Die Kreatur, Die!!!
Wow, the German title of my novel, CREATURE, sounds so much more sinister in German. Of course, everything sounds a tad more menacing in German. I say this from experience. One of my grandfather’s was German and if he ever wanted to give me a little jolt of fear, he’s whip out a German line or two. Or sing. Dear God, the singing!
I think I’ve made grandpa one proud angel in Himmel with the German translation of Die Kreatur!
Now, I’m not sure how many of my Hellions speak and/or read German, but if you’re one of them, I hope you enjoy my first translation. And hey, it already has 2 sternebewertungens! That’s more sternebewertungens than I ever thought I’d have.
A Very Haunted Plantation – Interview With Author Pamela Morris
Happy Halloween, my Hellions! I have a little something to shiver your timbers on this most important day of the year.
I was blessed to have been sent a copy of a hell of a ghostly tale, No Rest For The Wicked, by Pamela Morris. After reading the first chapter, I quickly added it to my already packed Horrortober reading list. Let me tell you, this one sucked me right in and had me reading late into the night. I loved it so much, I immediately reached out to Pamela for an interview. Enjoy an interview with a horror author on the rise and her brush with an actual ghost, order the book, slip into your costumes and enjoy the night.
No Rest for the Wicked is one of the best ghost/haunted house books I’ve read in a while. Why don’t you give my readers the elevator pitch on what the book is about and your inspiration for writing it.
There’s always some sort of tragedy behind every ghost story, and with research we think we know what that story is. My take is that that’s not always true. Sometimes those restless spirits would rather those researchers stop poking around and leave matters alone. Some ghosts will go to great lengths to see that their secrets don’t get out. NRFTW reveals what those secrets are at Greenbrier Plantation, and not just through human investigation, but as told by the ghosts themselves.
A lot of things inspired this book. Mainly it was my life-long love of ghost stories and haunted houses, and the efforts of a friend of mine who wanted to write a ghost story from the perspective of the ghosts. When I asked him if he minded my nabbing the concept, he was completely cool with the idea. There may or may not have been literary revenge in there for a number of failed relationships in my past, too. Beau and Lucy aren’t new characters for me. They’ve been around for about ten years in my erotica titles. When I started considering a ghost story, they seemed the most likely culprits. They’ve had a love-hate relationship from day one. It was perfect for what I had in mind.
One of the things I liked most about the book is your ability to create very strong characters. I was totally invested in Eric and Grace’s relationship, which made what happened to them all the more intense. Are they based on anyone you know? I got a kind of newlywed feel about them, which seems appropriate considering you’re a newlywed. There’s some damn good sexy time in those pages!
I wrote the first three chapters of the book almost a full year before I met my new husband Jim, who, oddly enough, turned out to be A LOT like how I described Eric. As the story went on, I found myself adding small traits of my then-boyfriend to Eric, including his total disbelief in ghosts. Some of the dialogue between Grace and Eric is lifted from real conversations Jim and I have had. I guess you could say Grace is a bit like me in that she’s a total believer in ghosts and all gung-ho about living in a haunted house until the sh*t hits the fan, so to speak. As for the sexy bits, well, I considered those a lot. How much did I want to put in? I didn’t want this to be another erotica, but I needed to show the shift in dynamics between Grace and Eric. Their genuine love for each other and their intimate life seemed the best route to take.
Another standout in the book is how much attention you give the spirits living in the old Greenbrier Plantation. They have fully formed lives in the afterlife, complete with secrets and fears and aspirations. You don’t see that very often. What made you decide to make your ghosts such fully fleshed, so to speak, characters?
The story of a haunted house is the story of its ghosts, not just the living people trying to find them. Without the ghosts, there is no story. Beau and Lucy have been ‘flesh and blood’ people to me for ten years. It wasn’t hard to turn them into ghosts knowing their history together. Creating secrets, fears, and aspirations for Beau as a spirit, given the type of person he was in life, was pretty easy. Lucy had always been a challenge to Beau while they were living, so why not carry that over to the extreme in the afterlife? With them so fully fleshed out, I had to give Sadie as much depth and meaning as I could. She is, after all, the catalyst behind a lot of what happened as far as them becoming ghosts.
The third and final act involves twin ghost hunters who help Grace and Eric, along with historian Sully. I get the feeling you may have done some ghost hunting yourself. Or was the way they conducted their investigation solely inspired by the ghost hunting shows on TV? Aaaand, which of those shows is your favorite and which one makes you roll your eyes?
My best friend since 4th Grade grew up in a haunted house and we had some very weird experiences there. One of my grandmothers was interested in Spiritualism, so I guess you could say I grew up knowing of and believing in the Spirit World. I used to be a devoted follower of all the ghost hunting shows. “Ghost Hunters” is probably my favorite (Hunter’s note – GH was must see TV for me for the first 7 years of the show. Never, ever missed an episode). I’ve never investigated as you see them doing on TV, but I have been involved in séances and Ouija board sessions, and taken my camera into supposedly haunted, or at the very least very spooky, locations. I have some pictures of great interest, too. The attitude that WhiSPeR takes in the book is based a lot on a paranormal research group based very close to where I live. They do a weekly podcast type program and some of the things they’ve discussed about what’s actually involved in being a ghost investigator made its way into the book. As for the one that makes my eyes roll, it has to be “Ghost Adventures”. Zac just cracks me up too much to take him seriously.
If you were given the opportunity to live in a haunted location for a year, say the Myrtles Plantation, would you do it, or do you prefer to view ghosts from afar?
Hell, yes! Where do I sign up? Villisca Axe Murder House? I’m there. The Stanley Hotel, yes, please! (Hunter again – I might skip Villisca!)
Have you ever experienced something that folks would consider supernatural?
Yes. I once saw full-body apparition in broad daylight. And, as I mentioned earlier, my best friend since grade school grew up in a haunted house and things were definitely going on there. I’ve heard things at other locations like what sounded like an old woman humming and I’ve taken a few pictures that appear to have images of ghosts in them. In fact, the house I’ve been living in since 1995 is haunted, just ask my ex-husband and my kids! We’ve all experienced something and on several occasions, two people heard the same thing… twice. The current husband, like Eric, remains skeptical.
What will you be doing this Halloween? Any favorite movies or books that you revisit this time of the year?
When my kids were young we would go full out decorating the house. It was built in 1886, so old and big and spooky. We’d select a theme then invite a couple friends over to help us traumatize the children who dared visit. We’ve done a Psycho Circus with evil clowns. We’ve done vampires and zombies. My living room was once transformed into a funeral parlor, my dining room was occupied by a witchy-gypsy type fortune teller and there was a crazy, blood-covered girl sitting on the kitchen floor rocking her doll one year. All kinds of weirdness. A teenage girl run screaming from the house once. Good times. We’d get close to 100 Trick-or-Treaters every year back then. Lately, that’s slowed down A LOT! Last year I got twelve. I still decorate, but not like we used to. I’ll put the TV on Chiller or SyFy that night, whichever offers the better movie, and hand out candy. This weekend I plan on watching my favorite horror movie, the original version of “The Haunting” (Hunter for the last time – The Haunting is my favorite ghost movie!) and maybe some good old “Dracula AD 1972” with Christopher Lee.
What’s coming up next and where can people go to learn more about you and your wonderful books?
I just wrapped up the second draft of my novel “Dark Hollow Road” about a month ago. It scares me to think where this thing came from out of my psyche. There are two storylines going on. The odd-numbered chapters start in rural Pennsylvania in 1948 as a first person narrative. Mary Alice Brown, then eight years old, is describing her life with three younger siblings and a father that grows abusive after the death of his wife. The even-numbered chapters are contemporary and focus around six-year-old Brandon Evenson. Brandon lives within sight of the now abandoned house Mary Brown grew up in. Freaky things start to happen, and no one in town can verify what happened to Mary other than she hasn’t been seen since the late 1970s. Some say she’s dead. Some say she moved to Scranton to be with family. Some would rather you just not ask so many questions.
ABOUT PAMELA MORRIS
Folks can find me at my website www.pamelamorrisbooks.com as well as on Twitter @pamelamorris65.
I post a lot over on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/PamelaMorrisBooks/ and all my books are available online through Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Or, you can walk into any bookstore and have a copy ordered. And no, I did not write the Sex Games title that’s going to come up when you do an author search at either site.
BIO:
Born in New Mexico, but raised in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York, Pamela prefers a quiet, rural life to that of the city. She has always loved mysteries and the macabre. Combining the two in her own writing, along with her love for historic research and genealogy, came naturally. Hours spent watching ‘Monster Movie Matinee’, ‘Twilight Zone’, ‘Night Stalker’, a myriad of Hammer Films, and devouring one Stephen King book after another probably helped, too. Outside of her work as a novelist, Pamela has written several historic articles for the Tioga County Courier, an Owego, NY newspaper and was a US Civil War reenactor for close to ten years. She has also written for The Good Men Project, an online magazine whose focus is on all manner of men’s issues.
The Magnificent Seven Horrortober Reading List
As long time readers of my blog and chain know, October – renamed Horrortober by yours truly – is my favorite month of the year. Over the past 11 months, I’ve been stockpiling horror books, movies, mags and places to go, so every day of Terrortober is nothing but horror, horror, horror.
So, what will I be reading? What should you be reading? Here is my complete list with links to purchase, or just plain peruse, each book. There’s a little bit of everything here by authors old and new. The one thing they have in common – they all kick some serious ass. Guaranteed to creep you out.
Bed bugs. They hide in mattresses. They wait till you’re asleep. They rise in the dead of night to feast on our blood. They can multiply by the hundreds in less than a week. They are one of the most loathsome, hellish species to ever grace God’s green earth. Thought to be eradicated decades ago, thanks to global travel they’re back. And with them comes a nightmare beyond imagining. Infected with a plague virus so deadly it makes Ebola look like a summer cold, one bite turns people into homicidal maniacs. Now they’re in Chicago and migrating to al points North, South, East and West. The rest of the world in a matter of time. The U.S Government and the CDC are helpless to stop it. Only one man knows what’s causing the epidemic. And the powers-that-be want him dead.
The year is 2009, and the world’s financial and publishing sectors are in chaos. In the midst of this disarray, a burned-out horror writer finds himself haunted by a variety of ghosts, both real and metaphorical. And as the ghosts increase their attacks, his struggle to make a living quickly becomes a fight to hold on to his family – and his very sanity.
In the spirit of such iconic horror classics as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Deliverance, Kin begins at the end and studies the possible aftermath for the survivors of such traumas upon their return to the real world — the guilt, the grief, the thirst for revenge — and sets them on an unthinkable journey… back into the heart of darkness.
On Pine Street, the houses begin to shake. The earth begins to move. The streets crack open and yards split asunder…and rising from subterranean depths far below, a viscid black muck bubbles up and floods the neighborhood.
In it are a ravenous army of gigantic worms seeking human flesh. They wash into houses, they come up through the sewers, through plumbing, filling toilets and tubs, seeking human prey.
Cut off from the rest of the town, the people of Pine Street must wage a war of survival or they’ll never see morning. As bad as the worms are, there’s something worse—and far larger—waiting to emerge.
Charly, Sam, Jesse and the others must do battle with the Children in the labyrinthine subterranean world that the creatures call home. But the situation grows bleaker when many of the survivors are captured and borne deeper into the lightless caverns…where a new and even more horrific species awaits.
In a desperate attempt to save their land from tax foreclosure, Delphus Fraley and his daughter open a camp for at-risk kids, with the goal of building character through experience in the Appalachian Mountain outdoors.
But a strange infection contaminating the camp’s mess hall soon triggers a violent rampage. As the isolated camp turns into a bloodbath, camp counselor Jenny Usher first fights to save the children, and then finds she must fight to save herself.
Because this infection doesn’t just kill, it brings the dead back to life…
A nightmare made real.
On Christmas Eve, six-year-old Tom McCrae witnessed an unspeakable atrocity that left him orphaned, his childhood in tatters. Now in his mid-thirties, Tom still has terrifying nightmares of that night. When Tom is sent to the remote Scottish village of Douglass to negotiate a land grab for his employer it seems like a golden opportunity for him to start over. But Tom can’t help feeling he’s been to Douglass before, and the terrible dreams from his childhood have begun to spill over into his waking life. As murderous events unfold and Tom’s feverish nightmares escalate, he will discover the hideous truth behind the villagers’ strange pagan ritual of The Jack in the Green.
Book Review : In The House Of Mirrors by Tim Meyer
I get asked to read self published books all the time. Over the years, I’ve grown a tad leery of self-pubbed works, unless they come from the minds of traditionally published authors who are taking full advantage of the changes in publishing today. You can find some great work out there by fantastic, long established writers like Scott Nicholson or J.A. Konrath. They take the time to create slick covers and, most of all, edit their books like the pros they are.
Well, my take on self-pubbed books was thrown on its ear after reading Tim Meyer’s In The House of Mirrors. This is a book I could see published by any of the big, medium or small houses. It’s his third book and proof positive that he’s a writer with a big future ahead of him.
Here’s the synopsis…
When Ritchie Naughton, amateur photographer, stumbles upon a house in the woods, strange things start happening. His camera captures images that should not exist, things that cannot be explained. Soon, he’ll realize that the people of Red River, New Jersey are in terrible danger. A darkness grows within the house, threatening them all.
The House of Mirrors is open, and once you see yourself in, there’s no way out…
Let me start by saying that Ritchie Naughton is no hero. This guy is a true everyman; a man down on his luck with a newly diagnosed heart problem, no place to live and a writing career that’s firmly in the shitter.
He moves back home to live with his sister in New Jersey, and after a month of self imposed exile, goes out seeking a job, any job, to kick start his life. He finds one, as a photographer of all things, at a small town paper. Down in the musty basement, he comes across a camera to use for his new job – a Denlax. Never heard of it? Neither has he or anyone he meets.
It turns out, the Denlax has a dark air of mystery about it. It takes pictures, sure, but sometimes, there’s a little something extra, like black spots that cover people’s faces or an old man in front of a crumbling house that wasn’t there when the picture was taken.
Ritchie and his Denlax delve deep into the muck after he agrees to do some side work as a private eye for his uncle. He stumbles into a Satanic cult and falls in love (or lust) with a pretty new cult member. From here on in, things get very, very strange. We’re talking evil circus, netherworlds, black magic and demons from other worlds. Holy crap, this book has everything!
The best part is the writing. Meyer has a very deft hand at building his characters. You really feel for Ritchie and he newfound friend, Chris. The editing is far better than 99% of self-pubbed books. The tension and horror build with precision until you’re left reeling through the last 40 or so pages. I devoured this book and will go back to get his previous two, Demon Blood and The Thin Veil.
Tim Meyer also has a podcast called Splatter Chatter where he talks all things horror. Click here to visit his website, check out his books or listen to his podcast. It’s the perfect place to gear up for the Halloween season that will be here before you know it.
Guest Post by Lee Allen Howard : Writing Characters with Psychic Abilities
Don’t you love paranormal protagonists, like Koontz’s Odd Thomas? I do. Any fictional character with paranormal powers—abilities that most readers consider supernatural—moves your story into one of the speculative genres. This could be sci-fi, fantasy, horror, paranormal, or magic realism. Actually, you can blend the paranormal with any genre, as I do in DEATH PERCEPTION, which is a supernatural crime cake iced with horror and sprinkled with dark humor.
In fantasy, a character’s abilities may be a given, established in your story’s genre ruleset from the very start. For instance, Tolkien’s Gandalf is a wizard, and there’s no explanation for him. In The Wizard of Oz, monkeys fly, and that’s that.
Other stories with a mooring in everyday reality require that a character’s supernatural abilities be explained. There must be a reason why the character can do the things she does, and this explanation encourages readers to suspend their disbelief. We often see this technique in books and shows that put the character through some accident or experience (in backstory or the present) that changes him and grants him supernormal powers.
It happens to Johnny Smith in Stephen King’s The Dead Zone, when he’s injured in an accident and revives from a coma after five years. It happens to superheroes (or antiheroes): Dr. Bruce Banner becomes the Hulk after he’s accidentally exposed to the blast of a gamma bomb he invented. The same for Peter Parker/Spiderman. Or Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (it works for villains too).
In DEATH PERCEPTION, Kennet has suffered childhood abuse, making him hypersensitive to changes in mood energy. He’s also encountered an old Pentecostal prophetess, who lays her hands on him, prophesies his future, and imparts a gift to him.
Most characters who develop paranormal abilities go through a period of denial when they refuse to believe or accept their new faculties. That is, until they encounter a situation where their powers must be used, giving them no choice but to accept them, usually because a loved one is endangered.
Kennet discovers his psychic abilities in his late teens when he toasts marshmallows over the ashes of someone he’s just cremated. Later, after a near-death experience, his mediumistic abilities flower, enabling him to see and hear the dead—and solve murders. Kennet comes by his abilities both naturally through his past and supernaturally through the ministry of the prophetess. Through an accidental consciousness-expanding event, his prescient inklings develop dramatically into something useful in avenging victimized ghosts, a call he must accept based on what’s most important to him.
Whether a story is based in the realm of fantasy or the real world, the writer must establish the rules and then stick with them throughout the story. This entails giving the character not only extraordinary strengths (with limits), but human weaknesses too. If your characters have psychic abilities, keep them real and relatable, and readers will follow your story to the end.
DEATH PERCEPTION is available in trade paperback, Kindle (.mobi) and Nook (.epub) at http://leeallenhoward.com/death-perception/.
BIO
Lee Allen Howard writes horror, dark fantasy, and supernatural crime. He’s been a professional writer and editor of both fiction and nonfiction since 1985. His publications include The Sixth Seed, Desperate Spirits, Night Monsters, “Mama Said,” “Stray,” and DEATH PERCEPTION, available in various formats at http://leeallenhoward.com.
You can keep in touch with Lee on his Facebook author page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lee-Allen-Howard-author/117844011639457. Follow him on Twitter @LeeAllenHoward.
New Cover Reveal
My editor at Samhain Publishing sent over the cover art for my upcoming story, THE GRAVEYARD SPEAKS, scheduled to be released April 2nd in tandem with my next novel, SINISTER ENTITY. I wanted to give you all a sneak peek at the cover.
In the parlance of my youth, I’m diggin’ it. THE GRAVEYARD SPEAKS is a 40 page short story that bridges the gap between FOREST OF SHADOWS and SINISTER ENTITY. It occurs 13 years after FOS in a dark, snow-encrusted graveyard. The dead are very much alive and even the caretakers avoid a certain section of the sprawling cemetery. This isn’t your typical ghost hunting adventure, I assure you.
I highly suggest you read it before diving into SINISTER ENTITY. You’ll get a cool insight into the events leading up to the novel. The best part is that it’s going to be FREE (at least at the start). So hop on over to Samhain and add the story and the book to your wish list. They haven’t loaded the cover art yet, but you can still easily find it.
New Book Cover Preview and Other Bits and Bobs
Despite the title of this post, I am not a resident of the UK. I just like to pretend I am from time to time, like when I call people punters and say things are brilliant.
My own national identity issues aside, I was bowled over when my editor sent me the cover for my next book, Evil Eternal, which will be out in May, 2012. It has demons, damsels in distress, blood and guts galore and even a touch of humor from time to time. Here’s the cover:
Pretty freakin’ cool, right?
In other news, the reviews for Forest of Shadows have been glowing, which brings a tear to this writer dude’s eye. I just saw this review posted on Dreadful Tales and really feel my wife and I must have a baby so we can name it after the reviewer. I swear, I never met the guy and no money exchanged hands. Here are some excerpts. To read the whole review, go to Dreadful Tales.
“Hunter Shea is absolutely ruthless. The man writes with a passion and aggression that will leave you helpless in its grasp. Shea keeps his eyes on the prize and everything else is secondary. He wants you to cringe. He wants your skin to crawl. He wants to positively scare you out of your god-given wits. Above anything else, Forest of Shadows is a genuinely scary book. It took a few restless nights and one incredibly vivid nightmare about whispering shadows and the floating visage of a young boy, before I realized how successful this book was at scaring the living daylights out of me. It had worked its way into my brain and nestled in there, coiled to spring at any given moment. This book scared me in a way I haven’t been scared in a very long time.
I can respect an author who takes the ghost story and completely disregards its well worn conventions to create something truly original. He preaches from the Altar of Pulp- spewing a sermon filled with his own merciless interpretation of what this genre should be. I love seeing a newcomer just completely rip it and own the living daylights out his writing. “
And for those of you who aren’t hip to my Facebook fan page, you have to come over and like the page, if only to take part in the super simple weekend giveaways that I do every week. You can win signed copies of stories, gift cards, or even have your name used in a book! Stop by every Saturday to catch the latest giveaway.
I’ve been very busy working on the sequel to Forest of Shadows and will soon post a little something I wrote about every writer’s fear : putting your work out there for the whole world to critique. Yikes! So far, I’ve been lucky, but it ain’t always pretty. I’ll also be filming some new Monster Men podcast episodes and we’re going to launch our brand new author interviews. We’re lining up authors this month and should have them live in a few weeks.
Thank you to everyone who has read this blog or gotten in touch with me on Facebook, Twitter, the Samhain Cafe, and all the other places I pop in and out of from time to time. You’ve been simply amazing and recharge my battery every day so I can sit my ass down and get to writing!
An Interview with Author/Director Frazer Lee
I’ve gotten to know Frazer Lee thanks to our being in the same horror fraternity, Samhain Tau Chi. He’s definitely on my “To Have A Beer With” list, but until we meet at some remote bar, I thought it would be a good idea to have a little chat with him about his amazing new book, The Lamplighters, horror in general, his deepest secrets (ok, maybe not deepest) and Halloween. So sit back, have a nice bottle of chianti and some fava beans and enjoy…
1. Your latest book, ‘The Lamplighters’, will be out with Samhain Publishing’s horror line this November. Can you tell us what a lamplighter exactly is and what drew you to make them the subject of your book?
‘The Lamplighters’ are essentially caretakers. In the world of my novel, these lucky young people are hired by a consortium of billionaires to look after their glamorous island homes. It’s a dream job because all they have to do is turn on a few lights (hence the name) and cook and clean in order for the rich employers to maintain their residency status (and tax breaks). If the concept of a lamplighter sounds far fetched, I assure you these people really exist in places such as Monaco where the super-rich go out to play. And while I was working on the novel, a news story broke about a contest looking for a caretaker to look after a lush tropical island, proving fact is often stranger than fiction! In essence the lamplighters formed the basis of the book because they embody that “be careful what you wish for” vibe – which is what The Lamplighters’ particular horror premise is all about. 
2. What did you enjoy most about writing ‘The Lamplighters’?
I also work as a screenwriter/script doctor so I have to say I most enjoyed not having any budgetary constraints to deal with! If I wanted to include explosions, underwater sequences, multiple (expensive) locations and “visual FX” they could all go in to ‘The Lamplighters’ with no-one from production getting all hot-under-the-collar about it. (Laughs) Aside from that I really enjoyed getting to know Marla and The Skin Mechanic and all the other characters. I enjoyed the surprises and discoveries they sometimes threw my way as the story revealed itself through them.
3. The horror genre is new to Samhain. What drew you to them as a publisher and how has the experience been?
I first heard Samhain was branching out into horror via Brian Keene’s website, around the time I was finishing up work on editing the manuscript of ‘The Lamplighters’. Like you Hunter, I admired editor Don D’Auria from his work with Leisure/Dorchester. I’d submitted my full manuscript to Leisure on request after Don saw the synopsis and first three chapters. The shizzle then hit the fan over at Leisure, so I followed up with Don over at Samhain. I’m glad I did because a few weeks later I got a very flattering email from Don inviting me to publish with them. The experience has a been a pleasure, really, from having input into the cover design to working on the final text. It’s been bloody exciting to see the marketing around the new line with banners and flyers at events like Comic Con, and ads in Fangoria and Famous Monsters. There is a real buzz for the new line, with authors and horror fans alike Blogging and Tweeting and Facebooking about the titles. I also like the fact Samhain offers ebooks and paperbacks so people can choose depending on their preference. Likewise I think it’s a smart move for the line to offer some familiar names like Ramsey Campbell, who is one of my absolute faves, along with new blood like us guys. It’s an honor to be in such esteemed company and I’m excited to be part of the first wave of Samhain Horror authors.
4. The popularity of horror books comes and goes in waves, though the tsunami of bad horror films just keeps on smashing onto our shores. Where do you think horror literature stands today and what’s your prognosis for the future?
I kind of wish you hadn’t asked me this, because I feel a slight rant coming on! I don’t know, I think the good stuff bubbles to the surface regardless of any tidal waves of trash that poison our shores.
You mentioned bad horror films. Now, one thing that really gets my goat is that independent filmmakers are now jumping on the bandwagon and remaking existing movies. The studios – you expect them to churn out remakes because their business model is minimum risk/maximum return, after all. And if audiences didn’t pay to go see these things, they wouldn’t make them and spend millions marketing them – but they make gazillions of dollars back, so someone is out there watching them! True, a bona fide visionary filmmaker can bring something fresh, new and amazing to a remake (John Carpenter’s ‘The Thing’) but visionaries like him are few and far between.
Indie-kids remaking horror classics? That sucks, really, because the low-to-no budget world is where the real IDEAS should be coming from. The indies should be the source of the studio remakes and the franchises of tomorrow, see? Homage is great and all, and nothing exists in a vacuum, every creation has its influences of course. But if you’re an independent filmmaker and if for whatever reason all you can dream up is homage and replication of someone else’s work, that just makes you a fucking hack in my book. I truly believe it is the duty – the DUTY – of indie horror filmmakers to at least try and create something original and brave. Sorry, I said this would be a rant! (Laughs)
Now, in the case of horror literature, I actually think the remake culture in horror cinema right now is positive for horror authors. Many folks are just exhausted seeing so many of their favorites being rehashed, exploited and toned down for a quick buck that they may turn to outlets like Samhain Horror to try something fresh. And there’s a crossover happening there between books and films. A couple of my recent film favorites, ‘Pontypool’ and ‘Let The Right One In’ were both sourced from fantastic novels, both very fresh takes on very established sub-genres. Who knows, maybe some of the new Samhain horror novels could be the new horror movies of tomorrow?
Popularity is cyclical, I agree, but the underlying fanbase for all things horror is certainly solid and loyal. And dare I say it, whatever your poison – insatiable.
5. You write and you direct films. Which gives you the greatest satisfaction? On a side note, what was it like to work with Pinhead (Doug Bradley for those of you who aren’t aware that Cenobites are not real)?
When I’m writing, I love to direct. And when I’m directing, I love to write. (Laughs) Both keep me on my tippy-toes in different ways and neither ever fully satisfies me as there’s always something more to learn, always somewhere further to go. That’s, I guess, what keeps me doing both. Of late the balance has tipped more in the favor of writing, but writing is one helluva enjoyable way to scratch a living so I am not complaining! On that side note of yours, it has been a real pleasure to work with Doug Bradley. He is a true professional and good friend who brought so much to the film projects we worked on together. We keep regular contact and I’d work with him again in a (hellbound) heartbeat.
6. Why does it appear so difficult to get great horror books to translate into great horror movies?
I believe it only ever works if an adaptation is just that – a truly adapted work. Because the mechanics of novels and movies are so vastly different a movie of a book can only really succeed to my mind if it stops trying to be a book and just focuses on being a movie already! Kubrick’s ‘The Shining’ is a great example – while not to everyone’s taste (including it seems, the author’s!), it is an adaptation of the novel into film form in the truest sense. The Shining is a novel by a visionary writer and The Shining is also a film by a visionary filmmaker – ‘and never the twain shall meet’. Be honest, how many movie adaptations have you watched and thought to yourself, “they could’ve cut that part” or “they could’ve shown that in a visual way rather than telling it in reams of dialogue lifted straight from the book”? Adaptation is far more bloody difficult than many people seem to perceive it to be, it’s a fine art. Add to that the complexity of fans of the book wanting the movie version to be word-for-word what they saw in their head when they were reading it – it’s never gonna happen. In my experience, take 10 different filmmakers reading the same source material, screenplay, whatever, and you’d get 10 very different movies as an end result. The trouble is, if we’re already fans of a book we’re ‘making the movie’ in our heads at least as we read it – so our expectations of any subsequent movie version are rarely, if ever, going to be met. And interestingly, the translation of movie screenplays into movie novelizations can be just as difficult a task, although the inclusion of “8 pages of color photos from the film” can sweeten the pill somewhat!
7. What’s one secret you could reveal about yourself that would surprise people the most?
To those who know of my enthusiasm for splatter and gore, it may surprise them to learn I have been a vegetarian for 21 years (although I started eating fish again a couple of years ago so I guess that makes me pescatarian now). Anyone who REALLY knows me will not be in the least bit surprised to know I prefer the taste of human flesh… (Winks)
8. As many people will know, Samhain Publishing is named for the ancient tradition that became every horrorhead’s favorite festival of Halloween. What would make for your best ever Samhain celebration?
Oh Halloween is my favorite time of year, hands down. Best ever celebration would be the same thing I enjoy doing every year… Carve some pumpkins with the family, cook up and devour a batch of pumpkin soup and some tasty ‘dead man’s fingers’. And then, when the little monsters are tucked up in bed, kick back and watch John Carpenter’s classic ‘Halloween’. Aside from that, maybe a game of ‘wake the dead’ at the Horror Stars’ Cemetery in which Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, Donald Pleasance and other dear departed f(r)iends wake up and come out to play for just one more night… A happy Samhain for one and all!
Hunter Shea 