JoBlo.com covers the 2008 Spike TV Scream Awards!

It seems that the Spike TV Scream Awards keep getting better and better. I mean, where else can you see Tim Burton high above the crowds, or the Smashing Pumpkins perform on the same stage as Kerli, or watch as the entire audience holds up glow sticks as George Lucas accepts the Comic Con Icon Award… at the wrong time? It all happened this very night at the beautiful Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. Although it was the “scream” awards, the real stars happened to be a caped crusader and his joker. With THE DARK KNIGHT winning many of the awards it was nominated for, including two for the late Heath Ledger.

But it all started on the red carpet, where JoBlo.com had a chance to talk with Wes Craven about remakes, Marilyn Manson about war, and freakin’ Billy Corgan about Smashing Pumpkins. Those were just a few of the highlights. We also talked with Shawnee Smith, Jaime King, Julie Benz, Doug Jones, James Remar, Jared Padalecki, Amanda Righetti, John Hensley and Seann William Scott (give me a shout out my man). But it doesn’t end there, both Frank Miller and Stan Lee stopped by for a few words. And for all of you My Chemical Romance fans, I got to talk about SUSPIRIA with Gerard Way. Also saying hello was Darren Lynn Bousman with the star of his latest film REPO: THE GENETIC OPERA. Alexa Vega looked beautiful and seemed incredibly happy about her experience working with Mr. Bousman… who by the way, still wants Arrow to check out Repo even though the great John Fallon is none too keen on musicals.

Interviews from the Scream Awards red carpet including Shawnee Smith, Billy Corgan, James Remar and more

Interviews from the Scream Awards red carpet including Darren Bousman, Julie Benz, Amanda Righetti and more.

Interviews from the Scream Awards red carpet including Seann William Scott, Marilyn Manson, Jaime King, Doug Jones and more.

You can find ever more from the red carpet at our sister site Movie Hotties, where they’ve compiled an impressive collection of babes from the evening.

After the red carpet faded into darkness, Rusty and I found our seats and enjoyed the show which you can catch numerous times this week on Spike TV (Check your local listings), if you didn‘t see it last night. This year, it seemed like they decided to go in a more fanciful direction with the presentation. The stage was set with a massive heart broken in two by a stake with podiums spread throughout. Hanging above everything was a large balloon giving that nice friendly glow of a full moon. While the opening ceremony was reminiscent of some gothic cult wearing white robes. Fun times.

Getting everything off to a great start was the lovely Kate Beckinsale as she presented the Legend Award to Anthony Hopkins. They showed a nice selection of his work and he even mentioned that all the genre fans were sort of freakish… I’m sure it was mostly a compliment. But the most important thing after that was the show kept moving. Awards were given, including Best Actor in a Science Fiction Movie for Robert Downey, Jr. in IRON MAN.

Robert Downey, Jr. accepts his award

Afterwards, Kerli performed giving a very unique and spirited show with her song “Walking on Air”, complete with an ever expanding dress. Her music recalling a little bit of Bjork. Later on, Smashing Pumpkins gave a great performance (if a little too quiet) of their modern rock hit “G.L.O.W.”. A terrific song which proves that Mr. Corgan is still a force to be reckoned with.

Other highlights include the infectiously giddy Jillian Burcar getting to present an award to her own personal icon, Wes Craven with Neve Campbell. Jillian is a contest winner who is teaching a class called Zombies, Witches and Cyborgs: Animating Gender and Monstrosity. She is a Pre-Doctoral Fellow at the Fisher Center at Hobart and William Smith college. And she absolutely adores Mr. Craven which you can tell just by the attention she gave to him. She was a lovely lady. And speaking of lovely, the very soft spoken Winona Ryder was there to honor Tim Burton. For a while, Mr. Burton was suspended in a staged hot air balloon. He was hanging right above our row, while a few of us cheered him on and waved. He very graciously waved back, smiling down at us.

Tim Burton rides in with balloons

I also have to say that if this had been live, Spike TV would have so many fines that it would probably shut them down. “F*ck” was a very popular word this evening.

Rob Zombie drops the F bomb

But the most odd highlight had to have been a final presentation as the entire audience was offered glow sticks (which they pulled out too early), and George Lucas was honored. There were green lights flashing everywhere as Mr. Lucas thanked his fans after being presented the award by Samuel L. Jackson.

And if you want to get an early glimpse of such films as FRIDAY THE 13th and WATCHMEN (or for the tweens out there, TWILIGHT), you were in luck. But if you happened to be at Comic Con this year, the F13 footage was nothing new. As for WATCHMEN, it was just enough to whet your appetite. Poor Rosario Dawson was presenting the next award after that particular footage, so she was a little disappointed she had to miss it. Luckily for all, the show will probably air several times throughout the rest of this month.

Rosario Dawson is pissed she missed WATCHMEN footage

So there you have it, so many awards and they still were able to do it within two hours… Academy take note. It was particularly strange seeing how little horror was actually nominated this year. Aside from a few noms for flicks like THE MIST, THE STRANGERS and THE RUINS, horror was in short supply.

The horror nominees for “Best Mutilation”

But luckily, what we lacked there, we made up for in superheroes. And if you are waiting for THE DARK KNIGHT to return, he most certainly did this very night. In what was definitely the most touching moment of the ceremony, Gary Oldman accepted two awards for Heath Ledger’s performance. With a few clips from the film, we were reminded why many of us kept coming back to make TDK the biggest film of the year. So make sure you check in for all the fun as the Scream Awards 2008 gives a “spike” to Spike TV!

What was your favorite moment? Least favorite moment? Were you watching porn instead? Send questions and/or comments to [email protected].