Man, you know you're getting old when all the legends you grew up with are passing away left, right, and centre... and today we've lost one of the true greats. Christopher Plummer, who graced the silver screen and stage for more than seven decades, has died. He was 91 years old. Plummer was Canadian born, and appeared in hundreds of films, plays and TV shows. He's probably best know for roles in The Sound of Music, Beginners, The Insider, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and 12 Monkeys. His most recent appearances include Ridley Scott's All the Money in the World and Rian Johnson's hit Knives Out. He's a Tony and Oscar winning actor, who seemed incapable of turning in a bad performance, even on B-grade TV shows like Counterstrike. In fact, he was only cast in 2017's All the Money in the World when Kevin Spacey was cut from the finished film due to controversies involving the #MeToo movement. Plummer was hired at the last minute, reshot all of Spacey...

We in The Basement are saddened to learn veteran genre actor Sid Haig has passed away. He was 80. Haig is best know for Captain Spaulding from House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil's Rejects and, most recently, 3 From Hell. But he had a long career, appearing in various TV shows like Gunsmoke and The A-Team, and hit movies like Diamonds Are Forever and Jackie Brown. The man had a talent for making almost any character likeable. He could go from charming to sinister in a heartbeat, and was always a commanding presence. Even small supporting roles in film's like Rob Zombie's Halloween are memorable. I never had the pleasure of meeting him, but I know those who have, and they consider him a true gentleman. Our sincere condolences go out to his family and loved ones. "You want to an actor? Be an actor. You have to starve to do it, starve to do it. But if you're not passionate about what you want to do, you won't be good at it." - Sid Haig. And amen to tha...

By now The Shelter should be a film Basementites are well versed in. It's written and directed by our bro John Fallon, AKA The Arrow of Arrow in the Head, and stars veteran actor Michael Pare , AKA Eddie of Eddie and the Cruisers , among many other roles. The flick's crowd sourcing campaign is coming to an end. If you haven't already, I strongly suggest heading to Indiegogo and throwing a few bucks The Shelter's way. Never ones to be left out, horror magazine Fangoria sat down with John to talk about The Shelter and why The Arrow went with Pare as his leading man . Here's an excerpt: "For this personal journey, Fallon had to seek out a genre stalwart to bring the weight his eerie vision demanded, and ended up casting none other than Michael Pare for the lead in his terrifying tale. Pare, no stranger to dark material, may be venturing into a new realm of fright film with THE SHELTER, but Fallon holds no doubts to the actor’s ability to adapt and...

As regular readers and listeners know, our partner in cinema and crime -- and all-around good friend -- John Fallon makes his feature film directorial debut with The Shelter, which he also wrote. The flick stars veteran actor and genre fave Michael Paré and is scheduled to shoot in January.  Yours truly sat down with John to discuss the film. Below is a transcript of what he had to say. Tell me a bit about where the idea for The Shelter came from.   It was winter and I was walking back from a hockey game during a snow storm . I saw a homeless man sitting on the ground begging for change , he was obviously freezing. I felt bad for the guy, so I gave him a couple of bucks and kept walking. As I walked on, I started wondering how the man got to where he was now. Then I started inventing scenarios in my head about him trying to find shelter from the storm and what would happen if he did. Once I arrived home, I had a found an initial premise for a script and jo...

Canadian actor Leslie Nielsen, AKA Frank Drebin, has died from complications of pneumonia. And the world has become a little less funny because of it. He was 84. The first time I became aware of Nielsen was in the movie Airplane. His "And stop calling me Shirley" sketch had me in stiches. I'd never heard anything so funny. I was also a fan of his Frank Drebin character long before he appeared in The Naked Gun films. The TV series that inspired the films, Police Squad, was a favourite of mine during it's short run. Sure Nielsen made some bad films in his time. What actor hasn't? But the one's that worked were pure gold. Saskatchewan-born Nielsen first popped up on early 1950s TV. He received his first big film break playing Commander J.J. Adams in the 1956 sci-fi flick Forbidden Planet . During the next few decades he established himself as a reliable character actor who graced myriad TV dramas and movies like the Poseidon Adventure. Airplane was his ...