Horror night at the Rio features makeup-FX ace Todd Masters and the Twisted Twins

Here's something to get Vancouver's rabid horror freaks really foaming at the mouth.

This Saturday (July 27) the Rio Theatre will screen two horror flicks that owe an awful lot to the work of dedicated makeup-FX artists: The Thing and Slither.

Now don't worry kids--it's not that lousy Thing from 2011. It's the awesome one from '82 with Kurt Russell, directed by the great John Carpenter of Halloween fame. 

And if you haven't seen the gruesomely hilarious Slither yet, you're in for a treat--and not just because it was partly shot in Langley.

To quote one of the world's most respected film reviewers: "It's an over-the-top splatter-comedy about sluglike thingies from outer space that infest a backwoods community of brain-dead hicks and turn them into bile-spewing zombies."

Adding to the gory fun will be a Q&A with makeup-FX artist Todd Masters, who worked on Slither, and whose other horror credits include Turistas, Snakes on a Plane, and TV's True Blood.

I remembering interviewing him for Fangoria back in '95 when he was in town doing Tales From the Crypt Presents Demon Knight. That was a pretty cool movie too, what with William Sadler and all.

And to top it all off, Vancouver's own Twisted Twins--writer-directors Jen and Sylvia Soska of American Mary fame--will make an appearance.

Sounds like horror heaven to me!