The final broadcast of 2020 is now the final podcast of 2020, and From The Basement ends the year with a bang. The Basement Boys have more -- like fifteen minutes more -- of their interview with rising action star Ellen Hollman, who puts much foot to ass in her new flick Army of One. And she stars opposite Keanu Reeves in next year's much anticipated The Matrix 4! Ellen discusses being a part of 87eleven Action Design, the team responsible for the dazzling action choreography seen in the John Wick films. She also reveals as much as she's allowed about The Matrix sequel, what it's like training alongside Keanu Reeves, and more. Ellen is one of the coolest actors we've met during From The Basement's eleven years on the air, and this interview reflects that. But that's not all; our very own Jason Hewlett wrote a book! He and We Want to Believe lead investigator Peter Renn penned the non-fiction anthology I Want to Believe: One Man's Journey into the paranormal...

Fans should be familiar with the name Peter Renn by now. He's the lead investigator for our web series  We Want to Believe , which currently tears up the Internet at  JoBlo Horror Videos  As alluded to on the show, Peter has been a paranormal investigator for a long time. So it made sense to chronicle his many exploits -- which have taken him around the globe -- in some form. And because I'm a writer and was a journalist for many moons, a book seemed the logical choice. Well, that book is now complete and ready for launch! It's called I Want to Believe: One Man's Journey into the Paranormal and hits the streets and Internet via  Beyond the Fray Publishing  on Tuesday, Dec. 15. Yup, next week! The official synopsis: "as a boy growing up in England, Peter Renn and his family were visited every morning by a ball of light that moved from one end of the family’s kitchen to the other, doing so without fail for years. Instead of sparking fear, this phenomenon gave birt...

It's Friday night -- well, almost -- and almost time for those fine purveyors of all things entertainment to pleasure your ear holes with a lively discussion about...well... all things entertainment.  Yes folks, From The Basement is ready to take over the Radio NL 610 AM airwaves once more! This week, Jason and Shawn mix it up as they interview author and paranormal investigator Kitsie Duncan about her new book, I'd Rather Talk to Dead People from Beyond the Fray Publishing . Listeners might know Kitsie from her Amazon Prime series Oddity Files, which chronicles her various paranormal investigations.  Tonight, she and Jason talk about how she got into this controversial field, what it was like writing her first book, and more. What's she have to say about all that? Stick with us! And stay tuned, as The Basement Boys review a bunch of stuff both Good and Bad, including the HBO documentary series Murder on Middle Beach, the new Kevin Hart Netflix special, The New Mutants, an...

I like to review movies. And I like to review books. Sooooo, it's only fitting that I like to combine the two sometimes... After a agreement goes bad, Indiana Jones finds himself in India- a land of mystery.  A land of holiness.  A land of wonder. And as Dr. Jones soon discovers, a land of danger.  Danger that he finds himself smack in the middle of as he seeks to find a stolen artifact... and artifact that's been taken deep into... The Temple of Doom... This adaptation of the classic Indiana Jones movie by Les Martin is geared towards those in the later teen years.  It follows the movie pretty faithfully- though it does edit quite a few scenes.  Specifically the action sequences that could deem to be "too violent" for teenagers.  This creates a little bit of choppiness to the story, sadly.  The editing creates a really quick read.  Quick enough that you can breeze through the 96 pages in one sitting. The editing also kinda deflates...

Growing up, I would often disappear for hours downstairs in order to peruse the various books in my Mom and Dad's book collection.  In that collection, I found many fascinating books- from haunted houses, to the "Resurrection Men"; from Joseph Merrick to sideshow "freaks"... " Very Special People " by Frederick Drimmer details the existence and lives of some of the most famous sideshow "freaks" in history.  Beaded Ladies, Dogface Boys, Giants and Midgets, and a cast of others spanning the spectrum of human "oddities".  While it certainly dips into sensationalism at times, it does attempt to be fairly compassionate and respectful of the lives he writes about- especially when covering what it was like to be a sideshow exhibit during the Victorian era in general. I must warn you though- there is a "dark" appreciation, and "grim" appreciation for the nature of the people discussed within this book.  At times, ...

The Relic is one of my all-time favourite creature features. I've professed my love for it here , and regret nothing. It's a rip-roaring good time at the movies. 'Nuff said. I'd never read Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's Relic when the movie came out, but heard from many the film couldn't live up to the book. Having now read it, I disagree. I actually think the book and film are on par with each other, but in different ways. The movie exceeds the book when it comes to action and carnage. The entire museum showdown plays far better on screen than on the page, and I appreciated how the monster was dispatched in the film as opposed to the book. The book's ending was, well, lame. But Preston and Child didn't intend the book to be one-off. There's a lot more going on in the book than in the film, which is essentially a stripped down version of the story. For one, Preston and Child intended Relic to be launching point for a series of novels bas...

The name Shannon Legro should be a familiar one to Basement Dwellers. She is featured in the Small Town Monsters series On the Trail of UFOs, and we interviewed her the other week about the show, her life as a paranormal investigator, and her duties as host of the podcast, Into the Fray. Shannon penned a book, along with author G. Michael Hopf, called Beyond the Fray: Bigfoot, under her Beyond the Fray Publishing banner. Being a supporter of her work, and having more than a casual interest in Bigfoot and all things spooky, I ordered a copy. The book is a collection of first-person encounters with Bigfoot, and similar creatures. Some were featured on Into the Fray, others are stories told to her by witnesses. All are of interest, whether you're a believer or not. How so? Shannon is a great interviewer and collector of stories, so all the tales are fast paced and well told. Even if you don't believe, these are good yarns. But if you are open to the possible existence of ...

I'm a pretty big fan of Reavis Z. Wortham's first Sonny Hawke thriller, Hawke's War, which I reviewed right here . It was a Hollywood action flick in book form, and kicked much ass. So it makes sense I'd be down for Hawke's further adventures. Unfortunately, as with many follow ups, the sequel can't quite live up to the original. That's not to say it isn't worth the read, but it does have a pretty big flaw, in my opinion. Hawke's War picks up where Hawke's Prey left off, with the mastermind behind the first book's terrorist plot looking for payback. Hawke finds himself in the crosshairs of a drug and human smuggling cartel. He's fighting for his life, and the life of his family. Unfortunately, Hawke ends up sidelined for much of the novel. He's in it, but a prisoner, so he doesn't have much to do. I get what Wortham was trying to do, but from a narrative strand point, it weakened the overall story. An action hero needs to ...

I like my horror, and I enjoy my mysteries. So when an author combines the two, I'm definitely intrigued. When the author is George Mann, a personal favourite of mine thanks to his Ghost and Newbury and Hobbs books, I'm buying it and reading it stat! Said book is Wychwood, a murder mystery that teams an out-of-work journalist with a police detective. They investigate a series of ritualistic murders in a small England town. The murders take on a supernatural angle that ties into a local legend. That's the short of things. Giving more away would spoil a lot of the twists and turns Mann takes with the story, which feels like Agatha Christie meets Se7en, only spookier. And it works well. Wychwood is the very definition of a page turner. Its plot and prose are tight, and it reads at the speed of a bullet, without the reader missing a thing. I also dug Mann's characters a lot. The journalist, Elspeth Reeves, and detective, Peter Shaw, are well drawn and believable. ...

I've been a Sherlock Holmes fan since I was a kid. My parents got me The Complete Works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle one Christmas, and I was hooked. My enjoyment of the character spread to his various film and TV incarnations. If I had to pick a preferred version of the great detective... I couldn't. I like them all for different reasons, which would make a great article of its own one day... I know other authors have tackled Holmes and Watson, and kept their literary adventurers alive and well, but I never bothered picking one up until I came across Art in the Blood by Bonnie MacBird. I didn't believe anyone could continue what Doyle did in book form. Fortunately, when it came to Ms. MacBird's work, I was wrong. Art in the Bloods reads a lot like Doyle's stories, with Watson continuing to narrate some "lost cases" he and Holmes embarked on. This one has to do with art theft, a series of murders, and a child's disappearance. The story gets dark...

It must be stated, for the record, that I normally don't read fantasy novels. Tried The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, tried the Dragonlance and Shannara books, and found them all ducking boring. But for some reason -- it might have been the cover art, or the tagline on the front -- but I was compelled to pick up Nicholas Eames' Kings of the Wyld. Maybe it's because wild was spelled wyld? I don't know. My brain is a mysterious place... Let me tell yah, I'm so glad I did. Kings of the Wyld is one of the best books I've ever read. It's so awesome, I was awesomed out by its awesomeness! Yes, it's just that awesome! The world Eames created is one where mercenary bands are the rock stars of the Middle Ages. Only these bands don't make music, they make war! They go on tours, fight monsters, and rescue fair maidens. They party hard and trash rooms at the inn. They get all the wenches. And yes, they have agents who book their battles for them...

Ever wonder what happened to the Scooby Doo gang when they grew up? Well, so did author Edgar Cantero, and he's crafted a groovy novel about his own youth detectives in order to explore the fate of Velma, Shaggy, Daphne, Fred and Scooby Doo later in life. In the case of Meddling Kids, our older -- and emotionally damaged -- heroes return to the summer town where they used to solve mysteries. It turns out the culprit from their most famous case, the Sleepy Lake Monster, wasn't the culprit after all. Sure, he was the guy in the rubber suit who claimed he'd of gotten away with it, but something far more sinister was afoot... and still could be. Meddling kid is at once a reflection on our childhood memories, an ode to Saturday morning cartoons (remember those), and in-your-face pop culture references; all told with some of the smartest, wittiest and most exciting prose I've ever read. Cantero has a habit of dropping out of his usual narrative, and switching to a scr...

I'm going to come out of the gate swinging on this one, because never before have I ever felt so cock-blocked by a book. Into the Drowning Deep promised me one thing, and failed to deliver on all counts. Remember when all the cool stuff was edited out of a movie when it aired on network TV? You'd get this great build up to some action or sex scene and then SNIP, the censors would cut it out. That's what Mira Grant does with Into the Drowning Deep. Every time I thought the book was ready to get into the horror action it promised, she'd write around it. The "money shots" were taken out. I have no idea why she'd do that. It's those scenes that draw horror readers to books like this. We want the payoff, dammit! Grant's book had oodles of potential too. A mismatched crew head out to sea on a research expedition to find mermaids. Yes, mermaids. And when they do, these mermaids are anything but friendly. In fact, all they want to do is kill you. ...

How to review a book of poetry when you are anything but a poet? A writer sure, but not a poet. Every attempt made at writing poetry an absolute failure... Fortunately for us readers, J.E.A. Wallace doesn't suck at writing poetry. He's actually got it down to a science, and makes an often confusing (at least to me) writing style interesting and engaging. Are you hurtling toward God knows what? is a great collection of poems that range from humourous to frightening, melancholy to surreal. Some are interconnected, others stand alone. All are little slices (I'll assume) of Wallace's mind and world, and it seems like a fascinating place. I have a few personal favourites, including Post-apocalyptic chandeliers, Meanwhile, a few blocks from Times Square, and The ice storm.

    Rather than taking taking movies meant for adults , and watering them down to be suitable for young adults, maybe the studios should make movies that are geared towards that age group to begin with, right?   Well, Universal Pictures is doing that in the form of a movie adaptation of Josin L. McQuein's upcoming young adults novel, " Arclight ".  They are also working on adapting a supernatural novel by Julie Kagawa.   Brian Grazer from Imagine Entertainment and Pouya Shahbasian of New Leaf Literary & Media will be producing the film that will have  scripted done by Matthew Sand, while Erica Huggins and Sarah Bowen of Imagine will exec produce.  The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic future, and follows the adventures of a teen with no memory who arrives at a settlement that's protected by Arclight.   McQuein was paid $500,000.00 by Greenwillow Books in 2011 for a two book deal.  " Arclight " will...