Let's Talk About Horror Fiction and Film

[JacksonArcher]

I re-watched Michael Dougherty's Trick R Treat. It should be required Halloween viewing.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Yeah, I wound up watching Trick 'r Treat twice this month. I watched it once near the beginning, but a few nights ago, my wife said she wanted to see it, so we threw it in. Such a great little movie that should have been in theaters instead of Rob Zombie's Halloween II.

I decided to wing it as far as movies go this year, and capped off the night with TCM's showing of the Lon Chaney The Phantom of the Opera. Silent movies have an extra eeriness about them that goes well with Hallowe'en.

[Captain Craig]

JacksonArcher wrote:

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I re-watched Michael Dougherty's Trick R Treat. It should be required Halloween viewing.

An ex-girlfriend of mine finally saw it since I had mentioned it and while she was in neither camp(hate it/love it) she didn't "get it"(the love), as she put it.

I didn't even build it up for her so no fault there. She said she found it interesting in an out of sequence "Pulp Fiction" manner. Would she watch it again, sure but not over other choices she said.

[RJDiogenes]

Trick'r'Treat is definitely a new Halloween classic.

TCM showed the Vincent Price House Of Wax Sunday afternoon, but they also showed the original original Mystery Of The Wax Museum Friday morning, along with a bunch of other early 30s Fay Wray movies. I love Fay Wray.

[Starbreaker]

Spaceman Spiff wrote:

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Yeah, I wound up watching Trick 'r Treat twice this month. I watched it once near the beginning, but a few nights ago, my wife said she wanted to see it, so we threw it in. Such a great little movie that should have been in theaters instead of Rob Zombie's Halloween II.

Which actually hit theaters in... August. Talk about poor marketing.

[Captain Craig]

Starbreaker wrote:

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Which actually hit theaters in... August. Talk about poor marketing.

It ended up going straight to DVD. Didn't get a NAm release in theaters. BOM would have it and its not listed.

[Starbreaker]

I meant Halloween II

[Spaceman Spiff]

Well, now that the Christmas season is upon us, is anyone planning to read or watch some holidays-themed horror?

I've got a few stories remaining from last year's HORROR FOR CHRISTMAS anthology, I'll probably be finishing that. Afterward, I'm thinking maybe some ghost stories from HAUNTED CHRISTMAS, or maybe something sillier, like CHRISTMAS IS DEAD: A ZOMBIE ANTHOLOGY.

[RJDiogenes]

What's frightening is how much Black Friday resembles Dawn Of The Dead.

Maybe this year I'll finally get around to watching Nightmare Before Christmas.

[RJDiogenes]

Spaceman Spiff wrote:

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There was some sad news last week about Dorchester Publishing, which produces the Leisure Horror line, including the bulk of paperbacks by Brian Keene and reprints of Richard Laymon's work. Paperback sales are down 25%, so in order to stay afloat, they're switching to an all-digital and print-on-demand model. I suppose it's good that these modern publishing options allow them to stay in business, but I'll miss seeing their paperbacks in stores. They've been around since '71.

There was an update about these guys in the latest Locus and it's some pretty good news. They've gotten rid of their president over some financial shenanigans and they've reversed their decision to go digital. According to the news item, they will be releasing 4-5 books a month. There was also mention of bringing back the Leisure Line at some point.

[Spaceman Spiff]

That's interesting. I hadn't heard that before now. I imagine they'll still do ebooks, too, but we'll see. A lot of established horror writers are dipping their toes into republishing old works on ereader platforms for a reduced price. Necon eBooks is gaining some steam with authors like Rick Hautala, Ramsey Campbell and others. Some are trying to cut out the middleman entirely, like Scott Nicholson, whose THEY HUNGER I discussed earlier in this thread. He can sell his stuff at significantly reduced prices because he's cut out a lot of costs. We'll see.

Anyways, read or buy anything good lately? I've been on a non-fiction streak lately, but I'm feeling the itch to get into some good horror. I've still got some horror comics to read, like Mike Mignola's WITCHFINDER and THE SIXTH GUN, which looks like a Weird Western story. I also picked up THE UNSINKABLE WALKER BEAN, which is more a "kids' pirate adventure"-type story, but I guess it has some horror elements. The art is fantastic.

My wife gave me Wellington's OVERWINTER for Christmas, so that'll probably be the next novel I read. I'm also kind of anxious to get back into his vampire series.

[RJDiogenes]

eBooks are definitely the wave of the future, and one reason is that you can not only sell at a significantly reduced price but with a greater profit margin. I recently released my second short story anthology for the Kindle and Nook-- it's priced at 99 cents and I make almost three times as much per copy.

I've also been reading non-fiction the past couple of months, notably The Killing Of Crazy Horse (which is great, but long and tough slogging at times). I'm a little behind because I didn't read anything for about two weeks while I was struck down with the flu. I also picked up Witchfinder and several other Mignola books that I haven't read yet. Walker Bean is the one drawn by Severin, right? It looks beautiful. He's also done a couple of books lately that were drawn by Corben, which were fantastic.

[Spaceman Spiff]

WALKER BEAN is by Aaron Renier, and it's fantastic in every sense of the word. Gorgeous book, fun story.

Netflix has been adding Universal Monsters flicks in recent weeks, some of them in HD. I watched Bride of Frankenstein in HD tonight and it looked great. I get the feeling they're upscaling it a bit rather than streaming an HD source, but they're doing a pretty good job of it.

[RJDiogenes]

Oh, I thought Walker Bean was the comic that Mignola collaborated on with Severin. I should click on links.

I don't know if this counts as Horror, exactly, but I'm currently reading the 50th Anniversary Twilight Zone anthology; it includes an unproduced story treatment by Serling.

I recently watched the Wolf Man "remake," but it's not really a remake; it's got nothing in common at all with the original besides the recycled names, which were nothing but a distraction. As an original production, it's actually pretty good for the most part. Decent story, well cast and acted, and atmospheric. Unfortunately, a couple of the CGI sequences had a Van Helsing-like awkwardness to them, but for the most part it was well directed.

I just ordered Gojira on DVD. I've never seen it before.

[RJDiogenes]

I got a Nook for my birthday and so I am finally able to read Varney the Vampire. B&N has it for 99 cents. I've wanted to read this for decades, but the only book I ever saw was a very expensive hardcover edition, so I'm delighted to finally get my hands on it. It's absolutely awful so far, and I'm loving it. It's rife with basic writing errors (e.g. willy-nilly tense changes) and the prose is as purple as a bruise on your brain. I'm only a couple of chapters into it, and it is a long book. But for anybody like me, who is both a writer and an aficionado of historical fiction, this is a must read.