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  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.

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