Horror Guy

Stephen King + Marvel Comics = The Stand Graphic Novel!

That Oregon Girl over at the very random blog I'm Just Sayin'... clued the Horror Guy in to the fact that Stephen King's epic apocalyptic novel The Stand is being adapted for the graphic novel readin' crowd by the horror-friendly folks at Marvel Comics. All I gots to say is HELL YEAH!!! The Stand is the first King novel I ever read, way back when I was still just a Horror Kid toiling away in grammar school. And I've always been a fanatical follower of the funny book format. To experience the two together is truly a Horror Guy dark fantasy come true.

Pieces, 03/10/2008

Wow--just look at all these pieces laying around...

...sometimes the simplest answers are the best ones. During a recent chat with Cridafer about squeezing reading time into the day, he informed me that when it comes to reading fiction he will usually only pick up the Hugo and/or Nebula award winners (dear Cridafer is probably as big a Sci-Fi freak as I am a horror hound) and is rarely disappointed or feels like he wasted time on a crappy novel. What a fantastic idea! I've always felt trepidation over trying a new author or just randomly picking up something off the shelves in the hopes that it won't be a steaming pile of dog shit, of which there is much to be found in any genre, much less horror. Since chatting with da Crid, I've picked up a handful of Bram Stoker award winners from the past few years and every one that I've read so far has been an absolute terrifying joy! I've managed to discover some fresh, freaky perspectives amongst the likes of Al Sarrantonio, Jonathan Maberry, Richard Laymon and several others.

...Brian Keene!!!!! This guy is unbelievably good in the most horrific ways! I've had a couple of his books sitting on the shelf for the past couple of months and finally got around to readin' The Rising. Hokey smokes, I haven't been this utterly blown away by a genre author since first discovering Stephen King's The Stand in my young, 4th grade days. For me, The Rising and its sequel City of the Dead is unquestionably the most interesting take on the zombie uprising schtick since I first saw Romero's creations shamble across the silver screen. I was fortunate enough to have purchased a limited edition of The Rising: Selected Scenes from the End of the World, a collection of Keene stories set in the world of The Rising that is somewhat sort of a final book in the "trilogy", and finished that gruesome piece of literature off in a single evening. I'm making my way thru The Conqueror Worms now and lovin' every page of it so far. If you are any kind of fan of splat lit thrillers, you gotta check this guy out.

...upgraded the living room theater system with our very first high-end A/V receiver, an Onkyo TX-SR805 that pretty much handles any kind of audio or video signal you throw at it. Watching 28 Weeks Later on Blu-Ray with this thing actually made me like the movie more!!! Now I have an excuse to watch all my fave flicks yet again.

...I finally watched Flight of the Living Dead last week and the less said about that complete waste of brain space, the better. So I'll stop here.

Pieces, 11/28/2007

Just got back from a holiday stay in East Texas and found all kinds of pieces laying around. Let's check 'em out, shall we?

...that Jason Voorhees 'guest appearance' on Supernatural that I was all excited about? Not gonna happen.

...just started reading David J. Skal's The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror and it is quite a fascinating read. It starts with the earliest horror flicks (before the phrase 'horror movie' was even coined) in America and from there proceeds to dissect how the industry was started and why people seem so attracted to the genre. For an in-depth look at the origins and current state of all things fun and terrifying, I cannot recommend this one enough.

...a Horror Guy 'scream out' to Brian over at Vault of Horror; glad you like my li'l site Brian! Welcome to the list of Horror Guy Blood Brothers!

...caught a showing of The Mist a few nights ago. I'm a big fan of the original Stephen King short story and knowing that Frank Darabont of Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile was at the helm led me to have all kinds of high expectations for this flick. Well....kinda let down. It was all right as monster movies go, but still kinda blah. I won't spoil it for ya but the 'bold ending' that I had been hearing about didn't really work for me. I'll likely pass on getting the DVD unless the studio releases some radical 'Director's Cut' or something significantly different than what is currently playing in the theaters. Speaking of Director's Cuts...

...December 18 brings us the DVD release of the unrated director's cut of Rob Zombie's Halloween. Anyone who read my previous review of this flick knows that I was underwhelmed by the theatrical release, but I think it may be more enjoyable as watch at home flick.

...if you were a fan of Freddy vs. Jason, you might want to check out the 'sequel' currently being co-published by Dynamite Comics and WildStorm Studios--Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash. Picking up where the original movie left off, this is said to be what we fright fans would have been treated to had the treatment made it to the big screen. Freddy and Jason are buttin' heads again, but this time gun-totin' Ash from the Evil Dead and Army of Darkness flicks is joinin' the fray! The guys over at MyComicShop.com might still have some copies of the first issue available.

Top Ten Least Popular Stephen King Novels

Found this little gem in my new 2008 Stephen King desk calendar. It originally ran on The Late Show with David Letterman in 1998.

Top Ten Least Popular Stephen King Novels

10. The Man Who Died of Old Age
9. How Cujo Got His Groove Back
8. Here's Another One I Cranked Out in an Afternoon
7. Vacuumstarter
6. The Scary Windowless Corridor Next to the Oval Office
5. The Guy Who Accidentally Put Expired Milk in His Coffee--He Didn't Drink It, but What If
He Did?
4. The Scariest Part of This Book is My Picture on the Back Cover
3. Inside the Kitchen at Your Local T.G.I. Friday's
2. Hi I'm Your New Neighbor, Richard Simmons
1. Satan's Independent Prosecutor

Any of my handful of readers have any other horror-related lists you'd care to share?<

Heat-Shaped Box = Book-Shaped Thrills

When I first learned that relative new kid on the horror block Joe Hill is the eldest son of the legendary Stephen King, I hoped that his debut novel Heart-Shaped Box would be at least as good as his dad's stuff. I can safely say that it screamed at the top of its literary lungs as it blew past any expectations I had and set a new standard for what I want in a scary story.
Clocking in at 384 pages, HSB is a lean, mean story that opens with a simple premise; a ghost for sale on the Internet is purchased by aging rock star Judas Coyne, a collector of all things macabre. As happens all to often in tales such as this, Coyne finds that he has purchased way more than he bargained for.....but maybe not more than he deserves. What follows is a non-stop thriller of a story that I literally had trouble putting down until I got to the (very satisfying) end.
Heart-Shaped Box is cinematic to the point that I found myself musing over how easily this could be directly adapted to the big screen, so it came as no surprise to learn that Warner Bros. has recently picked up the movie rights. I have my reservations, tho; too many recent book-to-screen adaptations have ended up gutting the source material to the point that the story is unrecognizable. Here's hoping the Warners do it justice.

Pieces, 7/22/2007

It's been a while but maybe yer ol' pal the Horror Guy can finally get back on a regular writing schedule. Been a lot going on lately in the fun world of all things horror, so let's filter thru the pieces....

...I finally finished reading Stephen King's fantastic Dark Tower series. I saw the ending coming about one page before I got to it. A lot of folks were apparently disappointed in how the whole thing wrapped up, but it made sense to me. I don't know if it was the *best* ending, but it made sense.

...I was intrigued enough by the recent reveal that newbie horror novelist Joe Hill is actually one of Stephen King's kids, that I picked up a copy of his debut novel, Heart-Shaped Box, and am completely enthralled. Word has it that Warner Bros. has already picked up the feature film rights. Full review to come after I actually finish it up.

...finally got around to watching Pan's Labyrinth; what a beautifully terrifying, phantasmagorical fairy-tale of a flick that turned out to be! Hands-down, this one has the creepiest monster this fan has seen since having my young mind assaulted by visions of C.H.U.D.

...as fate would have it, Rob Zombie's re-imagining of the original Halloween is slated to hit theaters August 31st, the same day that Cridafer and I leave for a two week vacation, starting in Amsterdam and ending up in Paris. Anyone know of any good theaters in Amsterdam that I could catch this one at?

...check out the trailer for Fido; this is another one that the Horror Guy is really looking forward to.

Pieces, 05/30/2007

Everyday life seems to finally be winding back down to normal. I may even be able to scribble something here more than once or twice a month now! Let's sift thru the pieces...

...I'm tearing thru the final book in Stephen King's epic, The Dark Tower; godz but this thing is good.

...picked up current issues of Rue Morgue, Fangoria and Cemetery Dance and enjoyed them all so much that I ordered subscriptions to all three of them.

...got my signed limited run hardcover copy of Norman Partridge's Dark Harvest from the fangtastic Cemetery Dance Publications; can hardly wait to jump into that story, but I'm committed to finishing The Dark Tower before I start in on another book. Geez, I've been on quite a reading binge lately.

...had some friends visiting over the weekend and we wound up staying awake until 2:00am Sunday morning to finish watching the 1988 remake of The Blob. I forgot how much fun that li'l flick is.

...it didn't get the best reviews in the mass press, but I actually enjoyed An American Haunting. It's was no Academy Award winner by any means, but it was a fun piece of scary fluff for an evening. I actually enjoyed it enough that I bought the DVD and watched it again with Cridafer.

...one last piece: if you haven't caught Fox's On the Lot on Monday and Tuesday nights, give it a try. Ok, so this isn't strictly horror related but it is featuring a competition among some great (and a couple not so great) up and coming film directors; and with theme nights being all the rage on these types of shows, they're bound to have a horror night, right?

Horror Guy: The Beginning

I'm actually taking someone else's advice for a change and starting a new blog dedicated solely to a topic I slavishly adore. After mulling over a few cutesy-weird names, I chose to settle on something simple; Horror Guy will do quite nicely.
This is the space where I will put down my rants, raves, critiques and crap I have say about any and everything I can find in the horror genre. To get this whole carcass up and shambling, how about a little bit about me?

The first movie that I can recall seeing and comprehending what was happening on that little TV screen is George Romero's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. I was four years old but the black and white images of a handful of desperate individuals trying to survive a zombie holocaust were burned into my brain. I won't even get into the discussion of what kind of parents allow a four year old to watch such a gruesome spectacle; suffice it to say that from that moment on, I had inherited my mother's love of all things fun and terrifying. As much as I remember that flick, I don't really remember being frightened by it as much as I was just fascinated by the idea of dead people getting up and walking around. The earliest film I can remember actually instilling terror in my tiny little heart was the first movie my mom took me to see in a theater when I was only six; Steven Spielberg's JAWS. We were living in East Texas at the time, nowhere near a body of water that held any danger of Great White encounters, but I was scared out of my noggin....and loved it! It was around this time that I began discovering the plethora of horror-themed material available, even in the pre-Internet days, and I absorbed it all like a human-shaped sponge. Every weekday at 3:30pm I would be parked in front of the television for the "3:30 Movie", hoping beyond hope that I would be presented with a good old-fashioned black and white "monster movie" (whatever their subject material, all horror flicks were 'monster movies' to this youngster), it didn't matter which one or what it was about. Saturday afternoons were reserved for watching flicks presented and commented on by Madame Macabre, a sort of post-Vampira, pre-Elvira goth movie host. Saturday nights were the best; that's when I would sit, waiting agonizingly for end credits of "Hee Haw!" to roll because immediately after was "Creature Feature" hosted by the "cheapy creepy" Dr. Paul Bearer. Dr. Bearer would present us with a different low-budget horror film every week and for some reason, I remember enjoying those a lot more than the flicks shown on the 3:30 Movie or hosted by Madame Macabre. One in particular that stuck in my brain was a tale involving a possessed bar-b-que grill that mutilated its victims by spewing hot charcoal on them.

By the time I was seven years old, I had begun reading the horror paperback novels that my mom had around lying around. Ghost House by Clare McNalley was the very first one and its story of a family being emotionally torn to shreds by a jealous spirit sticks with me to this day. At the ripe old age of eight, I discovered and read my first Stephen King novel, The Stand...and was hooked. I've been a King fan ever since and will probably be reading his stuff until I lay down for my own dirt nap.

As I grew older, my interest grew stronger, to the point where I was devouring everything horror-related that I could get my hands on; monster toys and models, wall posters, the writings of E.A Poe, HP Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, Fangoria magazine, books by John Saul, Peter Straub and others, academic studies of actual occult practices, horror comics from Marvel and DC, and even crappy community theater productions of Dracula. Nothing was too low budget or chintzy to be outside my interest.

Getting to go to the theater was a rare treat for me when I was younger and I had to wait and catch most of the flicks I wanted to see when they aired on network TV. So it was in 1980 on a dark Friday night in October that I curled up all alone in our living room to watch the final movie of my life (thus far) that would actually terrify me to the point that I still have nightmares about it: John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN. I'm sure that someone watching it for the first time today would find absolutely nothing scary about it, but bear in mind that back then there was no other movie of note that was anything like it. This was all before FRIDAY THE 13TH, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, SAW and all the other horror flicks that would become ingrained in the social consciousness. There was little plot and less acting talent, but the images of this faceless, emotionless madman stalking a group of teenagers and slaughtering them mercilessly, coupled with one of the most memorable horror movie music themes ever, was simply terrifying. What's more, this particular madman, Michael Myers by name, who seemed human by any other measure could not be stopped. Even taking a chestful of bullets from Donald Pleasence could do no more than slow him down. Fans of F13's Jason Voorhees would see this as nothing novel, but again, this was a few years before the summer camp slaughterer first donned his hockey mask. Multiple sequels would try to put a rhyme and reason to the machinations of Mr. Myers, but none of them would ever come close to the sheer fear invoked by the original film. This year, horror auteur Rob Zombie is remaking/re-imagining John Carpenter's classic with a promise that it will satisfy fans both new and old. I know this old fan is quite excited by the prospect.

And there you have it; the birth of horror guy. Gotta run now. Something creepy on the DVD shelf is calling to me.