Web site festival adds new dimension to Halloween

  www.DistantCorners.com

By Sarah Monson
Daily Bruin Contributor

Halloween has lost its chill. After years of costume parties and
candy, a new Web site is offering a different house to haunt
tonight. DistantCorners.com is hosting “Halloween
Horrorfest,” a two-day online festival featuring original
shows, games, tournaments, polls, auctions, celebrity chats and
interviews.

In the name of horror and sci-fi, “Halloween
Horrorfest” began its bone-chilling run on Monday, Oct. 30
and will continue until 12 midnight tonight.

“DistantCorners.com is designed to reach out to people who
love horror and science fiction,” said Katie Martin, public
relations director for Distant Corners Entertainment Group.
“When they are looking for new information on horror they
will know that Distant Corners is the destination to go
to.”

The idea for the site started seven years ago with John Hegeman,
president and CEO of Distant Corners Entertainment Group. As the
former head of marketing for Artisan, he was one of the first
people to use the Internet to promote films.

“(Hegeman) wanted to create an event that would allow
people to have an alternative to Halloween,” Martin said.

Whether you like science fiction, horror, cult, or just plain
comic books, the site offers visitors a myriad of
“channels” to peruse on a regular basis. The channels
are basically links that carry you into the various areas of the
site, enriching the experience.

“Distant Corners works like its own little television
set,” Martin said, “complete with channels to
surf.”

“Halloween Horrorfest” can also be navigated in a
similar manner to a television and will appear as a pop-up screen,
allowing users to peruse the regular site at the same time they are
checking out “Horrorfest.”

And that’s just the beginning of the multitude of options
DistantCorners.com offers visitors.

“Everything that’s on the site is ultimately being
developed as an offline property,” Martin said.
“It’s sort of a testing ground for us to see how people
respond to our products.”

DistantCorners.com’s ultimate goal is to segue into film,
television, comic books and merchandising, based on content
stemming from the site. They use feedback from users to determine
the fate of these ventures.

Upon entering the site, viewers’ senses are overwhelmed
with visually stunning graphics, a cacophony of haunting music,
and, for the rabid horror and sci-fi fan, extensively detailed
channels and links to quench one’s unearthly desires.

Making its debut at the “Halloween Horrorfest” will
be “Nightmares,” a new channel, where users can submit
their dreams or worst nightmares to be analyzed. The two most
bizarre dreams will be chosen by an interpreter, analyzed and
turned into animation for people to watch.

Other channels that are featured on the site include
“Wacked News,” where visitors can read up on the most
disturbing events happening throughout the world; and
“Original Sins,” a channel where users can view
brand-new cartoons with the latest in animation technology.

With its futuristic and original design, this site is not
lacking in creativity. DistantCorners.com recruited Eli Stone
(“The Tick”) to animate for the site. The awe-inspiring
animation, combined with savvy art direction and computer know-how,
propels the site leaps and bounds beyond its time.

Jamian Blackwell, art director for DistantCorners.com, said that
they use PhotoShop, Illustrator and Flash to design the site.

As a reward for interacting with “Halloween
Horrorfest” and participating in a plethora of polls, such as
voting for the top 10 horror films of all time, DistantCorners.com
is offering prizes ranging from video games to movie
paraphernalia.

For the video game buff, there are opportunities to participate
in live challenges over the two-day festival where the top scorer
for each day will receive a handsome reward.

The “Halloween Horrorfest” is like trick or treating
without the toothache or sore feet: anyone can register to win
prizes and free giveaways without even leaving their room.

One slight drawback that might discourage people from visiting
DistantCorners.com, however, is that, because it was designed
almost exclusively using Flash software, those people still living
in the dark ages and using 56k modems may encounter a slow and
laborious loading process upon entering the site.

DistantCorners.com is a legendary site in the making, paving the
way toward a future of interactive and flawlessly crafted Web site
design.

“It’s going to get so much better,” Blackwell
said. “On a scale of one to 10 it’s a four right
now.”

Blackwell’s statement is quite a shocker after looking at
the site for a mere two seconds, as it contains graphics and
animation some may have never seen before.

For those hard-core horror and sci-fi fans who find themselves
without a costume, or perhaps a date, travel to DistantCorners.com,
where you will find a venue to let online Halloween mayhem and
madness prevail.