'Ghost Hunters' get roasted on 'South Park'

A new season of South Park premieres tonight, and it promises to be an offensive, tastelessly topical episode.  Just the way we like it.

Matt Stone and Trey Parker return tonight, presumably with their take on the "summer of death." In the episode, Ike is being tormented by dead celebrities, so Kyle and the guys bring in professional ghost hunters to snuff out the otherworldy interlopers.

Can it be? Might we see South Park-ized versions of Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson from Syfy's

Napoleon Dynamite 'Woke Up Dead'

OK, so maybe it's not fair to typecast Jon Heder forever as Napoleon Dynamite, but what can I say? It worked as a headline and I happen to quite enjoy Dynamite.

But, if Heder decides to go all method-actor on me for the faux pas, I should expect a brain-eating visit any day now since his newest role is that of a zombie in the Web comedy, Woke Up Dead.

The series, which premiered Monday on the Sony Pictures-owned Crackle, focuses on Drex Greene (Heder), a young guy just entering the workforce who is trying to get his life together - even after he suddenly begins a transformation into a zombie.

The 4-5 minute episodes are piling up like bodies and there are already six viewable for your undead funny bone. Backed by a low seven-figure budget, as reported by the

'Where The Wild Things Are': What was added to the monster cut?

Spike Jonze's film adaptation of Maurice Sendak's classic children's tale will finally arrive in theaters on Oct. 16 after being in production since 2005.

The images from the movie look amazing, and if the trailers are to be believed, the movie strikes the right fantastical chord to match the short Sendak masterpiece. Still, when you're dealing with a 48-page book made up of only a few hundred words, you've got to add some things, and that's exactly what director Jonze and co-writer Dave Eggers did.

About that 'Zombieland' cameo ... [Spoiler]

If you haven't seen Zombieland yet, you might want to Abort! Abort! Abort! this post because there be spoilers here ...

Haunted USA: The rundown of the nation's cities with the most ghosts

Paranormal pop culture spikes around Halloween when everyone becomes fascinated with ghosts, goblins and monsters - basically the stuff we fill our entire year with.  Still, one perk of all the suped-up supernatural coverage is the lists that are released each October.

For instance, Digital City has done some digging and collected the spookiest spots across the country. Among the cities that make the Top 10, there are a few surprises (Galveston, Texas; Key West, Florida), the old standbys (New Orleans, Savannah, Gettysburg, Chicago) and a few omissions (New York City? Philadelphia? Boston?). 

Over all, the site does a swell job adding it all up.  Although, based on my personal experiences, may I suggest Buffalo, NY, in the future?

Werewolf mania continues with upcoming book and movie

If you're loopy for lupines, you'll be happy to hear werewolves are continuing their ascent as the next paranormal pop culture darlings.

First up, Mediabistro's GalleyCat book blog reports that Del Rey will publish Little Women and Werewolves by Porter Grand, a classic lit and paranormal mashup in the vein of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. The synopsis:

In this retelling of Louisa May Alcott's classic, the beloved little women must keep not just the wolf, but the werewolves, from the door...and the kindly old gentlemen next door and his grandson may have some secrets to hide - or share with the March girls.

If that's not enough to feed your feral appetites, Variety says that Unique Features has picked up the screen rights to Shiver, part one of the werewolf romance series by Maggie Stiefvater about "a teen who

Ghost hunts haunt Georgia politics

Obviously we've all heard of skeletons in a politician's closet, but ghosts in the closet are a pretty new development taking place down in Georgia.

Political columnist for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Jim Galloway published a blog today tracking a congressional race in Macon between U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall (D) and potential paranormal investigator, Republican Paul Rish.

According to Galloway, he called the Georgia Ghost Society to inquire why Rish was popping up alongside the ghost hunter group's member page in a Google search. The group's founder, Bob Hunnicutt, told Galloway that Rish was consulted as a technical expert but is not a member of GGS. To quote Galloway's blog, "If some web designer included Rish’s name on a page that is drawing Google’s attention, it was a mistake, Hunnicutt said."

An hour after speaking with the paranormal investigator, Galloway "coincidentally" received a press release from Rish's people titled "Georgia Congressman Jim Marshall publicly attacks ghost hunting and those who participate."  Excellent timing, eh?

Something smells fishy here since paranormal investigative groups rarely recruit "some web designer" to create their Web site, and instead produce it in-house.  Also, based on this cached MySpace profile for GGS, Rish is listed again as a member and there's no designer to blame for that one.

We'll continue to follow this, but in the meantime, let me encourage Paul Rish to come out of the paranormal closet.  How cool would it be if Georgia elected its first openly-ghost hunting Representative?