He stands head and shoulders above the rest, and his name itself is enough to bring chills. His eyes are piercing and his brow furrowed…he stands like a dark god daring you to breathe…and when he starts to move toward you, a gliding pillar of black, you know it’s too late to do anything but die.

In a genre that tends to celebrate expressionless masks and the interchangeable stuntmen underneath, it’s heartening to see an actual actor like Michael Berryman as busy as he’s ever been. Fango readers may still know him best from his signature performance as the feral desert marauder Pluto in the original THE HILLS HAVE EYES; while audiences were quick to react to the actor’s unique and compelling facial features, it has ultimately been his layered portrayal of a childish savage that has left the real impression over the years.

FANGORIA recently reported the tragic loss of one of our own, former editor David Everitt, who succumbed to Lou Gehrig’s Disease on May 7 (see initial announcement here). Since then, we’ve run Everitt co-editor Bob Martin’s words on the man (see them here), as well as those of Everitt protégé Tony Timpone (here). Today we present more tributes from some of the people who fondly recall this Fango trailblazer, who toiled on the magazine during the seminal years of 1981-5. Watch for more Everitt remembrances all week long.

It has been three years since Takashi Shimizu stood beside a film camera and worn his directorial hat—literally. Eschewing the black leather cap that was seemingly glued to his head throughout the production of the Japanese JU-ON and American GRUDGE movies that made his name, Shimizu is not only sporting new headwear for his newest feature, but is also shooting with a new, custom 3-D digital system, the first for such a production in Japan.

Last week, the church of heavy metal lost a god. Ronnie James Dio is dead. He didn’t die fighting wizards, knights, demons, dragons or any other mythical beast he wrote about. No, he left this mortal world on a hospital bed in Houston after a six-month battle with stomach cancer. There were rumors of his death spreading around the Internet as early as last Saturday night, however it wasn’t until Sunday afternoon that his wife and manager, Wendy Dio, posted this announcement on her late husband’s official website:

It’s a mild Saturday night, the evening before Mother’s Day. I should be home with the mother of my three kids, but I’m standing on a line in front of New York City’s Cinema Village at 9:30 p.m. Why? At 11:30 p.m., I’m going to see a free FANGORIA-sponsored screening of the new sci-fi/horror film SPLICE, starring PREDATORS’ Adrien Brody and DAWN OF THE DEAD’s Sarah Polley. Attending will be none other than the film’s director, Vincenzo Natali (the man behind CUBE and CYPHER). So I am really pumped.

FANGORIA’s FrightFest (see previous item here and go to www.fangoriafrightfest.com for more details) is nearing its debut this summer. One of the films yearning for your on-line votes to win theatrical release is the Australian DUEL-esque thriller ROAD KILL (see below for exclusive photos).