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Pictured: Just one of the many entries already in for Cinematical's Fifth Annual Halloween Costume Contest.

By now you've probably tricked and treated your tiny little hearts out, and either you're spending a quiet night at home with your favorite scary movies or you're heading out for a night on the town dressed up in some outrageous movie-inspired costume (because we know that's how you roll). If that's the case, and you're busy putting the finishing touches on your costume as we speak, then make sure to bring a camera out with you and take lots of pictures because Cinematical's Fifth Annual Halloween Costume Contest is still open for submissions until November 6th. That's right, you still have all next week to get us your fantabulous movie-inspired Halloween costumes for a chance to win some pretty cool prizes.

Like we do every year, this contest is open to folks under 18 and over 18 (with two separate prize packages), so no matter how young or how old everyone can participate in what's already shaping up to be our biggest (and best) contest yet. For more on this year's contest -- including rules, prizes and all that fun stuff -- head right over to our contest announcement page. We look forward to seeing your inspired creations real soon.

From our family to yours, we wish you a happy, healthy and safe Halloween.

This past summer we decided to introduce a 'Summer Appreciation' theme to Cinematical, which included features like Our Favorite Summers and a summer-related interview series with the directors who had films coming out. Since we all (and you all) had so much fun with that, we decided to re-introduce a theme this month to not just Cinematical, but Horror Squad and SciFi Squad, too -- and that theme is ... villains!

So, beginning today and lasting all month long, we'll be shoveling out a number of villain-centric pieces across all three sites. You'll see features like Villains We Love, October's Biggest Villains, Villains with Really Stupid Plans, Villains That Wore Out Their Welcome and so much more. Over on Horror Squad we'll be launching our 31 Fates Worse Than Death series, where each day we'll be taking a look at a movie character's fate that was worse than death. Over on SciFi Squad, we'll be showing you how to make your very own Darth Vader cake, and so on and so forth.

All of this fantastic October-themed coverage will lead up to our Fifth Annual Halloween Costume Contest, which we'll unveil (in all its awesome prize-giving glory) in just a short time from now. So get pumped, get excited and definitely get your freak on -- it's October baby, and we're gonna have some fun.

I know Cinematical readers are just like our writers in that they need a steady supply of free movies and television 24/7. That's why sites like Hulu and Netflix Instant have been a gift from the Powers That Be, as you can see almost anything your heart desires at the weirdest times of the day or night. Now you'll have a new instant watch option with AOL's SlashControl.

SlashControl has just launched this week, and has partnered with more than 30 sites to bring you lots and lots of free television shows and movies. You'll be able to access content from ABC, CBS, CW, Showtime, Hulu, A&E, The History Channel, National Geographic, Crackle and the WB, and that's just the beginning. The site is very well designed, and has a search function that's even faster than Hulu's, so you can quickly kick yourself for not watching Session 9 while it was still available.

Right now, their movie selection is drawn from Hulu and Crackle, but they'll undoubtedly be branching out and offering unique content. But there's still enough to watch on here that you won't be bored, as you can overdose on 99 episodes of The A-Team in order to better debate the remake casting, or have a Daniel Day-Lewis double feature with The Boxer and The Last of the Mohicans. You know you want to, and the beauty of online watching is that SlashControl won't tell anyone what you're up to.

Hello to all the loyal Cinematical readers. It's me, Scott, the Managing Editor of this site. Part of my job is to keep throwing new ideas to the team, simply because I'm supposed to keep *you* at the site a little bit longer. Fortunately we have an excellent team of movie freaks who know how to write, which makes my job a whole lot easier. Every few weeks I come up with something like "Fan Rant," "Scenes We Love," "Credits Report," etc., and then Erik Davis and I try to gauge A) how well the Cine team 'takes' to the feature, and B) how our readers feel about it.

So if you have a big problem with the "Movies I'll Never See" concept, feel free to direct your anger away from writers like Dawn Taylor and point it towards me. Basically, I figured we ALL have a handful of films that we never plan to see. Could be politics, personal preference, a monumental distaste for a certain actor, or you name it. 98% of our readers are die-hard movie freaks and I guarantee they also have a short list of "nope, never" flicks. The intent of that feature was not to be closed-minded or ignorant regarding unseen films, but more like a "Fan Rant" on the strange reasons we might continually avoid a certain film. But since the reaction to Dawn's Schindler's List article was so overwhelmingly negative, I turn the question over to you: Is there no place for this sort of discussion? Do you really find it that distasteful? Or do you dig it? I can see both arguments, really, but I still kind of like the concept...

After the jump: How a clerical error turned me into a leper -OR- Superhero Tournament Do-Over!

In just a few hours from now, the Cinematical team will land in San Diego for the 2009 Comic Con Convention. On the ground for us this year are Kevin Kelly, Todd Gilchrist and, of course, our resident geek Elisabeth Rappe -- and all three of them will be working harder than they've ever worked before to bring the entirety of Comic Con to your computer screen, be it through panel coverage, interviews, video, stormtroopers break-dancing -- you name it, they'll cover it.

Cinematical will be covering all the major panels (Disney, Warner Bros. 20th Century Fox, Summit, etc..) and all the major films (Iron Man 2, Avatar, Alice in Wonderland, New Moon), as well as speaking with all the major stars (Tim Burton, Peter Jackson, Robert Downey Jr.). We'll be on the convention floor, we'll be getting our groove on at all the big parties -- we'll be everywhere at every time so that you never miss a single thing. Not only will you be able to tap into our Comic Con coverage by following it right here at Cinematical, but we'll also be live-Tweeting the Con madness for those who desperately want up-to-the-second updates from the convention. If it's happening at Comic Con, you'll find it on Cinematical.

Here are some handy links for you to bookmark asap:

Cinematical's Comic Con Coverage
Cinematical on Twitter
TV Squad's Comic Con Coverage
SciFi Squad on Twitter
Horror Squad on Twitter

And don't forget to check out Moviefone's official 2009 Comic Con Preview

Feel free to let us know if there's something specific you want covered or if there's a question you have for the long laundry list of filmmakers, actors and actresses that will attend this year, and we'll do our best to hook it up for you ... because we care ... more than you'll ever know. Hugs! Er ... um, okay, let's get to it then ...

If things seem a little crazy at Cinematical this week, it's because our esteemed EIC, Erik Davis, and his lovely wife Jocelyn are welcoming their first baby! The adorable Zoe Sophia Davis was born this past Saturday, 7 pounds 2 ounces, and perfectly flawless in every way. (Erik totally denies that Zoe was named for the Gina Torres character in Firefly, but I'm pushing that rumor just so Whedonesque.com picks the story up.) Please join the Cinematical / Moviefone / Horror & SciFi Squad family in congratulating Erik and Jocelyn and welcoming a tiny new movie geek to the world!



One request from the proud papa: What should Zoe's FIRST movie be? (He refused to ask me for fear I'd say Friday the 13th or something.)

If you love all things flick-related, well then obviously you're at the right blog. We're very proud of the fact that Cinematical covers everything from indie and foreign to big-time blockbuster, and all the films in between. But there are certain genres that demand a little extra focus, which is why we've decided to kick-start two new movie blogs! One dedicated to the Police Academy series, and the other devoted to all things related to Brett Ratner.

Nah, just kidding. One is called Horror Squad and the other is SciFi Squad. Yes, you may notice a few articles that seem a little ... familiar, but that's because we have such a stellar backlog of genre-intensive pieces, and we'd rather reprint good stuff than let it vanish forever. Also, you can expect a LOT more original content (from some familiar names and some new ones) as time goes on.

So if you're a horror hound or a sci-fi psycho, well, here are two more links to add to your "favorites" collection. Or your RSS feed. Or your Twitter page. Please keep in mind that we want YOUR feedback on these new blogs, because that's how we'll know what sort of stuff you like to read. As always, thanks for your clicks.

Site descriptions after the jump ...

We've added a nifty new gizmo to the bottom of our pages, and we're hoping it'll give you more to do at Cinematical than just read a few posts, comment on how LAME we are for not liking Wolverine, and email the latest Eric Snider article to your mom with the subject line "OMG, sooo funny!" I've only been able to play around with our new Socialthing doo-hickey for a few minutes, and so far my favorite aspect is that Cinematical now has a nifty little chat room! To talk about movies in! With your fellow readers AND Cine-staff members!

I've been told that Socialthing does a lot more than just that, though. According to my notes, it can also help you...

• Stay connected with the sites you love, wherever you are
• Bring your social graph with you to the site you are on
• Easily share your activity with buddies
• Keep up with buddies' activities via feeds
• Discover new content, buddies, etc.
• Facilitate conversations with people that have like interests in a site's content

(That last one is the chat room geekery that has me all excited.) So please do give the Socialthing toolbar a little spin, and let us know what you think of our new toy. I plan to throw a few trivia parties and such in that chat room during the summer, so be sure you know how the gizmo works! If you'd like a little more info before jumping in, check out the official Socialthing site and nose around a bit.

UPDATE: We've decided to remove Socialthing for the time being so that we can take it back to the shed and build a much better model that all of us can enjoy. As always, we thank you for your patience, understanding and feedback.

We've added a nifty new gizmo to the bottom of our pages, and we're hoping it'll give you more to do at Cinematical than just read a few posts, comment on how LAME we are for not liking Wolverine, and email the latest Eric Snider article to your mom with the subject line "OMG, sooo funny!" I've only been able to play around with our new Socialthing doo-hickey for a few minutes, and so far my favorite aspect is that Cinematical now has a nifty little chat room! To talk about movies in! With your fellow readers AND Cine-staff members!

I've been told that Socialthing does a lot more than just that, though. According to my notes, it can also help you...

• Stay connected with the sites you love, wherever you are
• Bring your social graph with you to the site you are on
• Easily share your activity with buddies
• Keep up with buddies' activities via feeds
• Discover new content, buddies, etc.
• Facilitate conversations with people that have like interests in a site's content

(That last one is the chat room geekery that has me all excited.) So please do give the Socialthing toolbar a little spin, and let us know what you think of our new toy. I plan to throw a few trivia parties and such in that chat room during the summer, so be sure you know how the gizmo works! If you'd like a little more info before jumping in, check out the official Socialthing site and nose around a bit.

The 2009 Summer Movie Season officially begins this Friday with the release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and with the opening of that film comes the start of Cinematical's exciting 2009 summer movie coverage. We wanted to do something a little different this summer and create a theme for our coverage; one we could use throughout to give you folks a better idea of what to expect from us. Thus, this year's theme is Summer Appreciation -- and it involves several different summer-related features that I personally think you all are totally gonna love.

But what's Summer Appreciation, and why does it sound so made-up holiday-ish? Essentially, we've created a bunch of features that highlight the best things about summer movie season; why it's important, why we love it so much and what sort of impact it's had on all of us over the years. Not only will we be working in reviews of this summer's movies, but we'll be featuring exclusive interviews with some of today's top filmmakers as they share their own thoughts on the season and what it means to them. Additionally, look for the very cool 'Our Favorite Summers' feature (Weinberg kicks things off in just one hour from now), which will be a series that looks back at our favorite summer movie seasons from the past few decades. This will all come in conjunction with smaller summer-related features, posts, quizzes, videos and so much more. Seriously, this summer will rock -- trust that we've been working our tails off behind the scenes to give you all some of the best summer movie-related content you'll find online.

And that's just on Cinematical -- I haven't even begun to talk about what Moviefone already has up in their summer movies hub. You've got polls, lists, release dates (by genre, month) and tons more. So start tooling around now, and make sure to stop by both Cinematical and Moviefone at least 158 times per day (as advised by the surgeon general) all summer long.