Yes, it’s another report on yet another LA-area Fangoria Weekend of Horrors. This year the event, which occurred on April 25-27, was moved from its usual cramped Pasadena/Burbank locations to the far spacier LA Convention Center–the West Hall to be exact, by itself about three times the size of the Burbank Hilton ballroom the [...]

Note: I initially set out to do a straightforward review of last year’s THE MIST, but quickly realized that adequately covering the film and the many issues it raises would take a far broader canvas.  Hence the following.      Frank Darabont’s THE MIST was the most widely debated horror movie of 2007.  [...]

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A quintessential American independent film from the eighties, and still a one-of-a-kind masterpiece. Grim, gory and darkly comic, BLOOD SIMPLE was the first feature by the Coen Brothers, introducing a brilliant and distinctly American voice into a moviemaking landscape that definitely needed it–and if you ask me still does.
The [...]

A fifties-era descent-into-madness tale of a man who comes to believe he can control who lives or dies based on the color pins he sticks in a cemetery map. An odd and disquieting little film with impressive visuals, though not without some glaring flaws.
The Package
I BURY THE LIVING (1958) [...]

THE LOST was the first film adapted from the work of novelist Jack Ketchum, and transposed his hellish universe to the screen quite well. In other words, it’s a skilled and intelligent but strictly not-for-the-squeamish viewing experience.
The Package
Jack Ketchum’s 2001 novel THE LOST was, like most of Ketchum’s books, published as a paperback original, [...]

Most US moviegoers ignored this slickly mounted, hard-R rated big studio product. Their loss, methinks, as THE RUINS is the creepiest, ickiest, most intense horror movie I’ve encountered in some time.
The Package
Scott Smith’s bestselling 2006 novel THE RUINS seems unlikely material for a movie. The book is an effective but excessively drawn-out account [...]

By JOYCE CAROL OATES (Dutton; 1995)
Joyce Carol Oates is one of America’s most distinguished and prolific writers, the recipient of quite a few high-profile awards and untold critical adulation. Yet Oates has an evident attraction to dark and scary material–horror, in other words, though her work would [...]

By EDWARD LEE, WRATH JAMES WHITE (Medium Rare Books; 2003)
Here’s a true match made in Hell: Edward Lee and Wrath James White, the current sultans of literary mayhem. Lee’s output includes over-the-toppers like THE BIGHEAD, GOON and CITY INFERNAL, while White is responsible for the fictional atrocities POISONING EROS and SUCCULENT PREY. Put [...]

By TOM MARSHALL (McClelland & Stewart Inc.; 1991)
The Author’s Note preceding this novel says it all: “This story may seem implausible from beginning to end.”
Implausible? Let’s see. Set in early 1960s Canada, CHANGELINGS is about a twin brother and sister who were sexually abused as children and as a result have developed multiple [...]

By GARY BRANDER (Fawcett Gold Medal; 1977)
You likely know this late-seventies paperback best as the source for the famous 1980 movie of the same name. That Joe Dante directed film remains popular with horror mavens the world over, yet I’ve never been all that impressed. Despite a few [...]