A MYSTERY JUST IN TIME FOR HALLOWEEN: The combination of interactive gaming and moviemaking is taken to interesting new levels with "Mystery at Mansfield Manor."

The game is a kind of online version of a dinner-theater murder mystery and the board game "Clue": A wealthy industrialist is murdered in his home, and everyone around him -- family, servants, employees -- has a motive that makes them suspect.

The plot unfolds through a series of short videos that tell the story from different characters' points of view. Players watch the videos as a detective interrogates each character. Finding the guilty party requires a sharp eye for details and clues and careful reviewing of the episodes to see whose stories match and whose don't.

The following level of play involves sifting through the information and evidence to find the murderer. It's challenging to play and compelling to watch as a new approach to filmmaking.

"Mystery at Mansfield Manor" is the brainchild of Rory Scherer, a Toronto screenwriter who created the story and game. Filmed on a low budget, "Mystery" had to complete filming in five days, with Scherer wearing many hats: writer, director, producer and promoter, along with the challenge of maintaining continuity in each clue-laden vignette.

"You have to track every minute of that evening, mapping out where people are in every room -- not only where they really are, but where they're lying about where they are," Scherer says of the creative process behind "Mystery."

Originally, he wanted to produce it as a DVD release but found putting it directly online to be more cost-effective -- both in terms of production and for consumers, who pay a rental fee to play the game. The cost for four days of play is $7.99 Canadian, or around $7.14 in U.S. currency.

www.mysteryatmansfieldmanor.com/

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR FILM "INCUBUS," starring Tara Reid, will premiere on Halloween, Oct. 31, as a direct-to-download film on AOL RED.

"Incubus" is a thriller about a crazed killer with mind-control powers who targets a group of teens.

The film will be available for download for 30 days. Purchase price is $7.99, or it can be rented for five days for $3.49.

"Incubus" is being marketed to a teen audience through AOL's RED, a site devoted to teen entertainment, games, blogging and social networking.

www.b-red.com

AND IF SERIAL KILLERS WHO CAN CONTROL YOUR DREAMS AREN'T SCARY ENOUGH, you can watch scary movies 24/7 on demand on FearNet, a horror-themed multi-platform video-on-demand network debuting Oct. 31.

The films can be watched on Comcast's On Demand, online or on mobile devices.

FearNet is backed by Comcast, Sony and Lionsgate and will offer movies from those companies' horror catalogs. Titles include "Night of the Living Dead," "Bram Stoker's Dracula," "Flatliners," "Swamp Thing," "Texas Chainsaw: The Next Generation," "Single White Female," "Children of the Living Dead" and "The Blob."

The FearNet Web site will offer complementary content -- movies, shorts, interviews and trailers, the "Web of Fear" horror genre database and an online horror fan community.

The TV version will be available locally to Comcast's digital subscribers.

Mobile device users can go to mobile.FEARnet.com or wap.FEARnet.com for more information on Oct. 31.

www.fearnet.com/

"THE O.C." FANS WHO CAN'T WAIT for the Nov. 2 fourth-season premiere can watch it online now on Fox Interactive Media's Myspace.com and Fox's MyFoxLocal sites.

The premiere is up and running through Nov. 2 at 8 p.m. and resumes Nov. 3-9.

The second episode, which airs Nov. 9 on TV, goes online Nov. 3 at 4:01 a.m. through 8 p.m. Nov. 9 and resumes Nov. 10-16.

fox.com/oc/

PORTLAND, ORE., INDIE BAND THE DECEMBERISTS' Oct. 30 performance at Washington D.C.'s 9:30 Club will stream live through NPR Music's Webcast series. The live stream will start at around 10 p.m.

Many past NPR online concerts are archived or available as podcasts at the same site.

www.NPR.org/music

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