When we sleep, why is it so easy for our dreams to
descend into nightmares? Why is our first reaction to a sudden pain
to laugh at the sensation? Everything that exists seems to overlap
into the next, breaking the barriers. The world of fantasy is just a
breath away from reality, phantoms eagerly pressing in around the
corners of our lives until they crack. Perhaps one of the most
terrifying things about Clive Barker's novella "The Hellbound
Heart" is that it reveals to us (and revels in) the symbiotic
relationship between pain and pleasure, light and darkness, and the
toll that it takes on our souls.(read more...)
On June 16, 1960, a film premiered in New York City that would change the face of the horror film -- nay, film in general -- forever. Psycho's effect on filmmaking is incalculable, even if you only track the influences of its most famous sequence, the shower murder. Over the past half-century, various movies and television shows have parodied, pastiched, paid homage, remade and ripped-off Alfred Hitchcock's "clean kill." I've spent the last two months piecing some of these clips together into a meta-homage. May I present to you, the Psycho shower sequence, rebuilt almost entirely from other films.
In 1872, a writer named Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu published a tale that
in many ways paved the road for Dracula, Lestat, and hundreds of
other bloodsuckers to come. This was the tale of Carmilla, an undead
seductress who typified the bond between vampirism and sensuality and
whose dark influence on the genre can still be felt to this very day.(read more...)
I'll begin today's discussion with
what I consider a statement of fact: Dracula is boring. That
may be the most unpopular statement I will ever write, but I
wholeheartedly believe it. How lucky are we, then, that twenty-five
years before this abomination was published we were all blessed with
another Irish vampire tale? Yes indeedy, I am talking about Joseph
Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla. This sweetly concise and
beautiful novella (or short story, as some prefer to call it) was
published in 1872 and spawned an entire subgenre of horror: the
lesbian vampire tale.(read more...)
Even
before seeing Robert Downey Jr.'s awesome performance in Guy
Ritchie's film Sherlock
Holmes,
I had been a fan of the genius detective for some time. For some
reason I was always intrigued by Holmes, something about this figure
of reasoning and bravery resonating within me. I still consider him
to be one of my literary heroes, right alongside Batman. The Hound
of the Baskervilles helped bring back some wonderful memories and
reinstate my assertion that Holmes is one of the greatest characters
in the history of literature.(read more...)
While we put the finishing touches on our Phoenix Comicon 2010 coverage, we've gathered some of our favorite shots from this past weekend and put together a little image gallery for you.
For a man who appeared in so few horror pictures, there was always something frightening about Dennis Hopper. As an artist and a man, he seemed to pursue madness. For half his life he lived on a diet of booze and amphetamines, pushing his body to the brink of destruction and inviting stories of a man out of control. There are tales of him pulling knives on co-stars, threats of violence and of him drinking his way into character. Charles Manson saw him as a kindred spirit and begged Hopper to play him onscreen. Look into his eyes on any film following Easy Rider (1968) and they show a man who has stared into the abyss. (read more...)
As this first month of reviews comes to a close, some
readers may find themselves scratching their skulls at this last
selection of the horror genre's type five essentials. Certainly, I
must be mistaken in including a novel that is solidly in the field of
science fiction. "My God man, have you gone mad?!" I hear you
screaming at your computer screen. Actually, I am indeed quite
insane. However, I believe the true lunacy would be to dismiss H. G.
Wells's tale of a terrifying alien invasion as a simple romp into
the world of the scientifically fantastic. Wells imbues his story
with a palpable fear that will have the readers shivering with
genuine fright at the thought of mankind meeting its end at the cold
hands of an alien invader.(read more...)
Phoenix Comicon is this weekend and I'll be in attendance on behalf of Classic-Horror. Like last year, I've been asked to participate in a couple of panels.
Thursday:
Not Another Remake! (Room 152, 8-9PM) --
Join Arizona's top Horror Film aficionados for a spirited discussion of
the pros and cons of the Horror Film movement of remakes. Hot on the
release of the "Nightmare on Elm Street" remake, the discourse is sure
to be lively! Why so many remakes? Panelists: Danny Marianino, Nate Yapp, Jeff Dolniak, David Hayes
In a world that has become populated by hunky, teenaged
bloodsuckers with a penchant for sparkling, this reviewer finds it
very refreshing to go back to a time when vampires were of a charming
nobility and still possessed an air of mystique and utter horror.
Dracula is just the fix I need, providing an engaging adventure
story set to the tone of the moody European Gothics. While it is not
free from faults, this novel is a seminal piece of literature for
serious fans of vampires, whether they be Edward Cullen or Max
Schreck.(read more...)
