By Martin CizmarIn the last month I’ve seen a lot of chainsaws. Quite possibly more than I’ve seen in the rest of my life combined. Why almost every haunted house in the Valley ends with a chainsaw-wielding dude chasing you out the back door is a mystery to me, but they do.
By Martin Cizmar
Ghoulfland
Country Club and The 60
Mesa
The good: Lots of startles throughout maze-like house, other fun activities at Golfland.
The bad: Fairly short, scenery is often a little cheesy.
The ugly: None.
By Lilia Menconi Everyone has felt the pressure to really bring it with personal style. You’ve got a big work event coming up and it’s necessary to make an impression. Easy enough. You hit the gym a little harder a month before and grab up some fashion magazines to help…
By Martin Cizmar
Shadowlands
Fiesta Mall, Alma School and The 60
Mesa
The good: Outdoor trail is full of great scenery and well-placed actors, some impressive scenery, novelty factor since it is much different than other area houses.
The bad: Not enough scares, overly complex and ultimately meaningless storyline, poor use of available live monsters.
The ugly: Too much yelling of directions.
By Lilia Menconi Anticipation of the Thesmophoria by Simon Casson. In this postmodern world, we just can’t seem to keep our grubby paws off of other people’s ideas. Having surrendered to the concept that there is no longer a purely original thought, we’ve embraced a creative zone of spring boarding…
By Martin Cizmar
Doomtown at Rawhide
Rawhide, The 10 at Wild Horse Pass
Chandler
The good: Great scene around the haunts themselves, awesome curtain maze, cool scenery in jungle room, good decoys paired with hidden scares throughout, great first scene in the asylum house.
The bad: Tons of wall thumping, annoying pissing skeleton, not enough actors
The ugly: Very, very short for $16.
I would never knowingly contradict a Best of Phoenix. Therefore, I am not prepared to say that Rawhide’s Doomtown is not The Best Halloween Scare in our fair metropolis. I will, however, say it’s not my favorite.
The protag of Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky is a modestly gaudy people’s heroine industriously repairing the social world, one frayed interaction at a time. After extended cameos in two previous Leigh films (as a resourceful pop tart in All or Nothing and the date-raped rich girl in Vera Drake), fine-boned Sally…
Pride and Glory doesn’t make any effort to disguise what it is: a barely-held-together string of vignettes lifted from every cop movie ever made (save, perhaps, Turner & Hooch). It serves up clichés bound together by a flimsy, bored-out-of-its-own-skull story about bad cops, black sheep, good sons, and a climactic…
One of the oft-repeated historical curiosities about the Maya is that they conceived the wheel yet never found a practical application for it. Mayan kids had wheeled toys and Mayan calendars were imagined as wheels . . . yet when it came to hauling something, your average Maya just heaped…
Life’s been pretty damn scary lately. Between the double-fisted drama of the über-contentious race for the White House and the roller coaster stock market, we’ve been hoping this is all just some titanically bad nightmare everyone’s gonna wake up from. Needless to say, some letting loose is most definitely in…
Like most real-life marriages, Theater Artists Studio’s Marriage Play is lopsided. The company’s production of Edward Albee’s comic drama is expertly directed by Kathleen Butler, a chum and frequent collaborator of Albee’s who originated the female role in this play (a coup for TAS because smaller troupes rarely attract celeb…
The saucy pajama party features emcee Mr. Golden and Dolly “Cigar Girl and Burlesque Artist” Diamonds. Complimentary wine and chocolate will be served. RSVPs are required. Fri., Oct. 24, 2008…
The best-selling author of The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope and former senior editor for Newsweek speaks. Admission is free, but tickets are required. Sun., Oct. 26, 2008…
Get ready for the biggie, a 15-miler scheduled in January, with this five-mile loop. Registration is required. Sat., Oct. 25, 8-10:30 a.m., 2008…
John Loring of Tiffany & Co. discusses the “evolution of American taste” and the history of the famed jeweler to the rich and famous. You’ll think you’ve died and gone to Gossip Girl heaven. x-o-x-o. Tue., Oct. 28, 7 p.m., 2008…
Just in time for All Hallows, the Cirque du Freak author discusses the latest in his Demonata series, Death’s Shadow. Wed., Oct. 29, 7 p.m., 2008…
Author Charles Liu (60 Hikes Within 60 Miles) leads this “hike and impromptu writing exercise” from Changing Hands to Peralta Pass in the Superstition Mountains. Registration and prepayment are required. Sat., Oct. 25, 8 a.m., 2008…
A professional mixologist will teach you how to concoct the perfect mojito. Mon., Oct. 27, 5-7 p.m., 2008…
Oh, come on! You don’t wanna see Bill Murray riffing in his prime on the big screen? Cats and dogs living together? The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man on a rampage? The Gatekeeper? The Keymaster? Whatever. More popcorn for us. Wed., Oct. 29, 7 p.m., 2008…
The black comedy tells the fictitious tale of Charlie Silvercloud III, who believes he’s about to die because both his father and grandfather were killed by milk trucks on their 25th birthdays. Mon., Oct. 27, 1:30 p.m., 2008…
Throughout human history, wigs have benefited mankind. The ancient Egyptians donned them to shield their melons from the sunshine, France’s King Louis XIII hid his premature baldness with a hairpiece, and now Valley barflies can use them to score cheap alcohol during Wigger Wednesdays. The weird watering hole called Monkey…
This wingding is the only official Suns-sponsored party in honor of the team’s regular-season opener against the San Antonio Spurs in San Antonio. There’ll be contests, giveaways, and an appearance by the NBA All-Star Tour. Wed., Oct. 29, 5 p.m., 2008…
