“Entourage” alumna Janet Montgomery is set to topline WGN America’s first scripted series “Salem.” Set in 17th century Massachusetts, the show follows the events surrounding the town’s infamous witch trials. Montgomery plays Mary Sibley, the ruthless and beautiful wife of ailing Salem Selectman, George Sibley.

“Salem” co-stars Xander Berkeley (“Nikita”) as Magistrate Hale, Ashley Madekwe (“Revenge”) as Montgomery’s confidant, and Seth Gabel (“Fringe”) as an aristocrat who oversees the witch hunts. The series is slated to premiere in the spring.

Horror fans will recognize Montgomery from slashers Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead and Hills Run Red. She also co-starred in Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan. The British stunner is best known for playing thief Ames on FOX’s “Human Target” and Eric Murphy’s gorgeous assistant on HBO’s “Entourage.”

Twentieth Century Fox has released the first trailer for X-Men: Days of Future Past, director Bryan Singer’s eagerly anticipated return to the X-Men franchise. A sequel to Mathew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class, DoFP finds present day mutants traveling in time to warn the old guard about a dystopian future.

The two-minute-plus trailer gives us Wolverine on his mission, a peeks at Bingbing Fan as Blink and Booboo Stewart as Warpath, and a crotch shot of Jennifer Lawrence as she kicks ass (think I saw her blue eye) as young Mystique. X-Men: Days of Future Past arrives May 23, 2014.

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When anarchists armed with military weapons order you to kneel on a concrete floor, it’s disturbing. It doesn’t matter if the guns are fake and the terrorists simply actors in Blumhouse Productions’ new Halloween experience The Purge: Fear the Night. It’s all very unsettling.

Inspired by Blumhouse Productions’ box office hit The Purge and set in a six-story building in downtown Los Angeles, the attraction puts guests in the middle of a political upheaval between the country’s New Founding Fathers and revolutionaries identified as Constitutionalists on the one night of the year when all criminal behavior is permissible by law, including murder.

The experience is interactive and crazy intense, especially if you commit to the 45-minute story that pits you and a group of NFF delegates against Constitutionalists looking for a presidential key card to blow some shit up. My wife, Mrs. Muertos, and I agreed early on to go with the flow regardless of what happened. We would regret that almost immediately.

Just minutes after our group was taken hostage by Constitutionalists, who made us kneel and lock arms, Mrs. Muertos was ripped away from me by a gun-wielding woman demanding she help find her husband. I assumed we’d meet up soon, but that was not the case. For the remainder of the experience, we faced the night’s horrors separated from each other.

Like being told to kneel, being parted from one another was troubling despite the knowledge that this was all made up. It’s a testament to the event’s intensity. It gets in your head (especially with the aid of libations). My wife was put in quarantine and interrogated by another band of Constitutionalist before joining a new group of NFF delegates.

My group raced through decrepit apartments, hospitals, parks, alleys and government offices, chased by Purging hooligans, vagrants and military snipers. Along the way, I witnessed a young woman give birth, numerous shooting deaths, chained female captives, and two sexy masked strippers, one of which wore a black thong up her shapely big ass (kinda glad the wife wasn’t around for that part).

The Purge: Fear the Night is a unique experience that movie fans should not miss. It is our favorite Halloween event this year. But be warned: there are only five nights left (Oct. 29-Nov. 2). To purchase tickets and for complete event details, visit www.purgelive.com.

An international trailer has gone online for Devil Inside writer/director William Brent Bell’s new found-footage frightener Wer. Penned by Bell and Devil Inside co-writer Matthew Peterman, the film stars “Criminal Minds” alumna A.J. Cook as a defense attorney whose client is a werewolf and up on murder charges.

Cook is best known for her role as Special Agent Jennifer “J.J.” Jareau on the CBS crime-drama “Criminal Minds.” She can also be seen in Final Destination 2, Ripper, Wishmaster 3: Beyond the Gates of Hell, The House Next Door and director Darren Lynn Bousman’s “Mother’s Day” remake.

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Comparing Halloween haunts to Rob Zombie’s Great American Nightmare is like comparing apples to apples with razor blades. Zombie’s inaugural haunt and concert event is more of a Lollapalooza type deal with less hippies and more hellbillies. Held at the Fairplex in Pomona every Thursday-Sunday now until Nov. 2, the event is a great Halloween destination for friends to hang out, drink, and groove.

Every night features genre-specific musical acts (metal, alternative rock, electronic dance, Latin, etc), freak shows, and an outdoor movie theater showing classic fright flicks. The night my wife, Mrs. Muertos, and I attended (Oct. 19) featured performances on stage by punk rock heroes The Vandals, TSOL, and the Dickies.

Though it’d been awhile since the little lady and I had pogoed and moshed the night away, we were there for the haunt; to experience the “bonechilling” mazes inspired by three of Zombie’s films: The Lords of Salem Total Blackout, The Haunted World Of El Superbeasto, and Haunt of a 1,000 Corpses.

First up was The Lords of Salem Blackout, where thick black hoods were thrown over our heads before we were sent off to navigate a narrow and winding maze. Along the way the floor shifted beneath our feet and light shocks of electricity buzzed our hands as we felt our way through the darkness (apologies to guards we may have groped).

It’s was a disturbing experience, one that made us anxious to see where the trail would end and what horrors we’d face once the hoods came off. When that moment arrived, we found ourselves at… the next maze. That was it for the first. It was over. Now, I get it. It’s called LoS Blackout. But, it feels like a cheat, especially considering the film’s warped and inspired imagery. Chalk it up to missed opportunity.

The Haunted World of El Superbeasto is 3D, fluorescent painted fun. It’s the raunchier of the three mazes, but not as sleazy as the animated feature it’s based on. Except for the vaginal entrance, which one must push through pink, squishy walls (genius!), the majority of obscenities are spray painted on the walls. There are a couple of dildo-wielding Superbeastos, but not nearly enough bra-busting Suzi-X’s.

Haunt of a 1,000 Corpses rounds out the mazes with a display of hillbilly horror and animatronic beasts. Captain Spaulding marked our foreheads with a sign to let his minions know we were lambs to the slaughter. Poked and pushed through the maze by insult-hurling inbreds and necrophiliacs, we witnessed a variety of backwoods terror, including a Charlie Manson-like family murder and a violent suicide.

Rob Zombie’s Great American Nightmare is on its last severed leg (it ends Nov. 2). While not as shocking as hyped, it is a fun way to spend Halloween. To purchase tickets and for complete event details, visit www.greatamericannightmare.com.

Horror icon Clive Barker is set to write the Hellraiser remake for Dimension Films. Barker made the announcement today on his Facebook page. In addition to promising an “even darker” film than the 1987 original, Barker revealed that Doug Bradley will reprise his role as Pinhead.

Barker wrote:

A few weeks ago I had a very productive meeting with Bob Weinstein of Dimension Pictures,in the course of which I pitched a remake of the first HELLRAISER film.

The idea of my coming back to the original film and telling the story with a fresh intensity-honoring the structure and the designs from the first incarnation but hopefully creating an even darker and richer film-was attractive to Dimension.

Today I have officially been invited to write the script based upon that pitch.What can I tell you about it?Well, it will not be a film awash with CGI. I remain as passionate about the power of practical make-up effects as I was when I wrote and directed the first HELLRAISER.

Of course the best make-up in the world loses force if not inhabited by a first-rate actor. I told the Dimension team that in my opinion there could never be a Pinhead without Doug Bradley,and much to my delight Bob Weinstein agreed.

Barker is, of course, the author of such horror classics as “The Hellbound Heart,” the novella that inspired Hellraiser, “Damnnation Game,” “Weaveworld,” “The Thief of Always,” “Imagica,” “Cabal,” on which the 1990 film Nightbreed was based on, and “The Books of Blood” anthologies.

On the big screen, he’s written, directed and/or produced the must-see frighteners Dread, Midnight Meat Train, Book of Blood, Lord of Illusions, Rawhead Rex, Nightbreed, Candyman and Hellraiser I-III. The original Hellraiser film is the only one in the franchise directed by Barker, who regrettably sold the rights to the Hellraiser universe before its release in 1987.

Twentieth Century Fox has released a creepy-cool trailer for Devil’s Due, a found-footage thriller from V/H/S directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. The film stars Allison Miller (“Terra Nova”) and Zach Gilford (“Friday Night Lights”) as newlyweds faced with their first pregnancy.

While the thoughts of changing dirty diapers and saving money for a college fund instead of a new gaming console are terrifying enough, these parents-to-be soon discover that the bun in their oven may actually belong to Beelzebub.

Devil’s Due arrives in theaters on Jan. 17, 2014.

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Ellen Page (Inception) and Evan Rachel Wood (pictured) are set to star in Into the Forest, an adaptation of author Jean Hegland’s post apocalyptic novel about two teen sisters living together far away from society in the Northern California forest when doomsday arrives.

Page and Wood will play the sisters faced with the horrifying reality that war overseas and political upheaval at home have led to the collapse of civilization, forcing people to live without resources such as electricity and gas. The film is directed and written for the screen by Patricia Rozema (Mansfield Park).

Page, who also serves as a producer on the film, is coming off voicing the PS3 sci-fi game Beyond: Two Souls. She stars in Bryan Singer’s upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past, reprising her role as mutant Kitty Pryde. Wood’s horror creds include stints on “True Blood” and the tragically short-lived ’90s series “American Gothic.”

A trailer has gone online for writer and director Greg Mclean’s Wolf Creek 2, a sequel to his 2005 slasher about a sadistic bushman in the Australian outback who tortures and slaughters unsuspecting travelers. John Jarratt once again reprises his role as the film’s baddie Mick Taylor.

Wolf Creek 2 finds Mick Taylor hunting down a new group of backpackers to torment and dismember. Roadshow Films will release the film in Australia on Feb. 20, 2014. The film has yet to acquire U.S. distribution.

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Bruce Campbell, iconic star of Sam Raimi’s original Evil Dead trilogy, confirmed at the Wizard World Nashville Comic Con on Friday that there will be a sequel to Army of Darkness and that he will return to play beloved antihero Ash Williams.

Campbell spilled the groovy news when a fan pointed out that many people would love to see a sequel to Army of Darkness, the third entry in the Evil Dead franchise.

Campbell said:

The last one was twenty-two years ago. I just haven’t been racing to do it. Sam Raimi is just a little bit busy making the biggest movies in Hollywood. I use to be busy. Now I’m not. That’s why I’m here.

Ash would have to stop occasionally from chasing some deadite to catch his breath. Maybe we could do that, I guess. That would be exciting. Fight in a walker. That would be alright. Hit them with my cane. Fake them out, have a fake heart attack, distract a zombie. I like it.

Alright sir, the answer is yes.