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The Ties That Bind. Haunted Discoveries Family Spirits, The Interview (Part 2)

In what makes Haunted Discoveries Family Spirits different is a shared DNA between episodes and it’s freely available to watch on YouTube!

Shared DNA and haunts definies what Haunted Discoveries Family Spirits is all about. Now into its third season, what’s presented in this series run suggests that sometimes, what brings troubled souls together conerns more than the humanity lost for those brought to Waverly Hills Sanatorium. And viewers who love a bit of spooky drama can find it available to view online.

For the two creators of these series, Brandon Alvis and Mustafa Gadillari, helping the folks affected by this past get closure is important. And with additional talents like Dr. Harry Kloor to work with and Craig Owens as part of the team, they have a tight focus. The former is an innovator holding a degree in Physics and Chemistry (think Tony Stark), which is important to field studies, and the latter is the author of Haunted by History Vol. 1: Separating the Facts and Legends of Eight Historic Hotels and Inns in Southern California (Amazon link), which brings credibility to what the team does.

To encompass the emotion behind those supernatural experiences, Alvis revealed that reenactments are a really good way to show the audience what that feeling was like for Harvey Althaus. In the second episode of the third season, “Haunted by Faith,” this individual had a problematic childhood with his mother. Not only was it haunting, but the reveals are just as good as following a tale written by Shirley Jackson. It’s an episode worth watching.

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Brandon Alvis and Mustafa Gadillari Has More Haunted Discoveries and Family Secrets To Dig Up, An Interview (Part One)

Haunted Discoveries stands out as a series which focuses on history moreso than others in this genre, and it’s a welcome change than the the usual ghost-hunting spectacle offered in broadcasting these days.

Haunted Discoveries Main — **Also available to view on YouTube via SnootaTV**

When travelling the byways and highways of Kentucky and Illinois to the northeastern seaboard, there are plenty of places to check out in Haunted Discoveries. Interest in the paranormal developed differently for Brandon Alvis and Mustafa Gadillari. For the latter, it wasn’t until he was 18 that he started looking for answers.

“I started delving into the history of our family home, and I learned some things about the previous resident; it all confirmed what we were experiencing,” said Gadillari, “Ever since then, I was hooked. I joined a local team, did some investigations, and eventually went hardcore. I later became part of Ghost Hunters, where I met Brandon.”

Alvis’ route was different. While the two share a similar ethos in why they investigate, they chose to focus on what matters most to them rather than becoming just another paranormal reality show. He didn’t go into detail about the incident that started it all, but he did say he’s been studying the field for over 20 years. His ongoing work as the founder of the American Paranormal Research Association speaks for itself. With experience as a filmmaker, director, and editor, what they’ve built shows control and intent rather than chaos. As he explained, “It’s been a lot of fun to look at history through the paranormal angle and understand that what happened before us still echoes into our time.”

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Rock and Rule Behind the Scenes Bonus Cut! And Captain Cannabis (Part Two)

Rock and Rule Behind the Scenes continues with Verne Andru tackling long-standing fan debates, from production myths to lost material, while outlining how his documentary aims to preserve a fragile piece of Canadian animation history.

Verne Andru and Captain Cannabis — Part one of our interview can be read here.

Support Rock and Rule Behind the Scenes, and get some wild extras!

In part two of our interview with Verne Andru, we look at questions fans hope the documentary will answer. Long-time fans have burning questions, and given that most of the original material was lost to a fire that Verne confirmed, what remains needs to be more than a nostalgia hit. It is a chance to look back at how technologies merged to create the cult work that Rock and Rule became, right as Hollywood was running its own experiments with transitional optical effects in films like Tron and The Last Starfighter.

What is the biggest myth about Rock & Rule that you want to address?

The studio said that the launch failed because of MGM/UA not backing it. While there may be some truth to that, it misses the point that they delivered an unfinished film years late and millions over budget. It was Nelvana’s fault, nobody else.

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Rock and Rule Behind the Scenes, The KickStarter. An Interview with Verne Andrusiek (Part One)

Rock and Rule Behind the Scenes dives into the legacy of the cult Canadian animated film through Verne Andrusiek’s firsthand insights, exploring its production struggles, analog artistry, and why a true restoration may never happen.

View the Kickstarter here

Verne Andrusiek is just one of the amazing talents who helped breathe visual life into a seminal Canadian animated classic, Rock and Rule. For the later part of his entertainment career, he went by the shorter version of his last name, and not everyone made the connection. With this Nelvana Entertainment film recognized as a cult work in the Canadiana hall of fame, anyone asking for a release will be in for a disappointment. A remaster is not likely to happen. What Verne preserved at home, though, will become part of the backbone of Rock and Rule Behind the Scenes, a video documentary that includes interviews with the directors and writers of this project. He announced this project to folks visiting his booth during Fan Expo Vancouver 2026!

With a crowdfunding campaign launching April 6, 2026, he also hopes to put some long-running fan debates to rest. He put it this way: “I became a bit of a jack-of-all-trades over my career going from music to electronics, art, film and computers in large part due to times, the 1950s through to 1980 were a period of dramatic change when not much of anything we take for granted today existed. Basically, if you wanted something you had to figure out how to do it yourself because there were no off-the-shelf solutions.”

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Keeping the Theatrical Spark Alive, An Interview with Ira Cooper, Artistic Director of Spec Theatre

A lively chat with Spec Theatre’s Ira Cooper on collaboration, community, and The Strange Hour—a 19+ brunch variety show uniting wrestlers, burlesque, comics, and more. Victoria’s shrinking venues meet DIY spirit, and the result is electric.

Ira Cooper and The Strange Hour Ira Cooper is the artistic director and founder of Spec Theatre, a small but mighty independent collective that’s relatively new to the local city scene. But for this individual, who spent the past decade honing his craft far and wide, what he offers with The Strange Hour live-action theatrical variety show is a safe space for talents from various sub-disciplines to interact with audiences, and show them why their craft matters.

When asked about how he likes to describe himself, he says he’s a self-described white settler with Jewish and Eastern European roots. After a hearty chuckle, he revealed he wanted to craft a company grounded in humour, collaboration, and community connection. As a local Fringe theatre artist, he knows what’s important. He’s also said that his appreciation developed even when he was a wee lad—ever since his mother first enrolled him in acting classes at five.

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(Re)introducing Casey Walker. From A Little Bit Zombie to Ithaqua, What Can We Expect?

Although there isn’t a lot of new updates on Hammer Films’ upcoming horror feature Ithaqua, directed by Casey Walker, this work is still labelled currently in production, and we revisit this filmmaker’s past work in A Little Bit Zombie.

Casey Walker Filmmaker When websites I’ve contributed to in the past go offline, it’s time to resurrect and update some of those favourite pieces here. More than 10 years ago, I discovered A Little Bit Zombie (ALBZ) by an up-and-coming filmmaker, Casey Walker. Since then, he produced The Void, an excellent Lovecraftian-style movie, and directed a few episodes of The Hardy Boys.

In his latest work, he’s reworking a tale based on the Ithaqua indigenous legend. This film stars Luke Hemsworth, Kevin Durand, and Michael Pitt. A lot has changed since it was first announced. The website Upcoming Horror Movies suggests it may debut late 2025 or next year. At the time of writing, all we know is that Hammer Films picked up the rights.

According to HollywoodNorthbuzz.com, the story is as follows:

Cole Franklin, an American mercenary, is recruited as a hired gun and guide at the remote outpost of Fort William, which is struggling to survive the decline of the fur trade. With dwindling supplies, the keepers of the Fort blackmail Cole into leading a trading party to a nearby Indigenous village where they discover a massacre and encounter the remaining half-crazed inhabitants for the bloodshed.

Though the trading party survives with minimal losses and returns to the Fort with a bonanza of food and furs, the supernatural force responsible for the carnage follows them back. As the casualties stack up, it becomes evident that something unnatural is driving the residents insane with murderous hunger. The rag-tag band of survivors forces Cole to put his military expertise to use in organizing their last stand against what can only be described as some kind of madness.

Although I haven’t found further updates since this announcement, I’ll share more information as it becomes available. In the meantime, please enjoy this interview I conducted when he and the cast came to town! This film made its worldwide debut at the Victoria Film Festival. Interview follows:

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