Feature Article

It’s that time again to make the 2022 list. I was able to interview a lot of new directors’ writers’ actors’ producers’ artist’s musicians’ singers, and more. I was able to watch some amazing films. It was a good year for Horror. It was a stressful chaotic year for some of us, and we strived to work and take care …

Welcome back to the penultimate chapter of the Beware Children at Play saga, where we finally dive into the nuts and bolts of a zero-budget production. Beware Children at Play’s child actors were cast via newspaper ads and through some local modeling agencies. Some of the kids were surprisingly good, and I hope they look back on their movie experience …

Welcome back to part two of my history of DON’T films. We’re kicking things off with everyone’s favorite decade, the 1980’s: Ten years defined by Chernobyl, Huey Lewis, rampant cocaine abuse and, most importantly, movies with DON’T in their title.

One of the perks of membership in the Horror Writers Association is being sent pre-publication arcs from fellow writers seeking the lofty Bram Stoker award. One of the highlights was Preston Fassel’s biography, Landis: the Story of a Real Man on 42nd Street. It’s a true labor of love, chronicling the rise, fall, second rise and eventual fall of semi …

When I think back on the thirty plus movies and television shows I’ve worked on, one always stands out—a little gem entitled BEWARE CHILDREN AT PLAY. If the title doesn’t ring a bell, it’s that infamous movie where a dozen children are brutally slaughtered on camera. When Troma Films screened Beware’s trailer at the Cannes Film Festival it allegedly inspired …

DON’T is a powerful word. It’s one of the first commands we’re taught as kids, keeping us from sticking our tiny fingers into electrical sockets, or playing with knives. The word’s power is drilled into us from early childhood, which is probably why it’s the first word in so many hit song titles from the 1950’s and 60’s. But it …

Tombs of the Blind Dead (1972) stands alongside Night of Walpurgis (1970) and The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue (1974) as one of Spain’s most iconic horror films. The depiction of creepy, sightless walking corpses who must find their victims through sound evokes the excellent A Quiet Place (2018), another film relying on visionless creatures to build tension. The optic …

The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982) sometimes appears in horror movie resource books, despite being a “fantasy” film. Maybe including the film is appropriate. Fantasy often serves a mix-and-match genre, with horror creatures finding their way into a sword-and-magic tale. The marketing and distribution team that cut the epic theatrical and TV trailers stressed frightening horror elements – witches, deformed …

Long-time fans of horror films likely can’t shake the shock from seeing “cannibal zombie entertainment” find mainstream acceptance. Decades ago, George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead pulled in well over $5 million during its original 1968 theatrical run, yet few production companies took a change releasing an equally violent copycat. It wasn’t until 1974 that a creepy film …

The opening sequence of Alligator (1980) brings audiences to Florida to watch a man lose a wrestling match – and almost his foot – to an alligator. The spectacle prompts an announcer to say, ”Sometimes the alligators win.” Hardboiled and burned-out police officer David Madison could substitute many words for “alligator” in that statement, and the sentiment wouldn’t change much. …

Welcome back for part 2 of our expedition into that emerald green hell known as the rainforest. This leg of our journey is equal parts arthouse and grindhouse. Each of these films in some part helped shape my novel Primeval Waters. We’ll kick it off with an overlooked nail biter from the director of The Exorcist. Missed Part 1? Click …

Scholars say there are four primary conflicts in literature—man vs. nature, man vs. man, man vs. self and man vs. God. Well, no backdrop better combines all these elements than the Amazon Rainforest—an untamed jungle populated with hostile tribes where all of God’s creatures are out to devour you, if your own fear and ignorance doesn’t kill you first. That’s …

Cinephile loner Eric Binford is not Cody Jarrett, the iconic cinematic gangster James Cagney portrayed in White Heat (1949), but Binford thinks he’s Jarrett. Binford’s love interest Marilyn O’Connor is not Marilyn Monroe, although she becomes the late star in Binford’s mind. Real-life is not a movie, yet Binford can’t tell the difference. Tragedies result when Binford’s warped fantasies disrupt …

Key Ingredients for an Unforgettable Killer in Slasher Horror By Alexandrea Weis

To me, the characters that appear in a horror film can make or break the movie in general. If you like the characters and want them to survive, then chances are you will enjoy the film that they appear in. On the other hand, if you could care less about the characters and just want them to get killed off …