horror movie coming to Blu-ray from Scream Factory on May 21st, we've been provided with three Blu-ray copies to give away to lucky Daily Dead readers!

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Prize Details: (3) Winners will receive (1) Of Unknown Origin Blu-ray copy.

How to Enter: We're giving Daily Dead readers multiple chances to enter and win:

1. Instagram: Following us on Instagram during the contest period will give you an automatic contest entry. Make sure to follow us at:

https://www.instagram.com/dailydead/

2. Email: For a chance to win via email, send an email to contest@dailydead.com with the subject “Of Unknown Origin Contest”. Be sure to include your name and mailing address.

Entry Details: The contest will end at 12:01am Est on May 28th.

He stayed home during his family's vacation to work, but businessman Bart Hughes (Peter Weller) might lose his mind instead in 1983's Of Unknown Origin, coming to Blu-ray this May from Scream Factory with a new 2K scan from the interpositive and several new bonus features that have now been revealed:

Press Release: When not mired in the corporate rat race, Wall Street executive Bart Hughes is king of his sleek Manhattan brownstone … until he finds his castle under siege by the most determined of home intruders. Forced to enter a rat race of an entirely different sort, Bart takes a stand, with his survival and sanity at stake. Making its Blu-ray debut May 22nd, 2018 from Scream Factory, Of Unknown Origin also includes a number of bonus features, including a new interview with executive producer Pierre David, a new interview with writer Brian Taggert, a new interview with actor Louis Del Grande...

Man versus Nature, Man versus Beast, Man versus Food; all mythical in status to varying degrees and most represented on the silver screen. Of Unknown Origin (1983) tackles the middle myth with a tongue firmly planted in its giant rat infested cheek and is an obsessive tour through a domestic hellscape.

Released in November by Warner Brothers, and produced in conjunction with some of that glorious Canadian tax shelter money (you’re welcome, eh), Of Unknown Origin only made back a quarter of its $4 million budget. It didn’t wow the critics either, although Peter Weller (Robocop) was singled out for his wry performance as the put upon vermin victim.

Bart Hughes (Weller) has it all; the perfect wife (Shannon Tweed, in her feature film debut) and son, a high paying job, and a beautiful brownstone in New York. (Read: Montreal. Tax coin. Beauty.) Wife and child head off for a...

Horror movies have given us some great exploding-head gags over the years, but few are more memorable than the one featured in David Cronenberg’s Scanners. Even if you’ve never seen the film, odds are you’ve seen a Gif of Louis Del Grande’s head disintegrating somewhere on the Internet (most likely, a comment section). It’s one of those effects that was brutally shocking in its day – and has managed to stand the test of time. Now that Scanners has been released as part of the Criterion Collection, fans can see how this amazing piece of practical FX work was achieved in a new featurette included on the disc. Chris Walas and other members of the FX team reveal how they struggled to get just the right look for the sequence, how they tried various...

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As I mentioned in today's DVD/Blu-ray column, I only received my Blu-ray review copy of Criterion's new edition of David Cronenberg's Scanners just last night so I have only had a chance to unwrap the cellophane and admire the art, but Criterion is giving you a taste of what the new set has to offer right now in the following featurette taking a look at the film's most iconic moment... the exploding head and how it was accomplished. The piece includes comments from cinematographer Mark Irwin, special effects supervisor Gary Zeller and special makeup advisors Stephan Dupuis and Chris Walas. So sit back and check out how they turned Louis Del Grande's head into an exploding ball of blood and guts and if you're looking to pick yourself up a copy, remember, it's 50% off at Barnes & Noble making it $14 cheaper than the current Amazon price. yt id...

There are movies with heads exploding and then there's David Cronenberg's "Scanners." The 1980 sci-fi film is still one of the director's finest hours, and one of the best the genre has ever seen. But most of all, while some movies from the era haven't aged very well, "Scanners" has one sequence that is still jaw dropping to this today. Yep, we're talking about the the moment when Louis Del Grande's head gets magnificently blown up. But as you might expect, it wasn't an easy effect to pull off believably. And in this brief featurette, courtesy of The Criterion Collection who released the film on DVD and Blu-ray last week, Cronenberg and members of the VFX team share how they finally got the shot. And the story is pretty terrific, and we're not going to spoil it here to except to say that sometimes necessity is the mother of invention.

For Love’s Sake aka Ai to makoto aka The Legend of Love & Sincerity

Written by Takayuki Takuma, Ikki Kajiwara, Takumi Nagayasu,

Directed by Takashi Miike

Japan, 2012 Fantasia imdb

This year, Fantasia pulled out all the stops to kick off the Festival with a bang – several bangs. They unveiled a new interactive screen that displays pictures from films playing in the festival with capsule reviews in English and French, logos of sponsors and recent random tweets that mention FantasiaFest. It can become a bit of an infinite “Meow” loop, but it is still very cool.

To mark the fact that a Japanese film was chosen as the official opening film for the festival, the local Japanese consulate sent a representative and (better still) sponsored a Japanese dance and an awe-inspiring Japanese drum performance. When I say that it was a percussive assault, I mean that in the most complimentary way.

Scanners

Directed by David Cronenberg

Written by David Cronenberg

1981, Canada

In the early stages of Cronenberg’s career, he established himself as a prolific director of horror films by splicing his features with science fiction elements. His efforts in creating a new sub-genre went unnoticed until his seventh film, Scanners.

At the time of its release, Scanners did not receive a lot of critical acclaim, but became successful enough for Cronenberg to break into Hollywood. For film fans, its classic yet graphic scenes are now part of 1980′s cinema that saw him with fellow director Paul Verhoeven define the era with their now-cult films (Robocop, Total Recall, The Fly).

Scanners follows Cameron Vale (Stephen Lack), who is mysteriously captured by defence and weapon company ConSec. Unbeknowst to him, he is a Scanner: an individual who has unexplained telepathic powers – and he is not the only one in the world. He...

by Jesse Miller, MoreHorror.com

When his wife and son leave for a vacation, mild-mannered businessman Bart (Peter Weller) stays behind to get some work done on his latest project.

However, that all changes when he becomes obsessed with capturing a mischievous rodent that begins to cause destruction to his beautiful home, one expensive object at a time.

Bart becomes fixated with capturing the rat so much that he is absentminded during his work hours and hard at work at setting up traps during the evening. At one point, he even interrupts a perfectly pleasant dinner amongst colleagues with random statistics and facts about rats. Yes, these facts are all startling (if true) but even still, his descent into what appears to be madness is a little out of the blue.

Of Unknown Origin is billed as a “suspense-horror” but it feels more like an oddball dark comedy with very slight undertones of horror.