Welcome back to another installment of Daily Dead’s 2015 Holiday Gift Guide—we’re now on the eighth day and for today’s gifting ideas, we’re turning the spotlight on several great books related to noteworthy horror and sci-fi TV shows. We’re also featuring some amazing indie artists in this edition of the HGG—Electric Zombie and Velvet Geek—and we’ve also found some pop culture-inspired Clue games that would be perfect to put under the tree this year.
This year’s Holiday Gift Guide is being sponsored by RLJ Entertainment and their recent terrifying yuletide release, A Christmas Horror Story. To help you guys get into the spirit of the season, we’ve put together ten amazing prize packs filled with goodies, a T-shirt and your very own copy of A Christmas Horror Story to get you ready for the holiday season.
For a chance to win one of our 2015 Holiday Gift Guide prize packs, send an email to contest@dailydead.com with “Holiday Gift Guide” in the subject line and be sure to include your full name and mailing address as well.
Books:
The Art & Making of Hannibal: The Television Series
The Art & Making of Hannibal: The Television Series is a detailed look at the making of this highly original, critically lauded, and visually stunning series. Released ahead of the start of the 3rd season, this book will bring Fannibals into the world of secrets, lies, and intrigue of their beloved show.
With stars including Mads Mikkelsen, Hugh Dancy, Laurence Fishburne, Caroline Dhavernas and guest spots by Gillian Anderson, Eddie Izzard and Michael Pitt, Hannibal is one of the most elegant, engrossing and deliciously haunting shows on television today. The Art & Making of Hannibal: The Television Series celebrates all aspects of this unique show. A highly stylized illustrated book featuring extracts of the shooting scripts of the first and second seasons, exclusive cast and crew interviews, behind-the-scenes photography, production notes, storyboards, alongside Hannibal's sketches and music notations.
Curious Goods: Behind the Scenes of Friday the 13th: The Series
“Lewis Vendredi made a deal with the devil to sell cursed antiques, but he broke the pact, and it cost him his soul. His niece Micki, and her cousin Ryan, inherited the store—and with it, the curse. Now they must get everything back—and the real terror begins.” So opens Friday the 13th: The Series. In 1987, Paramount Studios found success selling a new Star Trek series into syndication. Eager to cash in on other studio-owned properties, Paramount asked producer Frank Mancuso Jr. to develop a series around Friday the 13th, and the television series was born. It had nothing to do with the popular slasher film franchise, which was both a blessing and curse. It was a largely young, inexperienced cast and crew, and one of the first Hollywood productions to shoot entirely in Canada. In the first-ever examination of the TV series, author Alyse Wax delves into the series episode-by-episode, with more than sixty exclusive interviews with the cast, writers, directors, and producers, as well as nearly fifty never published behind-the-scenes photos from the cast and crew’s personal collections.
Doctor Who Impossible Worlds: A 50-Year Treasury of Art and Design
An intimate, behind-the-curtains tour of the sets, costumes, spacecraft, alien planets, creatures, weapons, and gadgets used to create the stunning world of Doctor Who.
From distant galaxies in the far-flung future, to ancient history on the planet Earth, Doctor Who is unique for the breadth of imaginative possibilities it offers the artists charged with bringing each episode to life. Mining the depths of the BBC archives, Stephen Nicholas and Mike Tucker have compiled this breathtaking collection of rare and never-before-published images that are interwoven with fascinating insights from the show’s writers. Showcasing the work of Doctor Who’s remarkable designers, Doctor Who: Impossible Worlds pays tribute to the care and attention to detail essential to creating the look of the show, from the characters themselves—including recurring villains like the Daleks or the Cybermen—to the smallest hand prop featured in the briefest of scenes, to the TARDIS console room and other regularly used sets.
Doctor Who: Impossible Worlds explores how the art department works together with costumers and make-up and special effects artists to produce a coherent look for a diverse range of alien worlds; reveals how the artists’ relationship with the computer graphics department allows them to create locations far grander than possible in the real world; and shows how today’s creative artists have built upon the designs produced by their predecessors—the pioneers of the program’s “classic” era whose legacy has delighted audiences since 1963.
Divided thematically, Doctor Who: Impossible Worlds examines the history of the program and its art and set design, and highlights how various re-occurring designs have evolved over time. Chock full of surprising, illuminating, and fascinating information, photographs, and trivia, Doctor Who: Impossible Worlds is essential for every Whovian, whether you're an established fan or are new to the show.
Movies:
Dressed to Kill (Criterion Collection, Blu-ray)
Brian De Palma ascended to the highest ranks of American suspense filmmaking with this virtuoso, explicit erotic thriller. At once tongue in cheek and scary as hell, Dressed to Kill revolves around the grisly murder of a woman in Manhattan and how her psychiatrist, her brainiac teenage son, and the prostitute who witnessed the crime try to piece together what happened while the killer remains at large. With its masterfully executed scenes of horror, voluptuous camera work, and passionate score, Dressed to Kill is a veritable symphony of terror, enhanced by vivid performances by Angie Dickinson, Michael Caine, and Nancy Allen.
Special Features include New, restored 4K digital transfer of director Brian De Palma’s preferred unrated version, supervised by the director, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray, New conversation between De Palma and filmmaker Noah Baumbach, New interviews with actor Nancy Allen, producer George Litto, composer Pino Donaggio, shower-scene body double Victoria Lynn Johnson, and poster photographic art director Stephen Sayadian, The Making of “Dressed to Kill,” a 2001 documentary, New profile of cinematographer Ralf Bode, featuring filmmaker Michael Apted, Interview with actor-director Keith Gordon from 2001, Pieces from 2001 about the different versions of the film and the cuts made to avoid an X rating, Gallery of storyboards by De Palma, Trailer PLUS: An essay by critic Michael Koresky.
Apparel:
From the site: Everyone is still that kid, running home from school to watch either watch cartoons, or ride their bike to the gas station to buy candy and play arcade games, when they should be doing their homework. Sleepovers with friends on Friday nights, eating pizza and gorging on either a Beavis and Butt-Head Moronathon, or a stack of outdated VHS’ covered in artwork that would resonate in our minds for the rest of our lives. Commercials, cereal, toys, or trapper keepers. Even the dumbest of products, can make the biggest impact in our lives.
Seeing it again, is like digging up an old relic, unearthing this memory that has been scratching to get out. It’s that feeling and that memory, this ongoing nerd secret society, where no one else get’s us, but us. Everyone wants to go back and relive that feeling, or carry it onto our children. While it may be my creation, but it’s OUR BRAND, OUR PAST, OUR CULTURE. We are Electric Zombie.
Especially for the Scream Queens:
Laughing Vixen Lounge is an Etsy shop I came across earlier this year while looking for a birthday gift for a friend and once I saw their inventory, I knew I had to include them in this year’s Holiday Gift Guide, as they have a ton of variety for all the genre-loving ladies out there. Check out this great Zombie Charm Bracelet, or this Supernatural-inspired Protection Necklace, this practical (and fun!) Freaks Compact Mirror or even this Nosferatu Purse Holder, which would definitely come in handy to hold your handbags while out and about.
Music & Art:
I fell in love with Velvet Geek earlier this year when I discovered at an L.A.-based art show that the artist behind it all, Bruce White, had done an amazing portrait of Bodhi from Point Break. Bruce has made quite a name for himself in the pop art world with his black velvet paintings that cater to your inner nerd. Velvet Geek is a little pricier than many of the artists I’ve been featuring for this year’s HGG but as you can tell, Bruce’s work is definitely worth it. Also, VG takes commissions, so if there’s something you’ve always wanted to have created into velvet artwork, here’s your chance.
Games & Collectibles:
Doctor Who Clue places your favorite characters on a search through the Universe to rescue The Doctor. Playing as his closest friends and allies, players must reveal who amongst them the Dales conditioned and mind-controlled to mislead the Doctor, what powerful weapon was used in the crime, and where The Doctor has been taken in the kidnapping, thereby saving him from the Dales!
One of your favorite Supernatural characters has been possessed & is committing terrible deeds! Now is the time for you to become the hunter and attempt to discover - WHO is possessed WHAT mystical object was used to open the demon portal, and WHERE the portal was opened! Was it Sam with the Revolver in the Rocky Mountains? Or Dean on the West Coast with the Winchester Journal?
Beautifully illustrated game board represents locations from the show set in 1891 London. Custom sculpted weapons each representing one of six suspects and the suspects include Vanessa Ives, Sir Malcolm Murray, Dorian Gray, Brona Croft, Ethan Chandler and Victor Frankenstein. Great gift for Penny Dreadful fans.
For the Little Ghouls:
Make Your Own Monster Puppet Set
Create hundreds of crazy creatures with this fuzzy friend and its interchangeable parts! Carrying case is filled with weird and wacky eyes, ears, antennae and more for quirky creativity! Suction cup hands are included for window display. Ages 3+ 8 x 12" diameter packaged.
Etsy Spotlight:
ReGeekery specializes in turning old geeky things into newer, cooler geeky things and their selection of pop culture-inspired gift ideas is top-notch. Check out this awesome Leatherface Head Ornament, their Cthulhu Statue Ornament or even this fun R2D2 Ornament.
Heather A. Wixson was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs, until she followed her dreams and moved to Los Angeles in 2009. A 14-year veteran in the world of horror entertainment journalism, Wixson fell in love with genre films at a very early age, and has spent more than a decade as a writer and supporter of preserving the history of horror and science fiction cinema. Throughout her career, Wixson has contributed to several notable websites, including Fangoria, Dread Central, Terror Tube, and FEARnet, and she currently serves as the Managing Editor for Daily Dead, which has been her home since 2013. She's also written for both Fangoria Magazine & ReMind Magazine, and her latest book project, Monsters, Makeup & Effects: Volume One will be released on October 20, 2021.
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