Castle Talk with Castle Bridge Media: Recent Episodes
Castle Bridge Media
Talking to writers and creators of today's genre worlds, hosted by author Jason Henderson (author of the Alex Van Helsing and Young Captain Nemo series, editor of the Castle of Horror Anthologies.)
A special gathering of the podcast (Jason, Drew, Julia and Jamie) discusses the 1956 film Rodan LIVE at the 2022 AnimeFest in Dallas.
Rodan (Japanese: 空の大怪獣 ラドン, Hepburn: Sora no Daikaijū Radon, lit. 'Giant Monster of the Sky Rodan') is a 1956 Japanese kaiju film directed by Ishirō Honda, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. Produced and distributed by Toho Studios, it was Toho's first kaiju film to be shot in color, and is one of several giant monster films that found an audience outside Japan. The film stars Kenji Sahara and Yumi Shirakawa. In the United States, it was released in 1957 as Rodan! The Flying Monster!
Tonight we’re chatting with two guests from the new film Allegoria coming to Shudder on August 2, 2022. In the film, a group of artist's lives become unwittingly entangled as their obsessions and insecurities manifest monsters, demons and death.
Spider One is the writer/director of Allegoria; Krsy Fox plays Brody, a young actress who is grappling with a demonic evil weaseling its way into her life.
This episode of Castle Talk, Jason chats with Andrew Traucki, writer/director of The Reef: Stalked from RLJE Films and Shudder, in theaters and streaming on Shudder July 29.
Written and directed by Traucki (Black Water: Abyss), the film stars Teressa Liane (“The Vampire Diaries”), Ann Truong (“Cowboy Bebop”), Saskia Archer (Boshack), Kate Lister ("Clickbait”) and Tim Ross (“Rock Island Mysteries”).
In The Reef: Stalked , in an effort to heal after witnessing her sister’s horrific murder, Nic travels to a tropical resort with her friends for a kayaking and diving adventure. Only hours into their expedition, the women are stalked and then attacked by a great white shark. To survive they will need to band together and Nic will have to overcome her post-traumatic stress, face her fears and slay the monster.
Jason chats with writer and pop culture columnist Chris Buse, author of the novel "The Neon Graveyard” and now “the Neon Devil" (https://amzn.to/3zmihzG). Jason called the first book, "The Neon Graveyard," "like an LA Confidential with demons."
About the book:
Heading the largest independent production and distribution company in Hollywood, Idalis Troy is determined to continue the crusade for global media domination her father started – albeit on her terms. But, to succeed, Idalis must face the East Coast boys club of old money and the predators ruling the entertainment industry in 1999.
Navigating her ambitious plans for an aggressive expansion of her empire and her budding relationship with her girlfriend, Idalis takes her executive team to Paris to salvage what is left of a man's failed dream. But, in the city of light, a group of deadly conspirators tracks her every move, coming for her head.
To save her colleagues and herself, Idalis must not only outwit her lethal pursuers but figure out why she is haunted by a former child star – wife of Uncle Joe, the king of children's entertainment – an actress who died two decades earlier but who might be an immortal, and more frighteningly, a god hungering for the worship of humanity.
This week we have a look at the 1999 film House on Haunted Hill. This is Episode #376!
House on Haunted Hill is a 1999 American supernatural horror film directed by William Malone and starring Geoffrey Rush, Famke Janssen, Taye Diggs, Ali Larter, Bridgette Wilson, Peter Gallagher, and Chris Kattan. The plot follows a group of strangers who are invited to a party at an abandoned insane asylum, where they are offered $1 million each by an amusement park mogul if they are able to survive the night. Produced by Robert Zemeckis and Joel Silver, it is a remake of the 1959 film of the same title directed by William Castle, and features special effects by famed make-up artists Gregory Nicotero and Dick Smith.
House on Haunted Hill marked the producing debut of Dark Castle Entertainment, a production company that went on to produce numerous other horror films, including additional remakes. House on Haunted Hill premiered on Halloween weekend in 1999. In the tradition of William Castle's theater gimmicks, Warner Bros. supplied promotional scratch cards to cinemas showing the film, offering ticket buyers a chance to win a money prize, similar to the movie's characters. The film received middling reviews from major critics, but was a commercial success, opening number one at the box office and grossing $41 million domestically.
Tonight we’re chatting with Rachel Pulliam , who is is the creator of Sole Twin Audios, an audio drama company she started last year. Her tagline, "Stories created solely with the vintage soul in mind" would seem to indicate she only produces recreations from Old Time Radio series. However, the 'vintage soul' is a more a vibe captured within every episode she releases - regardless of the series.
The new production Turn of the Screw can be found here: https://sonicsociety.org/sonic-summerstock-playhouse-13-2asole-twin-audios-the-turn-of-the-screw/
JOIN THE AUTHORS FOR A DISCUSSION OF THINLY VEILED 80S HORROR
Castle Bridge Media is proud to announce your summer escape into the past-- Castle of Horror Anthology Volume 5: Thinly Veiled : the 80s (https://amzn.to/3ONQEED), a collection of horror stories each patterned after famous TV movies and TV, July 12 in paperback and Kindle.
The popular THINLY VEILED collection from the Castle of Horror continues with this anthology of horror stories in the world of 80s pop culture-- from movies like ROBOCOP and THE KEEP to shows like THE FACTS OF LIFE and MORK AND MINDY-- but every one of these brands is "thinly veiled." See if you can recognize them all!
Find the book here: (https://amzn.to/3ONQEED)
Featuring stories from In Churl Yo, Jason Henderson, Dennis Crosby, Jeremiah Cook, Alethea Kontis,
Charles Rutledge, Rob Nisbet, Katya de Becerra, Henry Herz, Heath Shelby,
Jim Towns, Will McDermott, Bryan Young, and John Pritchard.
Release information:
Castle of Horror Anthology Volume 5: Thinly Veiled: the 80s
July 12, 2022
Castle Bridge Media
Paperback and Kindle
Reviewers/for further information:
Castle Bridge Media
http://castlebridgemedia.com/
jason.henderson@castlebridgemedia.com
Jason is joined by members of the team behind the comic team-up Halloween Man Meets Latex Avenger: Coffee House on Haunted Hill: Drew Edwards, Dan Price and Paulo J. Hernandez. Check out their Indiegogo at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/halloween-man-meets-the-latex-avenger#/ .
Ringo Awards nominee Drew Edwards (Lucy Chaplin, Survivor) is teaming up with Dan Price (Bigfoot Knows Karate) on writing duties to bring their creations together in an extraordinary single issue. The duo is joined by the talented Paulo J. Hernandez on pencils and the amazing April Guadiana on colors/letters, in what is bound to be the quirkiest crowdfunded comic of the year.
Tonight we’re chatting with Christopher Farnsworth—he’s the author of REUNION and seven other novels, including FLASHMOB, which was named one of Publishers Weekly’s Best Books of the Year, KILLFILE, and THE PRESIDENT’S VAMPIRE series. He has also written a novella with mega-selling author James Patterson, and worked as a screenwriter and journalist. He has twice been a finalist for the Goodreads Choice Awards, and his books have been translated into ten languages and published in more than a dozen countries, and optioned for film and TV.
ABOUT REUNION (
A girl detective. A boy genius. A warrior princess. A young magician. Four young people with extraordinary gifts.
For years, they solved mysteries, caught crooks, and slayed monsters. They were secret heroes, keeping an idyllic small town in the middle of America safe from the things that lurked in the dark.
Then, the year of their high school graduation, the darkness came for them.
During what the media called “New Year’s Evil,” a demonic force rose to turn their hometown into a literal Hell on Earth.
They gathered to stop it. They fought. And they won.
The rest of the world never discovered the truth behind the disaster. For 20 years, the four tried living like normal people.
Now their past is coming back to haunt them.
The darkness is gathering once more. They’re summoned back to their hometown to face it, along with everything else they left behind.
Last time, they saved the world. This time, they’ll have to do something much harder.
They’ll have to save each other.
For fans of Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, and Victoria Schwab, REUNION is the story of what happens when the good guys grow up.
Find the book here:
https://amzn.to/3AiOBnW
Tonight we’re chatting with Faye Snowden, author of the new book A Killing Rain, brand new from Flame Tree Press.
About the Book:
After former homicide Raven Burns returns to Byrd’s Landing, Louisiana to begin a new life, she soon finds herself trapped by the old one when her nephew is kidnapped by a ruthless serial killer, and her foster brother becomes the main suspect. To make matters worse, she is being pursued by two men— one who wants to redeem her soul for the murder Raven felt she had no choice but to commit, and another who wants to lock her away forever.
Tonight we’re chatting with Erica Friedman, author of By Your Side: The First 100 Years of Yuri Anime and Manga. It’s been called “the untold story of lesbian love in Japanese anime and comics.”
About the Author
Erica Friedman is the founder of Yuricon community, and was the first publisher of Yuri manga in English, with ALC Publishing. She holds a Masters Degree in Library Science and a B.A. in Comparative Literature, and is a full-time researcher for a Fortune 100 company. She has lectured at dozens of conventions and presented at film festivals, notably the San Francisco Lesbian and Gay Film Festival and the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. She has participated in an academic lecture series at MIT, University of Illinois, University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Harvard University, Kanagawa University, and others. She has edited manga for JManga, Seven Seas and Udon Entertainment, most recently Riyoko Ikeda's epic historical classic, The Rose of Versailles. Erica has written about Yuri for Japanese literary journal Eureka, Animerica magazine, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, Dark Horse, and contributed to Forbes, Slate, Huffington Post, Hooded Utilitarian, The Mary Sue, Anime Herald, and Anime News Network online. She has written news and event reports, interviews Yuri creators and reviews Yuri anime, manga and related media on her blog Okazu since 2002 and is the author of By Your Side: The First 100 Year of Yuri Anime and Manga, coming out in June 2022 from Journey Press.
Tonight we’re chatting with Ava Reid, author of JUNIPER & THORN (on sale June 21 from Harper Voyager), a gothic horror retelling of the Grimm Brothers fairytale “The Juniper Tree” and follows a young witch as she seeks to escape her abusive wizard father in Oblya, a city based on Victorian-era Odessa, Ukraine.
Reid expertly weaves themes of femininity, desire, oppression, and progress into the dark fantasy of JUNIPER & THORN. Marlinchen and her sisters are the last true witches in the terrifying city of Oblya, where magic has given way to industry. Though their tyrannical, xenophobic father keeps them sequestered from the outside world, they sneak out at night to explore the city, where Marlinchen meets a dancer who captures her heart. As Marlinchen’s feelings deepen for Sevas, the threat of her father’s rage and magic grows; at the same time, a monster begins leaving dead bodies in its wake. Marlinchen must draw upon her magic to keep her city safe and find her place within it.
It’s a haunting horror fantasy tale with a layered, complex heroine – amid gruesome twists and turns, Reid crafts Marlinchen’s story with compassion, exploring her trauma and building her tender romance with Sevas. And just as she did in her debut, Reid examines nationalism through the lens of magic and fantasy, combining her Ukrainian heritage and academic background to craft the city of Oblya, based on the port city of Odessa in Ukraine, and explore what it means for a city to develop and progress.
JUNIPER & THORN has already been described as “darkly enchanting” in a starred Publishers Weekly review. A full list of content warnings is available here. I can’t wait for you to dive in and hope you’ll consider covering in June.
Ava Reid was born in Manhattan and raised right across the Hudson River in Hoboken, but currently lives in Palo Alto. She has a degree in political science from Barnard College, focusing on religion and ethnonationalism.
This episode Jason chats with Jim Mahoney, writer and lead of GATLOPP. XYZ Films will release the supernatural comedy GATLOPP on Demand and Digital June 16, 2022.
Check out the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht4vidrbk2A
The film stars Jim Mahoney (Klaus), Emmy Raver-Lampman ("The Umbrella Academy"), Jon Bass (Baywatch), Sarunas J. Jackson ("Insecure"), and Shelley Hennig ("Teen Wolf”).
In GATLOPP, a group of old friends reunites for a nostalgic evening of fun and games after a decade apart. After one too many, they decide to play a drinking game, but it’s quickly revealed that this game comes with supernatural stakes. Mischief leads to mayhem, and the group realizes that if they can’t come together to win the game by sunrise, they will be forced to play for eternity - in hell.
GATLOPP was written by Jim Mahoney (Klaus) and directed by Alberto Belli ("The House of Flowers").
This week Jason chats James Byrne that is perfect for fans of Reacher on Prime Video!
The Gatekeeper (releasing June 7th 2022) The gatekeeper of the title is Desmond Aloysius Limerick—aka Dez—a retired mercenary. When the California hotel Dez is staying in is attacked with ruthless precision by a team of highly-skilled mercenaries—out to kidnap the legal counsel of a military contractor—Dez is a one-man spanner in the works, foiling the attempt. Having saved Petra Alexandris from the kidnappers, he sticks around to help her with another corporate problem and the two fall down a rabbit hole so full of adventure (think military coups), intrigue, and nonstop action it’s worthy of Bourne, Reacher, or Orphan X.
James Byrne is the pseudonym for an author who has worked for more than twenty years as a journalist and in politics.
Jason chats wiith Julia Lynn Rubin whose new book PRIMAL ANIMALS is just out from Wednesday Books/Macmillan.
About the book:
Midsommar meets "Yellowjackets" in this new YA horror novel where a girl gets sucked into a secret society at an elite summer program, with deadly consequences.
Protect the girls
Arlee Gold is anxious about spending the summer at the college prep Camp Rockaway—the same camp her mother attended years ago, which her mother insists will help give Arlee a “fresh start” after her struggles the past year; that it will “change her life.” Little does Arlee know that once she steps foot on the manicured grounds, this will prove to be true in horrifying ways.
Even though the girls in her cabin are awesome—and she’s developing a major crush on the girl who sleeps in the bunk above her—the other campers seem to be wary of Arlee, unwilling to talk to her or be near her, which only ramps up her paranoia. When she’s tapped to join a strange secret society, Arlee thinks this will be her shot at fitting in...until her new "sisters" ask her to do the unthinkable, putting her life, and the life of her new crush, in perilous danger.
Author Bio:
JULIA LYNN RUBIN received her MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults from The New School in 2017. A lover of film, psychology, and literature, Julia has been writing creatively since first grade, and her short stories have appeared in publications such as the North American Review. She currently lives in Brooklyn, where she is freelancing while working on her next book. Julia is the author of Burro Hills and Trouble Girls.
Tonight we’re chatting with Leanna Renee Hieber about her upcoming contemporary Gothic romance novel, Ghosts of the Forbidden: Glazier’s Gap Book 1, which will be released just in time for spooky season on October 11. The cover—and a special vintage-style “stepback” cover—were revealed this week at fantasybookcafe.com.
Hieber’s work includes the timeslip novellas in the Time Immemorial trilogy; the futuristic, paranormal novellas in the Dark Nest Chronicles, beginning with her Prism Award–winning space opera novella Dark Nest; and the Gothic gaslamp fantasy books in the Strangely Beautiful, Eterna Files, and Spectral City series. (Plus she has written a couple of essays on Gothic fiction here, “Penny Dreadful’s Betrayal and the Complexity of Feminism in the Gothic Tradition” and “The Gothic as a Canary in Fear’s Coal Mine.”)
Check out the cover reveal here: https://www.fantasybookcafe.com/2022/05/cover-reveal-for-ghosts-of-the-forbidden-by-leanna-renee-hieber/
Find the book and pre-order at Amazon here: https://amzn.to/3Ny53ny
Tonight we’re chatting with Fernando González Gómez, co-director of The Passenger or La Pasajera, in Theaters June 3, 2022 and On Demand and DVD June 28, 2022. The film had its World Premiere at the 2021 Sitges Film Festival in which it was nominated for the Audience Award.
THE PASSENGER (original title: La Pasajera) stars Ramiro Blas (“La Fuga”), Cecilia Suárez (“The House of Flowers”), Paula Gallego (“Cuéntame”) and Cristina Alcázar (Cachorro). The film was co-directed by Raúl Cerezo (feature film debut) and Fernando González Gómez (Zombie World 2) based on a screenplay written by Luis Sánchez-Polack (Como Caido Del Cielo).
SYNOPSIS: A group of strangers sharing a ride have their trip interrupted when the driver hits a woman hiking in the dark of night. They decide to help her, but quickly learn that something is wrong and that they shouldn’t have let her in at all.
Tonight we’re chatting with Neal E. Fischer, author of Being Patrick Swayze: Essential Teachings from the Master of the Mullet. Find it here: https://amzn.to/3MMwpq7
Neal E. Fischer is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, and pop culture fanatic. Neal cut his teeth as a musician and performer on stage before ultimately transitioning behind the scenes. Neal's credits include the award-winning documentary 10 Mountains 10 Years, narrated by Anne Hathaway; #WhoKilledHeather, an innovative branded web series; and many short films and features screened at festivals around the world. Neal also directs commercials for brands such as Dunkin' Donuts, Wisconsin Lottery, and Cars.com, the latter of which was shortlisted for awards at Cannes Lions.
You can hear Neal's bad impressions and obscure movie references each week on Triviality, a pub-trivia style podcast recorded under the watchful eye of its patron saint of podcasting, Patrick Swayze, whose poster proudly hangs in the studio. He lives in Chicago, IL.
Tonight we’re chatting with Russell Owen, writer and director of Shepherd, in theaters May 6 and on Demand and Digital May 10th. In the film, a young Scottish an takes a job as a shepherd on a desolate island following the death of his wife, where he is haunted by loneliness, guilt, and increasingly nightmarish and haunting visions.
Tonight we’re chatting with Keoni Waxman, writer/director of The Ravine, which is released in theaters and on demand and digital from Cinedigm on May 6.
The film stars Eric Dane (“Euphoria"), Teri Polo (Meet the Parents), Peter Facinelli (The Vanished), Byron Mann (The Big Short), Leslie Uggams (Deadpool) and Kyle Lowder (“Days of Our Live”).
In THE RAVINE, when an unspeakable crime rocks a peaceful community, family and friends are left to wonder if they overlooked the murderer among them or if there might be more to the story. Inspired by true events, this haunting thriller stars Eric Dane, Teri Polo, Peter Facinelli, and Leslie Uggams.
Tonight we’re chatting with Chris Cullari and Jennifer Raite, directors of the new film THE AVIARY which Premieres April 29 In Theaters and Digital and On Demand From Saban Films —
The film follows two women (Malin Akerman and Lorenza Izzo) on the run from an oppressive and controlling cult led by Seth (Chris Messina), and the lingering hold it has on them despite the distance they so desperately try to put between themselves and the desert facility they used to occupy.
Tonight we’re chatting with Kiah Roache-Turner, director of Wyrmwood: Apocalypse, out in digital in the US April 14.
Directed by Kiah Roache-Turner and produced by Tristan Roache-Turner, and co-written by the two, the film is a sequel to the 2015 breakout hit Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead, and it follows the character Rhys as he realizes the life he's been living in a zombie-infested wasteland has been a lie, and instead of helping to find a cure for the virus he's been helping a mad man destroy lives — but after he captures a mysterious half-human half-zombie he may actually be able to save his world for real.
This episode of Castle Talk, Jason chats with Kate Dolan, writer and director of the new horror film You Are Not My Mother, releasing March 25 in theaters and on VOD. You Are Not My Mother marks the feature debut from Dublin-based filmmaker Dolan, 2022 Dublin Film Festival Discovery Award recipient and Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA) Rising Star nominee.
Say the producers about the film:
It’s the week before Halloween. Char’s bedridden mother, Angela, has mysteriously gone missing. All that remains is her abandoned car parked in the middle of a field. When Angela returns home to their North Dublin estate the following evening without explanation, it becomes clear to Char and her grandmother, Rita, that something is amiss. She might look and sound the same, but Angela’s behavior has become increasingly erratic and frightening, as if she has been replaced by a malevolent force. As Halloween approaches, a night steeped in ancient Irish myth and legend, Char must unearth the dark secrets of her family in order to uncover the truth behind her mother's disappearance and save her, even if it means potentially losing her forever.
Tonight we’re chatting with Alejandro Hidalgo, director and co-writer of THE EXORCISM OF GOD, in Theaters, on Demand and Digital on March 11th.
THE EXORCISM OF GOD is directed by Alejandro Hidalgo (The House at the End of Time) from a script by Santiago Fernández Calvete (Sangre Vurdalak) and Hidalgo. The film stars Joseph Marcell ("The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air"), María Gabriela de Faría ("The Moodys", "Deadly Class"), Will Beinbrink (It Chapter Two, "Dark"), Hector Kotsifakis ("Malverde: El Santo Patrón"), and Irán Castillo ("SOS Me estoy enamorando").
Saban Films will release the horror film THE EXORCISM OF GOD in Theaters, on Demand and Digital on March 11th.
Tonight we’re chatting with Mickey Keating, Director and Writer of Offseason, In Select Theaters, On Demand and Digital March 11, 2022.
Upon receiving a mysterious letter that her mother’s grave site has been vandalized, Marie quickly returns to the isolated offshore island where her late mother is buried. When she arrives, she discovers that the island is closing for the offseason with the bridges raised until Spring, leaving her stranded. One strange interaction with the local townspeople after another, Marie soon realizes that something is not quite right in this small town. She must unveil the mystery behind her mother’s troubled past in order to make it out alive.
TRAILER:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPtKRTlnWNA
Starring:
Jocelin Donahue, Joe Swanberg, Richard Brake, Melora Walters, Jeremy Gardner
Directed and Written By:
Mickey Keating
Tonight we’re chatting with Guadalupe Garcia McCall on her new book The Keeper from HarperCollins.
Inspired by a terrifying true story, acclaimed author Guadalupe Garcia McCall creates a twisty tale about a boy desperately trying to survive in a new town with a secret past.
James always knew moving from Texas to Oregon was going to be horrible.. But no sooner have he and his family arrived in their "perfect" new home in their "perfect" new town than he starts getting mysterious letters from someone called the Keeper. Someone who claims to be watching him. Someone who is looking for “young blood.”
Born and raised in Eagle Pass, Texas, Guadalupe García McCall is the award-winning author of many young adult novels and children’s poetry. Guadalupe received the Prestigious Pura Belpre Award, a Westchester Young Adult Fiction Award, the Tomás Rivera Mexican-American Children’s Book Award, and was a finalist for the William C. Morris Award and the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy, among many other accolades. She is currently an Assistant Professor of English at George Fox University and lives with her husband in the Pacific Northwest. She is an advocate for literacy, diverse books, and Own Voices.
Tonight we’re chatting with Rio Youers, author of the new book NO SECOND CHANCES., out from HarperCollins this month.
New York Times best-selling author, Joe Hill, called Youers’ latest book, Lola on Fire, “…a novel that rivals Killing Eve in intensity and atmosphere.” NO SECOND CHANCES features the same “blinding speed” (New York Times Book Review on Lola on Fire) as his previous novel and follows a down-and-out actor suspected of killing his wife, a wannabe starlet new to the L.A. scene, and the vengeful drug dealer they both dare to cross. Desperate love, vengeance, and the precarious pursuit of fame are all at play in this wild ride. Fans of thrilling plots and psychological suspense should buckle up.
ABOUT RIO YOUERS
Rio Youers is the critically acclaimed author of Lola on Fire, Westlake Soul, and Halcyon. His 2017 thriller, The Forgotten Girl, was a finalist for the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel. He is the writer of Sleeping Beauties, a comic book series based on the bestselling novel by Stephen King and Owen King. Rio lives in Ontario, Canada, with his wife and their two children.
Tonight we’re chatting with Matt Serafini, the author of the new book Scared to Death from Encyclopocalypse, and what’s fascinating here is that this book is a novelization for a movie that came out in 1980.
Hailed as "one of the best new voices in genre fiction" by horror grandmaster Brian Keene, Matt Serafini's books include RITES OF EXTINCTION, FERAL, and UNDER THE BLADE, which Fangoria called "one of the best slasher films you'll ever read." His short fiction has appeared in numerous anthology collections and he is a screenwriter with his work making its way through the various stages of the long and arduous development process. His nonfiction has appeared in the pages of Fangoria and HorrorHound. Find him at mattserafini.com and on Twitter at @Mattfini.
Tonight we’re chatting with Ricky Bates, writer and director of King Knight, in Select Theaters, On Demand & Digital Feb. 17th.
About the Film:
Thorn (CRIMINAL MINDS’ Matthew Gray Gubler) and Willow appear to have it all as the revered high priest and priestess of a coven of new age witches. But a secret from Thorn’s past throws their lives into turmoil and sends them on a trippy, hilarious journey.
Starring:
Matthew Gray Gubler, Angela Sarafyan, Andy Milonakis, Kate Comer, Johnny Pemberton, Josh Fadem, Nelson Franklin, Emily Chang, Ronnie Gene Blevins, Swati Kapila, Shane Brady, AnnaLynne McCord, Alice Glass, with Barbara Crampton, and Ray Wise playing Merlin
Directed and Written By:
Richard Bates, Jr.
Tonight we’re chatting with Barbara Crampton about the new film she features heavily in, Alone with You, which comes to theaters February 4 and On Demand, Digital and DVD - February 8, 2022.
About the film: Alone With You
Starring:
Emily Bennett, Emma Myles, Dora Madison and Barbara Crampton
Co-Written and Co-Directed by:
Emily Bennett & Justin Brooks
As a young woman painstakingly prepares a romantic homecoming for her girlfriend, their apartment begins to feel more like a tomb when voices, shadows, and hallucinations reveal a truth she has been unwilling to face.
Jason talks to Michael Gingold, author of Ad Nauseam: Newsprint Nightmares from the '70s and '80s, a year-by-year deep dive into the Gingold archive, with more than 700 ads. Within its pages you'll see rare alternate art for film franchises such as Halloween, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Child’s Play, Jaws, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Exorcist. You'll also revel in oddities including Invasion of the Blood Farmers, Psycho from Texas, Dracula Blows His Cool, Zombie Island Massacre, Twitch of the Death Nerve, and many more.
Gingold also provides personal recollections and commentary, and unearths vintage reviews to reveal what critics of the time were saying about these films.
Tonight we’re chatting with Gracie Gillam, the title character of SUPERHOST, which comes out on VOD, Digital HD, DVD and Blu-ray February 1, 2022.
In SUPERHOST, Teddy and Claire are travel vloggers who run a channel called “SUPERHOST” where they travel and share their experiences in and around vacation homes, and until recently, had become successful doing it. With a dwindling subscriber count, they find the perfect opportunity to create content that people want to see when they meet Rebecca, the host of their most recent trip. Slowly they start to realize that something isn’t right with Rebecca, and as they investigate it further, they unlock a horrifying truth. She doesn’t just want a great review, she wants something far worse.
Tonight we’re chatting with Matt Glass and Jordan Wayne Long, directors of Ghosts of the Ozarks, which premieres In Select Theaters, On Demand and Digital February 3. The film stars Tim Blake Nelson, David Arquette, Angela Bettis, Thomas Hobson, Phil Norris and Tara Perry.
About the film: In post-Civil War Arkansas, a young doctor is mysteriously summoned to a remote town in the Ozarks only to discover that the utopian paradise is filled with secrets and surrounded by a menacing, supernatural presence.
Tonight we’re chatting with Edoardo Vitaletti, writer and director of THE LAST THING MARY SAW, his feature length film debut, a Shudder Original Film premiering exclusively on Shudder Thursday, January 20.
THE LAST THING MARY SAW stars Stefanie Scott (INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 3), Isabelle Fuhrman (THE NOVICE, ORPHAN), and Rory Culkin (LORDS OF CHAOS, SCREAM 4) and has been a hit on the festival circuit leading up to its hotly anticipated launch on the platform. It follows the story of Mary, a young woman living in Southold, New York, in the year 1843. Mary finds herself in a loving relationship with Eleanor, her family's young maid, and what first begins as a story of religious punishment turns into something much more dark and wicked.
Tonight we have a special conversation with author Katharine Coldiron on the subject of bad film and The Valley of the Dolls, a film that has divided audiences since its debut—is it bad or do we even know what that word means?
Katharine Coldiron is the author of Ceremonials and a recent book from PS Publishing on Plan 9 from Outer Space. Her work on film has appeared in many online journals and routinely appears for free on Twitter.
Valley of the Dolls is a 1967 film directed by Mark Robson that follows three women in the entertainment industry.
Tonight we’re talking to Lawrence Fowler, writer director of Jack in the Box: Awakening, a new film that follows on Fowler’s film Jack in the Box, releasing Jan 18, 2022 (VOD, Digital HD & DVD) in the U.S. In the new film, terminally ill heiress Olga Marsdale acquires a mysterious gothic box containing a captured demon - Jack. The powerful entity within makes a deadly deal with Olga and her devoted son Edgar - deliver six victims to Jack and Olga will live.
Lawrence Fowler is a multi-award winning Welsh Film Director and Writer. Working alongside his producing partner Geoff, Fowler Media Limited was born to produce genre feature films and TV projects for world-wide audiences. His 2020 film 'The Jack in the Box' earned a Best Feature Award at the British Horror Film Festival and held its premiere at prestigious Leicester Square.
Tonight we’re chatting with writer and pop culture columnist Chris Buse, author of the novel "The Neon Graveyard," available on Amazon. The book spans sixty years of American history and popular culture and several genres, featuring a group of modern-day devil hunters. In the book, his heroine Idalis Troy must reclaim her identity, and perhaps her soul, as she comes face to face with the Fallen One.
Tonight we’re chatting with Sean Nichols Lynch, writer and director of Red Snow (Out 12/28).
In the film, a struggling vampire romance novelist must defend herself against real-life vampires during Christmas in Lake Tahoe.
SYNOPSIS:
When an injured bat transforms into a handsome vampire, struggling horror novelist Olivia Romo hides him in her garage to protect him from a vampire hunter. Besotted by the creature, she feeds him animal blood, but any chance of romance is soon thwarted when a gang of fellow bloodsuckers invade her home in search of their missing friend.
Release Date: December 28, 2021 (DVD, VOD, & Digital)
Tonight we’re chatting Tonight we’re chatting with Michel Aronovitz, author of the new book collection of stories called Dancing with Tombstones. This new book from critically acclaimed genre author Michael Aronovitz collects some of his greatest stories that celebrate the beauty of the darkness in the world.
•In the section titled GIRLS, you'll learn "How Bria Died," and will also meet "The Sculptor" in the story that inspired Aronovitz's full-length serial killer novel of the same name.
•In the section featuring PSYCHOS, you'll feel the chill of the Anti-Christ in "Quest for Sadness," and fall prey to the most frightening circus creature on the face of the earth in "The Exterminator."
•In TOOLS & TECH, you'll find out the dark secret of "The Tool Shed," and will also experience the full-length ghost-novella, "Toll Booth."
•And finally, in MARTYRS & SACRIFICIAL LAMBS you'll experience hell on earth in "The Echo," and unwittingly release the darkest force of the forest in "The Falcon."
With Dancing with Tombstones, the author of Alice Walks and The Sculptor deliciously thrusts us down the twisted avenues deep inside the haunt of our most secret repressions.
Today we’re chatting with Cory Choy, director of the new film ESME MY LOVE, a psychological thriller starring Stacey Weckstein as Hannah and Audrey Grace Marshall as Esme.
Synopsis: When Hannah notices the symptoms of a terminal and painful illness in her aloof daughter, Esme, she decides to take her on a trip to their abandoned family farm in a desperate attempt to connect before they have to say goodbye…
See the trailer at: www.esmemylove.com.
Tonight we’re chatting with Katharine Coldiron, who’s just published the book Plan 9 from Outer Space from Electric Dreamhouse Press. Her work as a book critic has appeared in the Washington Post, the Guardian, NPR, and elsewhere; her work as a film critic has appeared in Bitch, Bright Wall/Dark Room, and Video Librarian. She earned an MA in creative writing from California State University, Northridge, and a BA in film studies and philosophy from Mount Holyoke College. Find her at kcoldiron.com.
Jason is joined by Tony Salvaggio to chat with Lars Nilsen, author of Warped and Faded: Weird Wednesday and the Birth of the American Genre Film Archive, about the book, the phenomenon of the Alamo Drafthouse, and programming one of the weirdest and most fondly recalled repertory series ever.
Today we’re chatting with Adam Ethan Crow, writer/director of Lair, a new horror film released by 1091 pictures.
Adam Ethan Crow is a multi-award-winning writer/ director based in London, working globally. Buena Vista, The BBC, and Sky TV have all commissioned content from Ada.
Lair (2021): When Ben Dollarhdye is accused of murder, saying he was possessed by a demonic force, Steven Caramore investigates his friend's claims, setting off a chain of events that forces a young family into a terrifying battle for survival.
Today we’re chatting with Zin E Rocklyn, author of Flowers for the Sea which just came out in paperback from Tordorcom.
Zin E. Rocklyn is a contributor to Bram Stoker-nominated and This is Horror Award-winning Nox Pareidolia, Kaiju Rising II: Reign of Monsters, Brigands: A Blackguards Anthology, and Forever Vacancy anthologies and Weird Luck Tales No. 7 zine. Their story "Summer Skin" in the Bram Stoker-nominated anthology Sycorax's Daughters received an honorable mention for Ellen Datlow's Best Horror of the Year, Volume Ten. Zin contributed the nonfiction essay “My Genre Makes a Monster of Me” to Uncanny Magazine’s Hugo Award-winning Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction. Their short story "The Night Sun" and flash fiction "teatime" were published on Tor.com. Flowers for the Sea is their debut novella. Zin is a 2017 VONA and 2018 Viable Paradise graduate as well as a 2022 Clarion West candidate. You can find them on Twitter @intelligentwat.
In FLOWERS FOR THE SEA, survivors from a flooded kingdom struggle alone on an ark. Resources are scant, and ravenous beasts circle…and their fangs are sharp. Rocklyn centers the story on Iraxi, a refugee that is ostracized, despised, and a commoner who refused a prince. Iraxi is also pregnant with a child that might be more than human, and her fate may be darker and more powerful than she can imagine.
On the release date of the bloody new vampire novella BLOODSUCKER CITY by Jim Towns from Castle Bridge Media.
Join our select list of vampire experts and writers as they chat about the remarkable resilience of the vampire in media. Not only does everyone have a favorite but they tend to fight for it, from regal old-world romancers like Bela Lugosi's Dracula to the seething predator of Stoker's original, to femme fatale vampires like Carmilla, to sparkly lovers like Twilight's Edward. Where do YOU come down?
Panelists:
Jim Towns, director and author, American Cryptic
Christopher Farnsworth, author, The President's Vampire
Leanna Renne Hieber, author, Strangely Beautiful
Charles R. Rutledge, author, Dracula's Revenge
Moderated by Jason Henderson, writer, Sword of Dracula
This week Jason chats with Catherynne M. Valente.
She is the New York Times bestselling author of over two dozen works of fiction and poetry, including Palimpsest, the Orphan’s Tales series, Deathless, Radiance, and the crowdfunded phenomenon The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (and the four books that followed it). She is the winner of the Andre Norton, Tiptree, Sturgeon, Eugie Foster Memorial, Mythopoeic, Rhysling, Lambda, Locus, and Hugo awards, as well as the Prix Imaginales. Valente has also been a finalist for the Nebula and World Fantasy Awards. She lives on an island off the coast of Maine with a small but growing menagerie of beasts, some of which are human.
Her most recent book The Past is Red came out in July and is an Amazon Editor’s Pick as Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, and coming in just a few weeks, early November still very much the spooky season, is COMFORT ME WITH APPLES, a terrifying fantasy/horror story.
Comfort Me With Apples is a terrifying new thriller from bestseller Catherynne M. Valente, for fans of Gone Girl and Spinning Silver
Sophia was made for him. Her perfect husband. She can feel it in her bones. He is perfect. Their home together in Arcadia Gardens is perfect. Everything is perfect.
It's just that he's away so much. So often. He works so hard. She misses him. And he misses her. He says he does, so it must be true. He is the perfect husband and everything is perfect.
But sometimes Sophia wonders about things. Strange things. Dark things. The look on her husband's face when he comes back from a long business trip. The questions he will not answer. The locked basement she is never allowed to enter. And whenever she asks the neighbors, they can't quite meet her gaze....
But everything is perfect. Isn't it?
Freelance editor, anthologist, and reviewer Paula Guran was senior editor for Prime Books for seven years. Previously, she edited the Juno fantasy imprint from its small press inception through its incarnation as an imprint of Pocket Books. In addition to the annual Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror series, she’s edited many other anthologies.
The supernatural, surreal, and the all-too real. Tales of the dark have always fascinated us, and in The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror: Volume Two (October 19, PYR), editor Paula Guran has selected 30 modern authors (20 of those women) to carry on the disquieting traditions of the past while inventing imaginative new ways to unsettle us.
Volume two begins with a COVID-19-based tale by Victor LaValle, who was commissioned (along with 28 others) by the New York Times to “write new short stories inspired by the moment.” Along with LaVelle’s story Recognition, this year’s collection includes six stories set in a dystopian future, three tales around the human genetic code, and horrific tales of the supernatural. “It wasn’t until after I started assembling this volume that I realized how often homes, houses, and other domiciles played important roles in many of the selected stories,” said Guran. “Considering most of us have been home more than usual lately, this is… interesting.”
Jason chats with writer Tony Salvaggio about two new music documentaries that premiered at this year's Fantastic Fest: This is GWAR and Who Killed the KLF?
Tonight we’re chatting with Derek Presley, writer/director & Jason Starne, producer of Whitetail, releasing this month.
Synopsis: Whitetail follows a broken family consisting of a father, an uncle and the son as they embark on a weekend hunting trip out in West Texas. The mother has recently died of an overdose and the trio hope to get away from it all by being out in nature and hunting. Instead they find a mysterious man shot in the stomach and clutching onto a backpack full of money. This film is a southern gothic thriller, drama and survival film. All taking place over one day and one night in the brush land of Texas.
In this special episode, Tony Salvaggio recaps the highs of the Austin's premiere genre film festival, Fantastic Fest. Films discussed are:
CANNON ARM AND THE ARCADE QUEST
BINGO HELL (Theater 5 Main House)
BLACK PHONE
FREAKS OUT
THE BLACK PHONE (Theater 5 Main House)
LAST OF THE WOLVES
IKÉ BOYS
HELLBENDER
THE EXORCISM OF GOD
BEYOND THE INFINITE 2 MINUTES
COP SECRET
SALOUM
LET THE WRONG ONE IN
MAD GOD
FOUND FOOTAGE PHENOMENON
WOODLANDS DARK DAYS BEWITCHED
THE TRIP
KING CAR
GLASS HOUSE
DIGITAL VIDEO EDITING WITH ADOBE PREMIERE PRO: THE REAL-WORLD GUIDE TO SET UP AND WORKFLOW
For more, visit https://fantasticfest.com/films/features
Tonight I can’t tell you how great it is to talk again to Joe Bob Briggs. The Shudder Original Halloween special Joe Bob’s Halloween Hoedown will premiere Friday, October 8 with special guests from the upcoming Halloween franchise installment, Halloween Kills: director David Gordon Green and producer/Blumhouse CEO and founder Jason Blum, as announced today during Blumhouse’s second annual BlumFest celebration. Joe Bob’s Halloween Hoedown premieres live on the Shudder TV feed at 9pm ET/8c on October 8. Fans can also watch on demand on Shudder and within the Shudder offering in the AMC+ bundle on Sunday, October 10.
Tonight we’re chatting with Caitlin Starling, author of The Death of Jane Lawrence, out this October from St Martin’s Press.
Caitlin Starling is a Bram Stoker-nominated author of the Luminous Dead and people have been liking the book to Mexican Gothic and Guillermo Del Tor’s Crimson Peak.
Tonight we’re chatting with Elle Callahan, director of the thriller/horror film WITCH HUNT, which will be released by Momentum Pictures Theaters, On Demand and Digital on October 1, 2021.
In the film, a teenager grapples with the fact that her family is part of an intricate network that helps persecuted magical witches flee across as the US government persecutes and hunts them down.
In this episode of Castle Talk, Tony Salvaggio chats with Co-writer/director Eric McEver (directorial debut), Quinn Lord (Netflix’s “Firefly Lane,” Trick ‘r Treat), Ronak Gandhi (You are Here, Age of Summer) and Christina Higa (Am I OK?) of the new film Ike Boys.
This from-the-heart love letter to Anime, Tokusatsu, and being uncool in high school while trying to prevent an apocalypse, debuts at Fantastic Fest on Sunday, September 26th. In addition to hitting home for anyone who grew up liking things that weren't cool at the time, Ike Boys also has a lot to say about cultural expectations and assumptions, and the shared bond we can feel through the love of pop culture (and a possible tie to the original 1954 Godzilla film is revealed.) Joins us as we talk about all of these things as well as the awesome ending track by actress/composer Christina Higa.
Tonight we’re chatting with Rose Williams, star of The Power, which is releasing from RLJE on VOD, Digital HD and DVD on September 21, 2021.
LOS ANGELES, (Aug. 19, 2021) – RLJE Films, a business unit of AMC Networks, has picked up select rights to the horror film, THE POWER from Shudder, AMC Networks’ premium streaming service for horror, thriller and the supernatural. RLJE Films will release THE POWER on VOD, Digital HD, and DVD on September 21, 2021.
Written and directed by BAFTA-nominated director Corinna Faith, and featuring an original score by Gazelle Twin and Max de Wardener, THE POWER stars Rose Williams (“Sanditon,” “Reign,” “Medici”), Charlie Carrick (Abandoned: Angelique's Isle, “Reign”), Gbemisola Ikumelo (“Roadkill,” The Last Tree), Theo Barklem-Biggs (“The First Team,” The Forgotten Battle), Emma Rigby (“Prisoners Wives,” Endless Love), and Shakira Rahman. RLJE Films will release THE POWER on DVD for an SRP of $27.97.
London, 1974. In THE POWER, as Britain prepares for electrical blackouts to sweep across the country, trainee nurse Val arrives for her first day at the crumbling East London Royal Infirmary. With most of the patients and staff evacuated to another hospital, Val must work the night shift in the empty building. Within these walls lies a deadly secret, forcing Val to face her own traumatic past in order to confront the malevolent power that’s intent on destroying everything around her.
Tonight we’re chatting with Chris Beyrooty and Connor Martin, directors and writers of Shelter in Place, releasing on digital September 14, 2021.
Directed and Written by Chris Beyrooty and Connor Martin, SHELTER IN PLACE stars Brendan Hines (The Tick, Lie to Me), Tatjana Marjanovic (Great White, Purgatory), Kevin Daniels (Atypical, Modern Family, The Big Leap), Ola Kaminska (The Madness Within), and Jey Reynolds.
SYNOPSIS: A honeymooning couple gets stranded at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel and learns that there is more to fear than just cabin fever.
Tonight we’re chatting with Michael J. Ahern, Brandon Perras-Sanchez, Ryan Miller, and Wayne Gonsalves, creators of the new film Death Drop Gorgeous, releasing from Dark Star Pictures in theaters and on demand and digital September 10.
Death Drop Gorgeous, an ode to John Waters and Wicked Queer festival hit, premieres this month on demand and digital from Dark Star Pictures.
About the film:
A dejected bartender and an aging drag queen fight to survive the eccentric and hostile nightlife of a corrupt city, as a masked maniac slaughters young gay men and drains them of blood.
An ode to the wicked work of John Waters, festival fave Death Drop Gorgeous - Seattle Queer, Chicago Horror, Wicked Queer, VideoScream and over 20 more festivals worldwide – features divine work by directors Michael J. Ahern, Christopher Dalpe, Brandon Perras-Sanchez, and a superlative cast headed by Wayne Gonsalves, Payton St. James, Brandon Perras-Sanchez, and Christopher Dalpe.
Tonight we’re chatting with Stephen R Bissette, historian and critic, who writes a series of essays included in the new Blu-Ray box set from Arrow, Cold War Creatures: Four Films from Sam Katzman. Bissette is also a well-known comic artist whose work has graced so many great works from DC’s 80s Swamp Thing revival to independent, Eisner-nominated fare like Taboo.
Katzman was a prolific studio exec that produced hundreds of films starting in the early 1930s and concluding in 1972, gaining great notoriety for his ability to turn a sizable profit on a minuscule budget. Arrow has compiled four of Katzman's monster movies from the 1950s in one glorious collection and loaded them up with special features including an 80-page collector’s art book featuring reproduction stills and artwork from each film and new writing by historian and critic, Stephen R. Bissette. The four films include Creature with the Atom Brain, The Werewolf, The Zombies of Mora Tau, and The Giant Claw.
Tonight we’re chatting with Tera Cuskaden, Managing Editor at Crazy Maple Studio for KISS and Scream apps. She explains how Scream brings scary reading to new readers who avoid traditional book-reading apps.
Tera is a RITA award-winning editor who started working in publishing in 2004 as a reviewer and proofreader. Tera has edited many New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors and is the first editor to hit the New York Times bestseller list with a digital-only title. She spent nine years with Samhain Publishing as Senior Editor and Art Department Coordinator before moving to Entangled Publishing as an Editorial Director. Tera is now the Managing Editor at Crazy Maple Studio for KISS and Scream, where she continues her work with bestselling authors and finding fresh new voices to bring to the romance, thriller, suspense, and horror genres. Tera holds a bachelor's degree in English with a minor in Women’s and Gender Studies from Indiana University.
Tonight we’re chatting with Patricia Gomez Zlatar, co-writer of SLAXX, which arrives from RLJE Films on VOD, Digital HD, and DVD on September 7, 2021.
In SLAXX, a possessed pair of jeans is brought to life to punish the unscrupulous practices of a trendy clothing company. Shipped to the company’s flagship store, the killer jeans proceed to wreak carnage on staff who are locked in overnight to set up the new collection. SLAXX is “stylish, sharp, and not to be overlooked” (Pajiba.com) and “just good, bloody, fun” (Flickering Myth).
Check out the trailer: https://youtu.be/0lwxhrKJi6s
Bonus features on the DVD include:
● The Story Behind SLAXX
● The Pants Are Alive
● Producing A Killer Pants Movie
● Call In The Death Consultant
● Casting SLAXX
● Behind-the-Scenes Photo Gallery
Tonight we’re chatting with Maxi Contenti, director of THE LAST MATINEE, coming to VOD, Digital and DVD on August 24, 2021. The Castle of Horror Podcast has a connection to Contenti, in fact-- he's the director of the video for SEND MORE GASOLINE from castmember Tony Salvaggio's band Deserts of Mars (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gDuCRF4ODQ).
Directed by Maxi Contenti (Muñeco viviente V, Neptunia) from a script by Manuel Facal (High Five, Fiesta Nibiru) and Contenti, THE LAST MATINEE stars Luciana Grasso (El Secreto de Julia), Ricardo Islas (El Que No Corre Vuela, Bailiwick), Julieta Spinelli, Franco Duran and Pedro Duarte.
SYNOPSIS: The audience attending the last showing of a horror film in a small downtown cinema are terrorized by a murderer who begins to pick them off, one by one. The only person to notice that something strange is going on is the projectionist’s daughter.
Watch the trailer: https://youtu.be/fqKYjeiKq7A
Tonight we’re chatting with Drew Edwards and Brian Crowley, writer and artist/inker of the Aerobicide Lucy Chaplin Science Starlet Crossover “Revenge of the Creeping Dread.”
Drew Edwards (Story/Script/ Creator of Dr. Lucy Chaplin) is an award-winning comic book writer, horror film historian, music journalist, rock promoter, and showman extraordinaire; these are all guises of the creative force known as Drew Edwards. Best known as the writer and creator of the long-running underground comic book series, Halloween Man, thousands tune in each week to hear him as a cast member of the horror movie podcast, Castle of Horror. Known as “Howlin’” Drew Edwards to many musicians, he’s helped bridge the horror and comic culture worlds with Austin’s legendary music scene with Halloween Man Productions annual “Punk vs. Rockabilly” showcase during SXSW, now in its tenth year, and as a contributing writer for Rockabilly Online. Drew currently lives in Austin, Texas with his wife, musician/activist, Jamie Bahr, and a pair of loveable bunnies.
Brian Crowley (Artist/Inker) a design leader and illustration professional currently working with Fortune 500 companies and multiple agency clients specializing in organizational agile transformation. He lives in Portage Park with his wife Stacey. He’s the creator of the webcomic “Hamster Rage” and has drawn and written numerous other comics.
Tonight we’re chatting with Grady Hendrix, author of the new book The Final Girl Support Group.
Hendrix is an award-winning novelist and screenwriter. His new book The Final Girl Support Group” is being adapted as a forthcoming series, his previous, the New York Times Best Selling novel The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, was optioned for series adaptation by Amazon Studios following a ten buyer bidding war. There’s a lot more, he’s the author of the Bram Stoker Award-winning nonfiction book, Paperbacks from Hell, a history of the horror paperback boom of the ’70s and ’80s. I know few authors who are as literate on their own genre, it’s truly humbling.
This episode Jason chats with Martin Wilson, director of GREAT WHITE, in Theaters, On Demand and Digital - July 16, 2021. In GREAT WHITE, a blissful tourist trip turns into a nightmare when five seaplane passengers are stranded miles from shore. In a desperate bid for survival, the group try to make it to land before they either run out of supplies or are taken by a menacing terror lurking just beneath the surface.
The film is written by Michael Boughen, and stars Katrina Bowden, Aaron Jakubenko, Tatjana Marjanovic and Kimie Tsukakoshi.
Tonight we’re chatting with Craig Moss, director of the new film Let Us In, a family sci-fi thriller on Digital and On Demand July 2.
LET US IN stars Makenzie Moss (“The Unicorn,” Do You Believe?), Sadie Stanley (The Sleepover, “Dead To Me”), Mackenzie Ziegler (20.6 million TikTok followers, “Dance Moms”), Siena Agudong (Upside-Down Magic, Alex & Me), O’Neill Monahan (“The Middle.” “General Hospital”) and Tobin Bell (Saw franchise). The film was directed by Craig Moss (Bad Ass, Bad Ass 2) who co-wrote the film alongside Joe Callero, making his feature screenwriting debut.
SYNOPSIS: A spirited twelve-year-old girl and her best friend start investigating the sudden disappearances of several missing teens in their small town. Realizing there might be something deeper happening, Emily and Christopher might be up against forces they can't even imagine.
Castle Bridge Media presents a Zoom panel on the new Castle of Horror Anthology book, Thinly Veiled: the 70s (https://amzn.to/3xpqKya). Enter a very strange wing of the Castle of Horror-- a wing of reflections of the familiar. Specifically: reflections of the 1970s, from TV sitcoms like THE ODD COUPLE to films like HALLOWEEN and THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR. But every one of them-- from the mismatched roommate bachelors to the bus-traveling pop star family-- are all "thinly veiled" and sent into a horror story of their own. See if you can recognize them all! Featuring stories from Jason Henderson, In Churl Yo, Henry Herz, Alethea Kontis, Scott Pearson, Madeline Ashby, John Pritchard, James A Moore, Rob Nisbet, Dennis K. Crosby, Heath W. Shelby, Jeremiah Dylan Cook, Tony Jones, Bryan Young, and Charles R. Rutledge. Hosted by editor Jason Henderson.
Tonight we’re chatting with Ava Reid about her book The Wolf and the Woodsman, which comes out this June from HarperVoyager/Harpercollins in audio and hardback, as well as ebook. The book follows a young pagan woman with hidden powers and a one-eyed captain of the Woodsmen as they form an unlikely alliance to thwart a tyrant.
Publisher’s Weekly said, “Reid’s fast-paced debut examines religious freedom through the lens of myth and magic. … The convincing enemies-to-lovers romance, fascinating religion-based magic system, and thoughtful examination of zealotry make this a notable debut.”
Taken from the myths and legends of her Jewish and Hungarian heritage, and weaving that with diverse cultural magic, Reid sets Évike and Gáspár on a dark, powerful journey that is full of tradition and yet feels entirely unique. When soldiers arrive from the Holy Order of Woodsmen to claim a girl to sacrifice to the king, Évike is betrayed by her fellow villagers and surrendered. But when Évike and the Woodsman’s captain are attacked en route, they form a tenuous pact, forcing them both to decide whose side they are on, and what they are willing to give up for a nation that never cared for them at all.
In the vein of Naomi Novik’s New York Times bestseller Spinning Silver and Katherine Arden’s national bestseller The Bear and the Nightingale, Ava Reid’s unforgettable debut, THE WOLF AND THE WOODSMAN (on sale 6/8/21) follows a young pagan woman with hidden powers and a one-eyed captain of the Woodsmen as they form an unlikely alliance to thwart a tyrant.
Jason chats with Kevin Tenney, director of the 1986 cult film Witchboard which comes to the ARROW platform, available to subscribers in the US, Canada and the United Kingdom.
Witchboard is a 1986 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Kevin S. Tenney in his directorial debut, and starring Tawny Kitaen, Stephen Nichols, and Todd Allen. The plot centers on a student who becomes entranced into using her friend's Ouija board alone after it was accidentally left behind at her party, where she becomes terrorized by an evil spirit.
Tonight we’re chatting with Damian Mc Carthy, whose new film Caveat premieres on Shudder on June 3.
A stunningly creepy and atmospheric thriller rich with dread and supernatural intrigue, CAVEAT is the feature debut for Irish filmmaker Damian Mc Carthy following a string of award-winning shorts. Set in a decrepit house on a remote island, and filmed in the picturesque countryside of Cork, Ireland, the film follows an amnesiac man tasked with watching over a troubled young woman - but the walls of the house hold more secrets than you can imagine, and the film continues to twist and turn until the very last moment.
The feature debut from Irish writer/director Damian Mc Carthy, Caveat stars Ben Caplan (Band of Brothers, Call the Midwife), Jonathan French (A Soldier's Voice), and Leila Sykes (Missing Something).
Caveat is produced by Justin Hyne of HyneSight Films. Mc Carthy wrote, directed, and served as the film’s editor. Cinematography by Kieran Fitzgerald and music by Richard G. Mitchell.
Caveat will stream exclusively to Shudder on June 3 in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as via the Shudder offering within the AMC+ bundle where available.
Check out the Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoOkSYrf8ew&feature=youtu.be
Tonight we’re chatting with Leigh Fryling, who recently published an essay in Medium called called A Taste For Blood- How life in my 30’s changed my love of the Horror Genre- maybe forever.
Leigh Fryling is the voice behind the audio version of Jason's book NIGHT OF THE BOOK MAN. Fryling would be right at home as a hobbit of the Shire, but since she lives in this reality she makes do with being an adventuress, itenerant teacher, musician and writer. When she isn't busy running a high school drama program or browbeating teenagers into graduating, she can be found having dance parties in the kitchen with her daughter Rosie and husband Zach. In her spare time she watches horror movies, plays all forms of games, and crochets a mean shawl, when she isn't planning her next adventure.
Tonight we’re chatting Christopher Sequeira, editor of Cthulhu Deep Down Under Volume 3.
The book collects Lovecraftian Tales with an Australian bent.
In the story that first established the monstrous cosmic terrors of his Mythos writer H. P. Lovecraft said “We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity…”
Which makes it all the more fitting that the adepts of Lovecraft’s vision writing today would choose to unveil ever-evolving and terrible fears besetting those that live on the largest island on the planet, and force the protagonists of some startling new horror fiction tales in this book to face, indeed, not placidity, but their own black seas of infinity…and madness.
Again, some of the greatest scribes of the weird and startling from the land down under bring you brand new stories in the Lovecraftian genre, taking you from the realms of contemporary Australian cities, to the blood-soaked, post-colonial past (touching the powerful original cultures of the land), and even hinting at the disturbing future of Terra Australis.
You will fear a sunburnt country.
Tales of terror by Alan Baxter, David Conyers, Julie Ditrich, Jason Fischer, Steve Kilbey, Steven Paulsen, Steve Proposch, Alf Simpson, Cat Sparks, Maurice Xanthos. Introduction by Cat Rambo and Afterword by Jack Dann.
Christopher Sequeira is a writer and editor who specialises in short prose and comic-book scripts for the mystery, horror, science fiction and super-hero genres. He has also written scripts for flagship superhero comic-books, such as Justice League Adventures for DC Entertainment, and Iron Man and X-Men stories for Marvel Entertainment. His Sherlock Holmes: Dark Detective graphic novel with Dave Elsey and Philip Cornell is published by Caliber Entertainment, and an authorised revamp of Dr Fu Manchu with long-time friend and collaborator W. Chew Chan is in the works. He has edited (or co-edited with Bryce Stevens and Steve Proposch) the award-nominated anthologies Cthulhu Deep Down Under (three volumes) and Cthulhu Land of the Long White Cloud (both for IFWG Publishing); Sherlock Holmes: The Australian Casebook (Echo / Bonnier); and at time of writing the forthcoming H.G. Wells’s War of the Worlds: Battleground Australia (Clan Destine Press), and the creator-jam-graphic novel SuperAustralians (for IFWG Publishing and Black House Comics).
The blurb:
Find more about the book—and sign up for the newsletter of the publisher—at https://ifwgaustralia.com/title-cthulhu-deep-down-under-volume-3/
Tonight we’re chatting with Matt Mercer and Mike Testin, the writer/director team behind Dementia Part II, a new horror film about Matt Mercer’s character Wendell, a parolee who takes a handyman job working for an old woman whose tasks get more and more dark and bizarre.
But the backstory of this film is just as compelling: the film was conceived and shot in just five weeks-- on a dare.
Dark Star Pictures and Bloody Disgusting will release the midnight horror film DEMENTIA PART II in theaters on May 21, 2021, and on VOD, Digital HD and DVD on June 1, 2021.
Tonight we’re chatting with Pam Pho of the D4EO Literary Agency about writers on social media.
Pam began her career as a literary assistant to an agent in 2012. In her first two years as an agent, Pam brokered 24 deals, with publishers such as Knopf, Scholastic, NAL, ACE, Grand Central, and others. She joined D4EO in June 2014, where she continues to build her list.
She has a passion for genre fiction as well as children's literature.
Tonight we’re chatting with Juliana Savia Clayton, who writes young adult novels and picture books and does a lot of editing, and also tweets under the name @kidlit_writer. Her website is http://First-chapters.com. Recently she posted an essay that Jason wanted to talk about: Querying 101: A Guide To Following Absolutely Every Absolute Rule At The Same Time (In An Industry With No Absolutes).
Tonight we’re chatting with Neil Marshall, whose film the reckoning comes to Shudder on May 13.
Shudder, AMC Networks’ premium streaming service for horror, thriller and the supernatural, announced that THE RECKONING will be available to stream on the platform starting on May 13, 2021. The film made its world premiere at the 2020 Fantasia Film Festival.
In THE RECKONING, after losing her husband during the Great Plague, Grace Haverstock (Kirk) is unjustly accused of being a witch and placed in the custody of England’s most ruthless witch-hunter, Judge Moorcroft (Pertwee). Forced to endure physical and emotional torture while steadfastly maintaining her innocence, Grace must face her own inner demons as the Devil himself starts to work his way into her mind.
THE RECKONING stars Charlotte Kirk (Ocean’s Eight, Vice, How To Be Single), Joe Anderson (Across The Universe, The Crazies), Steven Waddington (The Imitation Game, “The Tudors”) and Sean Pertwee (Dog Soldiers, Equilibrium). The film was directed by Neil Marshall (The Descent, Dog Soldiers, Doomsday), who co-wrote the film alongside Kirk, (making her feature screenwriting debut), and Edward Evers-Swindell (Dark Signal).
Tonight we’re chatting with Ryan Kruger, director of Fried Barry, which comes to Shudder on May 7th.
The film marks the feature debut for director Ryan Kruger following a string of celebrated shorts (including the original Fried Barry short that inspired this feature) and an award-winning career directing music videos in South Africa. In FRIED BARRY, an alien abducts a deadbeat and takes his body for a spin around the darker side of Cape Town.
Fried Barry follows the story of a drug-addled degenerate who, after yet another bender, gets abducted by aliens. Barry takes a backseat as his alien visitor assumes control of his body and takes it for a joyride through Cape Town. What follows is an onslaught of drugs, sex and violence as Barry’s alien tourist enters the weird and wonderful world of humankind.
The feature directorial debut from award-winning music video director Ryan Kruger and starring newcomer Gary Green, the genre pushing, acid-washed, sci-fi horror has been praised by critics and embraced by fans around the world.
The film, which is a feature adaptation of Kruger’s acclaimed experimental short by the same name, is produced by James C. Williamson and Kruger and executive produced by Nicolai Fuglsig (12 Strong). Williamson shares a story credit with Kruger who serves as both writer and director. The expansive cast is led by Green alongside Bianka Hartenstein, Sean Cameron Michael (Shooter, Blood Drive), Chanelle de Jager (The Widow, Outlander), Joey Cramer (Flight of the Navigator) and Jonathan Pienaar (Blood Diamond, Roots).
Fried Barry world premiered at the 2020 Cinequest Film Festival and went on to screen at celebrated festivals such as the prestigious Sitges International Film Festival, Fantasia International Film Festival, Grimmfest, and Fantaspoa International Fantastic Film Festival, where it was awarded Best Actor.
Tonight we’re chatting with Katharine Coldiron, who’s just published a piece of criticism called Intentionally Disposable Art: The Teen Agers Films in the film crit site Vague Visages. Katharine Coldiron is the author of the 2020 book Ceremonials and a forthcoming piece on Plan 9 from Outer Space. Her work as a book critic has appeared in the Washington Post, the Guardian, NPR, and elsewhere; her work as a film critic has appeared in Bitch, Bright Wall/Dark Room, and Video Librarian. She earned an MA in creative writing from California State University, Northridge, and a BA in film studies and philosophy from Mount Holyoke College. Find her at kcoldiron.com.
So your subject is the teenagers series which you take a deep look at but it's also really a sort of focal point around which you spin this series of thoughts about the accidental permanence of art. .
Find the article here: https://vaguevisages.com/2021/04/27/intentionally-disposable-art-the-teen-agers-films/
Jason chats with Halloween Man creator Drew Edwards on the Indiegogo to support Terry parr, creator of the comic Aerobicide with the Aerobicide/Lucy Chaplin Science Starlet Crossover.
Find the indiegogo here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/aerobicide-lucy-chaplin-science-starlet-crossover#/
Says Drew:
Everybody knows the last year has been filled with unprecedented challenges. It felt like Covid-19 changed the world overnight and we all were just in a rush to keep up with those changes. Some of us were hit harder than others.
Terry Parr is a father, husband, and comic creator. I’ve been proud to call Terry a friend and creative partner for the better part of two decades. He is extremely talented, imaginative, and a wizard with a pencil. He is like a brother to me. So, of course, when he got sick, I knew I had to help him.
Like so many, Terry was hit with high medical bills after contracting Covid-19. Thankfully a solution presented itself in the form of an indie comics crossover between my own Lucy Chaplin: Science Starlet and Terry’s Aerobicide. Based on a story originating from myself and Terry, I have gathered a talented creative team to bring this tale to life. This comic has it all, bodacious babes, pop culture references, gallows humor, and of course PUNK ROCK ZOMBIES! Best of all, proceeds from this crowdfund will be going to help the Parr family cover Terry’s medical bills.
Tonight we’re chatting with John Berardo, director and co-writer of the new film Initiation, which releases in theaters, on demand and on digital May 7.
Check out the trailer: https://youtu.be/fI0fttWFkiQ
In INITIATION, during a university’s pledge week, the carefree partying turns deadly serious when a star athlete is found impaled in his dorm. The murder ignites a spree of sinister social-media messages, sweeping the students and police into a race against time to uncover the truth behind the school’s dark secrets…and the horrifying meaning of a recurring symbol: a single exclamation mark.
Directed by John Berardo (The Labyrinth), he co-wrote the film with Brian Frager (A Persistent Illusion) and Lindsay LaVanchy (“Scream: The TV Series”). LaVanchy also co-stars in the INITIATION along with Jon Huertas (“This Is Us”), Isabella Gomez (“Head of the Class,” “One Day at a Time”), Froy Gutierrez (“Teen Wolf”), Gattlin Griffith (Green Lantern), Patrick Walker (“The Resident”), Bart Johnson (“High School Musical 3: Senior Year”), Shireen Lai, Kent Faulcon (Selma) with Yancy Butler (Kick-Ass 2) and Lochlyn Munro (“Riverdale”).
This time we're talking about Vampire the Masquerade: WALK AMONG US by Genevieve Gornichec, Cassandra Khaw, and Caitlin Starling. Due out May 4, Walk Among Us is a collection of three horror novellas set in “Vampire: The Masquerade's World of Darkness,” a massively popular role-playing game (RPG). Walk Among Us is the next frightening read for those superfans or fans of Anne Rice, True Blood, Twilight, or Buffy.
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In Gornichec's “A Sheep Among Wolves,” depression and radicalization go hand-in-hand as a young woman finds companionship in the darkness
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In Khaw's “Fine Print,” an arrogant tech bro learns the importance of reading the fine print in the contract for immortality
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In Starling's “The Land of Milk and Honey,” ideals and ethics bump heads with appetite on a blood farm
Tonight we’re chatting with Chris Baugh, director of Boys from County Hell, new to Shudder streaming service, described as a rowdy irish vampire horror-comedy.
Strange events unfold in Six Mile Hill – a sleepy Irish town that claims to have been traveled by the famed author Bram Stoker – when construction on a new road disrupts the alleged grave of Abhartach, a legendary Irish vampire said to have inspired Dracula. Deadly and sinister forces terrorize the work crew led by Francie Moffat and his son Eugene, a free-spirited young man who prefers pints to pickaxes, and they're forced to fight to survive the night while exposing the true horror that resides in the town’s local myth.
Starring Jack Rowan (Peaky Blinders), Nigel O’Neill (The Bookshop), Louisa Harland (Derry Girls), Fra Fee (Animals, the upcoming Hawkeye series) and John Lynch (The Terror, The Banishing) and Michael Hough (the upcoming Chapelwaite series), and written and directed by Chris Baugh (Bad Day for the Cut).
BOYS FROM COUNTY HELL is produced by Brendan Mullin of Six Mile Hill Productions and Yvonne Donohoe for Blinder Films, and executive produced by Katie Holly for Blinder Films, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Rian Cahill for Automatik, and Lesley McKimm for Screen Ireland. The film is a co-production between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and was supported by Endeavor Content, Screen Ireland, Northern Ireland Screen, and Egg Post Production.
Check out the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vssvkhvq6O0&authuser=0
Tonight we’re chatting with debut author Mia P. Manansala about her culinary cozy mystery, ARSENIC AND ADOBO, which launches May 4 with Berkley.
Mia Manansala is the winner of the 2018 Hugh Holton Award, the 2018 Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award, the 2017 William F. Deeck - Malice Domestic Grant for Unpublished Writers, and the 2016 Mystery Writers of America/Helen McCloy Scholarship. She's also a 2017 Pitch Wars alum and 2018-2020 mentor.
Drawing from her own Filipino heritage, Mia introduces readers to Lila Macapagal, a young woman who is stuck working in her Tita Rosie’s Filipino restaurant after enduring a streak of the worst clichés life has to offer. But Lila’s bad luck just continues when an ex-boyfriend who has been posting horrible reviews online about her tita’s cooking suddenly drops dead in the middle of the restaurant. After becoming the prime suspect in the case, Lila must take it upon herself to find the real killer—and hopefully save the future of her family’s restaurant as well.
Jason chats with Ryan Spindell, writer and director of the horror anthology THE MORTUARY COLLECTION, for which Clancy Brown just won a Chainsaw Award from Fangoria. THE MORTUARY COLLECTION is now out on VOD, VOD, Digital HD, DVD and Blu-ray on April 20, 2021.
Tonight we’re chatting with Rebecca Fraser, author of the new collection Coralesque and Other Tales to Disturb and Distract
Rebecca Fraser is an Australian author who writes genre-mashing fiction for both children and adults. Her short stories, flash fiction, and poetry have appeared in numerous award-winning anthologies, magazines, and journals, and her first novel Curtis Creed and the Lore of the Ocean was released in 2018 (also with IFWG Publishing Australia). Coralesque and Other Tales to Disturb and Distract is her first collection.
Rebecca holds an MA in Creative Writing, and a Certificate of Publishing (Copy Editing & Proofreading). To provide her muse with life’s essentials, Rebecca copywrites and edits in a freelance capacity, and operates StoryCraft Creative Writing Workshops for aspiring authors of every age and ability. However, her true passion is storytelling.
Say g’day at writingandmoonlighting.com on Facebook @writingandmoonlighting or Twitter and Instagram @becksmuse
CORALESQUE
A surfer who becomes horrifyingly one with the sea. A new mother’s devastating search for belonging. A stone gargoyle with a violent history. A fisher boy who discovers the real cost of forbidden love. A farmer whose delight at drought-breaking rain quickly turns to terror. A hedonistic rock star who manifests double trouble. A young girl’s chilling sacrifice for justice. A dirty ex-cop with a dirtier secret. An unscrupulous mayor’s solution to rid her city of the homeless…
These are just some of the characters you’ll meet in this collection of dark offerings.
From the harsh terrain of the Outback, to the depths of the Pacific Ocean, the wilds of Tasmania, dystopian futures, enchanted lands, and the familiarity of suburbia, Coralesque and Other Tales to Disturb and Distract takes readers on a journey into unsettling, unforgiving, and unforgettable territory.
Find the publisher’s page here: https://ifwgaustralia.com/title-coralesque-and-other-tales-to-disturb-and-distract/
The publishers at IFWG would like you to know that if you would like to enter a drawing for a free print (or mobi/epub) copy tonight’s book, all you need to do is subscribe to the IFWG newsletter and fill out details for the drawing – just go to ifwgaustralia.com/treasures.
Tonight we’re chatting with Kathryn Hore, author of the new thriller The Wildcard.
Kathryn is a Melbourne writer of speculative and thriller fiction with a taste for blending dark genres in twisting ways. Her short fiction has been published in several anthologies and magazines, including Aurealis and Midnight Echo. When not writing, she works in archives, libraries and records management, and has a couple of small children to keep her busy. The Wildcard is her debut novel.
THE WILDCARD
Jem doesn’t do risk. He doesn’t play games with chance. At least not until his ex-girlfriend shows up on his doorstop in tears and tricks him into signing for an impossible debt.
Thrust into an underworld of card players who bet anything they can think of – favours, information, secrets, even coffee – Jem has to figure his way out of a debt he doesn’t understand, in a world where the rules are twisting, complex and never explained. Relying only on a woman who plays life like she plays a game of poker, and drawn to a young man who offers temptations Jem’s not sure he can trust, there is only one thing he is clear on: the consequences of losing in this crowd. Because the last guy to owe a debt like his was just found floating face down in the ocean, and if Jem doesn’t sort this out fast, he could be next.
Find the book at the IFWG site: https://ifwgaustralia.com/title-the-wildcard/
Piper Mejia is an advocate for New Zealand writers and liter¬ature.¬ Her¬ short ¬fiction ¬has ¬been¬ published ¬in ¬a¬ range¬ of¬ magazines ¬and ¬anthologies, ¬including ¬Room Enough for Two, which¬ appeared¬ in¬ the¬ Sir¬ Julius¬ Vogel¬ Award-winning¬ anthology¬ Te Korero Ahi Ka¬(2018).¬ A ¬collection -of ¬her ¬original¬ short ¬stories,¬ The Better Sister,¬ was ¬published¬ by ¬Breach ¬in¬ 2020.¬ In¬ addition¬ to¬ writing,¬ Piper¬ is ¬a ¬founding ¬member¬ of¬ Young¬NZWriters ¬–¬a ¬non-profit ¬organization ¬dedicated ¬to¬ providing¬ writing¬ and¬ publishing¬ opportunities¬ for¬ young¬ writers. ¬As ¬a ¬child, ¬Piper ¬stayed ¬up ¬late ¬ laughing¬ at ¬horror¬ films.¬ As¬ an¬ adult¬ she¬ has¬ never¬ lost¬ her¬ love¬ for¬ science¬ fiction¬ and¬ horror,¬ two¬ genres¬ that¬ continues¬ to¬ ask¬ the¬ question “What if...”
The blurb:
Nobody likes you when you're the ugly new kid. A hoodie and a new foster home won't hide the creeping dread that you are dangerous. So, when you're offered the chance to meet a grandfather you never knew, you jump on a plane to the bush-covered mountains of New Zealand.
Slate longs for a home when he finds himself living among an ancient race masquerading as travelling performers. Dispossessed and disillusioned, Slate fears being trapped in a life hiding from the world; one his own father had to run from.
However, the decision to stay or leave is taken from him when he is held captive by hunters on the trail of the ultimate game trophy. Tortured and alone Slate fears that the only way to escape is to become the monster he never wanted to be.
The publishers at IFWG would like you to know that if you would like to enter a drawing for a free print (or mobi/epub) copy tonight’s book, all you need to do is subscribe to the IFWG newsletter and fill out details for the drawing – just go to ifwgaustralia.com/treasures.
Tonight we’re chatting Sebastian Fitzek, author of the new book The Package.
Sebastian Fitzek is Germany's most successful author of psychological thrillers. His books have been sold 11 million copies, been translated into more than twenty-four languages, and are the basis for international cinema adaptations and theater adaptations. Fitzek was the first German author to be awarded the European Prize for Criminal Literature. He lives with his family in Berlin.
THE PACKAGE is a new psychological thriller from Sebastian Fitzek releasing in the U.S. on February 4, 2021. Sebastian is one of Germany’s most successful authors of psychological thrillers whose books have sold 11 million copies, and have been translated into more than 24 languages.
Tonight we’re chatting with Emily B Martin, author of Floodpath, brand new from HarperVoyager.
Martin’s eco-fantasy (cli-fi) novels, which are accessible to adult and YA readers alike, are “an exciting take on the fantasy genre with its mix of Wild West and a tempered glass court” (-Jeff Wheeler.) In FLOODPATH, Martin’s worldbuilding expands to incorporate new characters, new countries, and new intrigue.
The epic fantasy adventure begun in Sunshield races to its thrilling conclusion in FLOODPATH, an imaginative finale in which the fate of four extraordinary young people—and their nations—will be decided.
Tonight we’re chatting with David Bowles is an award-winning Mexican-American author and translator from south Texas, where he teaches at the University of Texas Río Grande Valley. To his two dozen books, he's just added the space opera THE BLUE-SPANGLED BLUE from Castle Bridge Media, as well as just this week, a translation of THE IMMORTAL BOY by Francisco Montana Ibanez.
We talk at length about BIPOC SF and the responsibilities of the author.
THE BLUE-SPANGLED BLUE
Jitsu. Once the center of human expansion into distant space, this world was isolated for the better part of a century, a theocratic government rising to fill the void left by its former corporate owners. Now, as Jitsu begins to open itself to the rest of humanity, Brando D’Angelo di Makomo accepts a teaching position on the arid planet. He finds himself drawn to controversial architect Tenshi Koroma and her religious reform movement. As he learns more about Tenshi's faith—The Path—Brando decides to accept its tenets, to shatter his identity and rebuild himself so that he can be worthy of a soul. But the dogmatic struggles on Jitsu are a mask for the machinations of a diabolical mind, and the professor’s life will be forever altered by the cruelty of Tenshi’s enemies. In the aftermath, Brando will find a deadly new Way along The Path. And his steps will echo throughout history.
Tonight we’re chatting with Jack Dann, author of the alternate-Venice-fantasy book SHADOWS IN THE STONE from IFWG.
SHADOWS IN THE STONE
The author of The Age #1 bestselling novel The Memory Cathedral returns to Renaissance Italy with a transcendent vision of the ultimate battle between good and evil.
In Shadows in the Stone Jack Dann creates a fully-realized, living, breathing universe, a universe where the Vatican is in Venice, Jehovah is really a lesser god known as the Demiurge, and the magus John Dee’s experiments with angels are true and repeatable. Here you’ll discover a nun who has the expertise and agility of a Ninja warrior, the reincarnated snake goddess known as the Daughter of Light, the famed Florentine magician Pico Della Mirandola, a young magus who is part stone, the Knights Templar of the Crimson Cross, the sapphire tablet: the most secret of the Dead Sea scrolls, and a 15th Century dirigible kept aloft by imprisoned souls. Here you’ll find wild adventure and Machiavellian subtlety, treason and heroism, love and carnality, joy and loss, magic, machines, the cosmic machinations of angels, demons, gods, and half-gods; and the absolutely breathtaking vistas that are their battle grounds.
New York Times bestselling author Kim Stanley Robinson has compared Shadows in the Stonewith Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, calling it “such a complete world that Italian history no longer seems comprehensible without [Dann’s] cosmic battle of spiritual entities behind and within every historical actor and event.”
Join Jack Dann’s protagonists—Louisa Morgan and Lucian Ben-Hananiah—and the fellowship of The Dark Companions in their apocalyptic battle against the Demiurge—described in the forbidden Gnostic texts as the demon god Yaldabaoth… and known to us as Jehovah.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jack Dann has written or edited over seventy-five books, including the inter- national bestsellers The Memory Cathedral, The Rebel, The Silent, Bad Medicine, and The Man Who Melted. His work has been compared to Jorge Luis Borges, Roald Dahl, Lewis Carroll, Castaneda, Ray Bradbury, J. G. Ballard, Mark Twain, and Philip K. Dick. Library Journal called Dann “...a true poet who can create pictures with a few perfect words,” Best Sellers said that “Jack Dann is a mind-warlock whose magicks will confound, disorient, shock, and delight,” and bestselling author Morgan Llwelyn called his novel The Memory Cathedral “a book to cherish, a validation of the novelist’s art and fully worthy of its extraordinary subject. I can only say Bravo!”
Jack is a recipient of the Nebula Award, the World Fantasy Award (twice), the Australian Aurealis Award (three times), the Chronos Award, the Darrell Award for Best Mid-South Novel, the Ditmar Award (five times), the Peter McNamara Achievement Award and also the Peter McNamara Convenors’ Award for Excellence, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the Premios Gilgames de Narrativa Fantastica award. He has also been honored by the Mark Twain Society (Esteemed Knight). He is the co-editor, with Janeen Webb, of Dreaming Down-Under, which won the World Fantasy Award, and the editor of the sequel Dreaming Again. He is the managing director of PS Australia, and his latest anthology Dreaming in the Dark is the first volume in the new line: it won the World Fantasy Award in 2017. Dr. Dann is also an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow in the School of Communication and Arts at the University of Queensland.
In Don’t Look Back, Caitlin Kramer, a woman of faith overcoming a tragic past, is one of several people who witness Douglas Helton, a well-liked public figure being assaulted in a park and don't intervene. When Douglas dies and the witnesses are "outed" to the public, they begin to die mysteriously. The public is largely unsympathetic, and think they're being stalked by a person out for revenge. And there are several possible suspects; from the victim's family and friends... to the dogged detective who's taken a strong interest in the case. But Caitlin, determined to seek redemption by solving Douglas' murder, see signs, and experiences eerie events that lead her to believe that something far more insidious is after them... maybe the victim's restless spirit, or even karma itself. But whether the threat is human or supernatural, it's very real. And Caitlin's faith, strength and resolve will be tested as she fights to unravel this mystery before she becomes the final victim.
Jeffrey Reddick started in the entertainment industry with an internship at New Line Cinema at age 19, where he worked for 11 years and shot to horror fame with the creation of the Final Destination franchise. As a writer and producer Jeffrey has worked in features and TV. His first network job was as a story editor for the NBC series, Midnight Texas. He has written on two upcoming Netflix series; one of which is a spinoff of famed Japanese comic book Usagi Yojimbo. Jeffrey’s feature directorial debut, the mystery/thriller Don’t Look Back, is available On Demand.
Tonight we’re chatting with Joe Braidwood, Joe Braidwood, co-founder and chief operating officer at Scener, a watch party platform that synchronizes streaming entertainment with video chat. This week they announced today a partnership with HBO Max® to host an exclusive fan screening of Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Featuring a live video discussion with Snyder himself, fans can grab their virtual seats today for the 4pm PDT / 7pm EDT March 18 watch party by heading to snydercut.scener.com.
Fans Joining the “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” Watch Party Will Enjoy:
•A Live Video Chat Hosted by Zack Snyder: Fans can hear from the director himself as he introduces the film and chats live throughout the viewing in a moderated discussion with fans and a list of VIP invited guests.
•Synchronized Playback for a High-Quality Co-Watching Experience: Scener synchronizes the streaming movie with the live chat features to enable an even more immersive viewing experience for desktop users where fans can share real-time reactions.
•A Virtual Destination to Build Community with Fans: Attendees can make connections and build community with other like-minded Scener users to come back and stream other DC and HBO Max content in the future.
Tonight we’re chatting with Ellen Datlow and Kaaron Warren, authors of Tool Tales: Microfiction Inspired By Antique Tools. Multi-award winning creators Ellen Datlow and Kaaron Warren teamed up on Facebook a few years ago when Ellen posted photos of antique tools and Kaaron wrote microfiction pieces to accompany them, without either of them knowing what the tools were for.
The publishers at IFWG would like you to know that if you would like to enter a drawing for a free print (or mobi/epub) copy tonight’s book, all you need to do is subscribe to the IFWG newsletter and fill out details for the drawing – just go to ifwgaustralia.com/treasures.
About the authors:
Shirley Jackson award-winner Kaaron Warren published her first short story in 1993 and has had fiction in print every year since. She was recently given the Peter McNamara Lifetime Achievement Award and was Guest of Honour at World Fantasy 2018, Stokercon 2019 and Geysercon 2019. Kaaron was a Fellow at the Museum for Australian Democracy, where she researched prime ministers, artists and serial killers. She’s judged the World Fantasy Awards and the Shirley Jackson Awards.
She has published five multi-award winning novels (Slights, Walking the Tree, Mistification, The Grief Hole and Tide of Stone) and seven short story collections, including the multi-award winning Through Splintered Walls. She has won the ACT Writers and Publishers Award four times and twice been awarded the Canberra Critics Circle Award for Fiction. Her most recent novella, Into Bones Like Oil (Meerkat Press), was shortlisted for a Shirley Jackson Award and the Bram Stoker Award, winning the Aurealis Award.
Ellen Datlow has been editing sf/f/h short fiction for four decades. She was fiction editor of OMNI Magazine and SCIFICTION and currently acquires short stories and novellas for Tor.com and Nightfire. She has edited many anthologies for adults, young adults, and children, including The Best Horror of the Year series and Echoes: The Saga Anthology of Ghost Stories, Final Cuts: New Tales of Hollywood Horror and Other Spectacles, and the reprint anthologies Edited By and Body Shocks. She’s won multiple Locus, Hugo, Stoker, International Horror Guild, Shirley Jackson, and World Fantasy Awards plus the 2012 Il Posto Nero Black Spot Award for Excellence as Best Foreign Editor. Datlow was named recipient of the 2007 Karl Edward Wagner Award, given at the British Fantasy Convention for “outstanding contribution to the genre” and was honored with the Life Achievement Award given by the Horror Writers Association, in acknowledgment of superior achievement over an entire career and honored with the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award at the 2014 World Fantasy Convention.
She runs the Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading series in the east village, NYC, with Matthew Kressel.
Tonight we’re chatting with New York Times bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones, whose new book The Poet comes out March 9, 2021 from Entangled Publishing. THE POET follows Samantha Jazz, the lead detective on the case of a violent serial killer dubbed "The Poet," named as such for the poems he leaves with the bodies of his victims.
Tonight we’re chatting with Cary Lenehan, author of the new book Gathering of the Strands.
The publishers at IFWG would like you to know that if you would like to enter a drawing for a free print (or mobi/epub) copy tonight’s book, all you need to do is subscribe to the IFWG newsletter and fill out details for the drawing – just go to ifwgaustralia.com/treasures.
Find the book here: https://ifwgaustralia.com/title-gathering-the-strands/
Gathering the Strands starts to bring together the story of adversaries struggling over the distant and artificial world of Vhast towards what looks to be resolution. The inhabitants of Mousehole, instead of reacting to what is happening around them, begin to strike out and shape their own future as they travel around The Land.
Following on from Intimations of Evil, Engaging Evil, Clearing the Web, and Scouring the Land, the Princess, and her wife the mage, the Cat, the priest, the ghazi, and the growing number of people that they are bringing together, strike out both in lightning raids and in mobilised armies, against their foe. Now they are being reacted to instead of hitting out blindly at unfathomed foes.
Gathering the Strands is the fifth book of a series that sees magic as a scientific experiment as good struggles with evil in a world made by an alien race for their own ends.
Aside from amazing fantasy world building, he mentioned that he has done a lot of work on plants, foods, and the like in his world building efforts. His Patreon is also extensive with material that he passes on that doesn’t get a show in his books
About the Author
Cary J. Lenehan is a former trades assistant, soldier, public servant, cab driver, truck driver, game designer, fishmonger, horticulturalist and university tutor—among other things. His hobbies include collecting and reading books (the non-fiction are Dewey decimalised), Tasmanian native plants (particularly the edible ones), medieval re-creation and gaming. Over the years he has taught people how to use everything from shortswords to rocket launchers. He met his wife at an SF Convention while cosplaying and they have not looked back. He was born in Sydney before marrying and moving to the Snowy Mountains where they started their family. They moved to Tasmania for the warmer winters and are not likely to ever leave it. Looking out of the window beside Cary’s computer is a sweeping view of Mount Wellington/Kunanyi and its range.
Cary has a Patreon page where he wants to expand his world of Vhast in all sorts of directions. You might want to consider helping him: Cary Lenehan’s Patreon Page
Cary’s web site: www.caryjlenehan.com
Tonight we’re chatting with Jacob Johnston, writer/director of Dreamcatcher, which comes out March 5 in theaters, on Digital and On Demand.
DREAMCATCHER
Samuel Goldwyn Films will release the horror / thriller film, DREAMCATCHER In Theaters, On Digital and On Demand March 5, 2021.
WATCH THE TRAILER: https://youtu.be/kXMQYF57I6s
SYNOPSIS: Dylan, known to his fans as DJ Dreamcatcher, is on the brink of global stardom. Everything changes the night of Cataclysm, an underground music festival, where two estranged sisters and their friends meet Dylan. After a drug fueled gruesome event, things begin to spiral into a 48-hour whirlwind of violence and mayhem.
Tonight we’re chatting with Laszlo Tamasfi, publisher of a new translation of Dracula’s Death, a 1924 book with a very strange history.
The first motion picture to ever feature the character of Dracula was Dracula's Death, a Hungarian silent film made in 1921. It was not based on Bram Stoker's novel, but rather it was an original story about a young woman, who encounters the famous vampire during her stay at a mental asylum.
The movie, just like so many others from the silent film era, is considered lost. Luckily, a prose adaptation was published in 1924, which has survived in its entirety. We present an English translation of this novelization, with stunning new illustrations by Jozsef Svab. This publication also features The Devil Flew Away, a comprehensive essay on the history of Dracula's Death."
This week we have a very special Castle Talk, a panel of middle grade adventure writers talking about the challenges of making your book exciting while juggling content issues like violence. It's a wild, wide-ranging conversation featuring:
- Ben Gartner, author of the middle grade time travel adventure series The Eye of Ra. His second book, Sol Invictus, just released in February.
- Adam Perry, the author of The Magicians of Elephant County and The Thieving Collectors of Fine Children’s Books
- Sam Subity, whose debut middle grade fantasy The Last Shadow Warrior releases in May from Scholastic
- Jason Henderson, whose next book in the Young Captain Nemo series, The Serpent's Nest, releases in March
This week we have a very special conversation, a look at plans for the Young Captain Nemo animated trilogy from the team of professionals working on the project!
Chatting are:
- Saahil Bhargava of Rainshine Entertainment- https://www.linkedin.com/in/saahil-bhargava/ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1462144376
- Marlene Sharp, Head of IP Strategy and Acquisitions, Kinsane - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marlenesharp/
- Jeffrey Reddick, Screenwriter/Producer - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffrey-reddick-moviemaker/
Twitter & Insta: @JeffreyaReddick
- AhLoong, COO, Animasia Studio - https://animasia-studio.com/
- Jason Henderson, Writer, Castle Bridge Media - http://castlebridgemedia.com
Thanks to Rainshine Entertainment
Website - www.Rainshine.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/RainshineEntertainment/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/35556
Read Variety's coverage on Young Captain Nemo: https://variety.com/2021/film/asia/rainshine-animasia-young-captain-nemo-movie-trio-jeffrey-reddick-1234900373/
Tonight we’re chatting with Mike P Nelson, director of Wrong Turn, which comes out on VOD/Digital/DVD/Blu-ray on February 23. WRONG TURN stars the ensemble cast of Charlotte Vega (The Lodgers), Adain Bradley (“Riverdale”), Bill Sage (American Psycho), Emma Dumont (“The Gifted”), Dylan McTee (“Rosewell, New Mexico”) and Matthew Modine (“Stranger Things”). The film is directed by Mike P. Nelson (The Domestics) and written by Alan B. McElroy (Wrong Turn).
Tonight we’re chatting with Rio Youers, author of the new book Lola on Fire, which releases 2/16 from William Morrow. People have called the book a mix of Killing Eve, John Wick and Kill Bill.
About the book:
Brody Ellis is short on luck and even shorter on cash to buy the medication his sister Molly needs.
Desperate, he robs a convenience store, but on the way out, he bumps into a young woman and loses his wallet. Just when he expects the cops to arrive, the phone rings. It’s Blair Mayo—the woman he bumped into—and she’s got the missing billfold.
Brody will get it back, but only if he does her a favor: steal her late mother’s diamonds from her wicked stepmom. But when he gets to the house, he finds a gruesome crime scene—and a security camera. Brody knows he’s been framed.
Back home, the terrified young man gets another call. The police won’t get the incriminating video footage, Blair says. Instead, her daddy, the notorious mobster Jimmy Latzo, will exact his own kind of revenge.
Brody and Molly realize that they’ve become pawns in a mysterious game—one that involves a notorious enforcer named Lola Bear who brutally crossed paths with Jimmy Latzo twenty-six years before. . . a ghost from the past who is intimately connected to their lives.
About the author:
Rio Youers is the British Fantasy and Sunburst Award–nominated author of Westlake Soul and Halcyon. His 2017 thriller, The Forgotten Girl, was a finalist for the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel. He is the writer of Sleeping Beauties, a comic book series based on the bestselling novel by Stephen King and Owen King. Rio lives in Ontario, Canada with his wife and their two children.
Tonight we’re chatting with Barbara Howe, author of The Wordsmith, which releases worldwide on February 15, 2021 from IFWG.
The publishers at IFWG would like you to know that if you would like to enter a drawing for a free print (or mobi/epub) copy tonight’s book, all you need to do is subscribe to the IFWG newsletter and fill out details for the drawing – just go to ifwgaustralia.com/treasures.
THE WORDSMITH by Barbara Howe
Irene van Gelder’s drudge job is killing her, but how can she earn a living as an air witch when her own guild calls her a fraud?
The Fire Warlock doesn’t ask for her credentials, but with tensions rising between the Fire and Air Guilds, proving her value to him is not a safe move. With the White Duchess and her son intent on revenge, what defenses can a failure as an air witch muster? All she has is words. Will that be enough to save herself, and Frankland?
For more, see https://ifwgaustralia.com/title-the-wordsmith/.
About Barbara Howe:
Her bio:
Barbara Howe lives on the third rock from the sun, while her imagination travels the universe and beyond.
Born in the US (North Carolina), she spent most of her adult life in New Jersey, working in the software industry, on projects ranging from low-level kernel ports to multi-million-dollar financial applications. She moved to New Zealand in 2009, gained dual citizenship, and now works as a software developer in the movie industry. She lives in Wellington, in a house overflowing with books and jigsaw puzzles, and wishes she had more time to spend universe hopping.
Tonight we’re chatting with Kaaron Warren, author of the book Slights, which is a re-release from IFWG coming out now.
The publishers at IFWG would like you to know that if you would like to enter a drawing for a free print (or mobi/epub) copy tonight’s book, all you need to do is subscribe to the IFWG newsletter and fill out details for the drawing – just go to ifwgaustralia.com/treasures.
When Stevie Searle almost dies in the accident that kills her mother, she doesn’t see a shining path or a golden light.
Instead, she sees everyone she’s ever slighted, waiting to take a piece of her in a cold, dark room. The person whose place she took in the queue, the schoolmate she cheated off, the bus driver she didn’t pay? All waiting. All wanting to take their revenge when she finally crosses over.
Stevie is fascinated by the dark room so she sends herself there again.
And again.
And Again.
About Kaaron Warren
Shirley Jackson award-winner Kaaron Warren published her first short story in 1993 and has had fiction in print every year since. She was recently given the Peter McNamara Lifetime Achievement Award and was Guest of Honour at World Fantasy 2018, Stokercon 2019 and Geysercon 2019. Kaaron was a Fellow at the Museum for Australian Democracy, where she researched prime ministers, artists and serial killers. She’s judged the World Fantasy Awards and the Shirley Jackson Awards.
She has published five multi-award winning novels (Slights, Walking the Tree, Mistification, The Grief Hole and Tide of Stone) and seven short story collections, including the multi-award winning Through Splintered Walls. She has won the ACT Writers and Publishers Award four times and twice been awarded the Canberra Critics Circle Award for Fiction. Her most recent novella, Into Bones Like Oil (Meerkat Press), was shortlisted for a Shirley Jackson Award and the Bram Stoker Award, winning the Aurealis Award.
Tonight we’re talking to Jordan Graham, director of SATOR, which comes out from 1091 Pictures on February 9. It's a haunting and atmospheric indie horror shockingly inspired by true events, and compellingly dives into the relationship of fact and fiction, and you can watch the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e_Ij0S-sBw&feature=youtu.be
Tonight we’re chatting with Venero Armanno, author of the new book The Crying Forest, brand new from IFWG.
The publishers at IFWG would like you to know that if you would like to enter a drawing for a free print (or mobi/epub) copy tonight’s book, all you need to do is subscribe to the IFWG newsletter and fill out details for the drawing – just go to ifwgaustralia.com/treasures.
Agata Rosso, a once-mighty yet now prematurely aged European witch, believes that the special gifts in a young girl named Lía Munro can restore youth and vitality both to herself and her bedridden husband. She sets a deadly plan in motion to capture and use Lía—but will the girl have enough power to protect herself, plus the father she loves so much?
Armano was born in Brisbane to Sicilian migrant parents. He is the author of two books of short stories and nine critically acclaimed novels.
His book Firehead was shortlisted in the 1999 Queensland Premiers Literary Award for Best Novel of the Year and The Volcano won that award in 2002. The Volcano was also shortlisted for the Courier Mail Best Book of the Year. Also a trained screenwriter, Veny teaches creative writing at University of Queensland.
Tonight we’re chatting with Amanda Dewees, author of the new gothic horror collection THE RATHBURN LEGACY AND OTHER STORIES.
Atlanta author Amanda DeWees received her PhD in English from the University of Georgia and wrote her dissertation on 19th-century vampire literature—the perfect training, although she didn’t know it at the time, for writing Victorian gothic romance novels. Her books include With This Curse, winner of the 2015 Daphne du Maurier Award in historical mystery/suspense, and the Sybil Ingram Victorian Mysteries series. Her other passions include costuming, movies, and the elegant deployment of apostrophes.
Award-winning author Amanda DeWees is known for her tales of mystery, suspense, romance, and the supernatural, often in Victorian settings. Now, for the first time, fifteen of her short stories are gathered in one collection—including all seven stories and novelettes featuring Sybil Ingram, Victorian actress, spirit medium, and sleuth. Also included are four stories never before published! Here are a few of the tales inside:
—A Victorian woman photographer finds an unconventional way to save a man who is possessed by a malicious spirit (“The Rathburn Legacy”).
—While pursuing her hobby of taking gravestone rubbings, a gentle spinster encounters the uncanny (“The Woman Who Loved Dogs”).
—On the night of a mysterious butterfly phenomenon, a high school senior tries to rescue a little girl and make big choices about the future (“On Shadowed Wings”).
—A medium who senses emotion through fabric seeks the cause of two poisonings that prevented a wedding (“The Deadly Dress”).
—Sybil Ingram and her husband, Roderick Brooke, solve mysteries involving a haunted violin, a gang of women criminals, a pair of children who may be possessed by malicious spirits, and more.
With an introduction by horror/suspense author Charles R. Rutledge, this collection also features author notes on all the stories. From the charming to the chilling, the tales included here are all unique and unforgettable.
“An enjoyable blend of Austen, Dickens and Mrs. Gaskell – Gothic with a light touch, packed with family curses, mysterious paintings and romantic chills, plus more adventures of the indefatigable psychic, Sybil Ingram.” John Linwood Grant, author of The Assassin’s Coin
“A delightful, oft eerie, romantic, and decidedly splendid set of stories which pay homage to many classic Gothic traditions...offering fresh perspectives and heroines to wholeheartedly cheer for.” – Leanna Renee Hieber, award-winning and bestselling author of the Strangely Beautiful and Spectral City series
“I love this collection of stories. Amanda DeWees sends shivers down your spine, tugs your heartstrings, and creates heroes to die for. She will keep you guessing who done it while turning pages late into the night.” —Raven Hart, author of The Vampire’s Seduction
“While you will find a great deal of wit, charm, and romance [here]…Amanda DeWees knows her way around a horror yarn and she has a few surprises waiting for you.” —Charles R. Rutledge, horror/suspense author
Tonight we’re chatting with Russell Kirkpatrick (based in Canberra, Australia) author of the new book Silent Sorrow from IFWG Publishing International, arriving Feb 1.
This is the first of several interviews on books coming from IFWG International. The publishers at IFWG would like you to know that if you would like to enter a drawing for a free print (or mobi/epub) copy tonight’s book, Silent Sorrow, all you need to do is subscribe to the IFWG newsletter and fill out details for the drawing – just go to ifwgaustralia.com/treasures.
About the book:
Silent Sorrow (The Book of Remezov)
Brilliant and ambitious, Remezov is already recognised as the best earthquake predictor in the business. He travels to the ancient city of Hanemark to be received into the powerful Guild of Geographers, the youngest inductee in decades.On the way he finds a dead scientist’s diary, warning of an imminent invasion. Nonsense, of course—except the diary explains otherwise puzzling occurrences. Does he surrender it to the Guild, risking accusations he killed the scientist and stole the diary—all for an invasion that may never come—or does he keep it and use it to make his name? He has to decide soon, because he’s being hunted by something leaving a trail of mutilated bodies across the city.The lizards are coming…
Russell Kirkpatrick (born 1961, Christchurch, New Zealand) is a geography lecturer, cartographer and a novelist. He holds a PhD in geography from the University of Canterbury, and lectured at the University of Waikato in Hamilton until 2014. He is currently living and writing in Australia, and moonlights as a sessional lecturer at the University of Canberra. He has worked on seven atlas projects, including the New Zealand Historical Atlas (1998), and authored the Contemporary Atlas of New Zealand (1999/2004). He also wrote and was photographer for a book about New Zealand waterfalls - Walk to Waterfalls (2011). He has written two fantasy trilogies, Fire of Heaven and Husk. Across the Face of the World was the biggest selling debut fantasy in the United States in 2008. He won the Julius Vogel award in 2008, 2009 and 2010.
Tonight we’re chatting with Steven Kostanski, writer and director of the Horror/Comedy PG: PSYCHO GOREMAN, which RLJE Films will release in Theaters, On Demand and Digital on January 22, 2021.
Written and directed by Steven Kostanski (The Void, The Divide, Father’s Day), PG: PSYCHO GOREMAN stars Matthew Ninaber (Transference), Nita-Josee Hanna (Books of Blood, 4teen), Owen Myre (“NOS4A2”, Alternate Ground), Adam Brooks (The Return Father’s Day) and Steven Vlahos (“Alien House”, The Apprentice).
In the film, Siblings Mimi and Luke unwittingly resurrect an ancient alien overlord who was entombed on Earth millions of years ago after a failed attempt to destroy the universe. They nickname the evil creature Psycho Goreman (or PG for short) and use the magical amulet they discovered to force him to obey their childish whims. It isn’t long before PG’s reappearance draws the attention of intergalactic friends and foes from across the cosmos and a rogues’ gallery of alien combatants converges in small-town suburbia to battle for the fate of the galaxy.
Tonight we’re chatting with Shawn Linden, director of Hunter Hunter a new thriller/horror/suspense film to be released by IFC Midnight in select Theaters, On Digital and On Demand on December 18, 2020.
HUNTER HUNTER stars Devon Sawa (Final Destination, Idle Hands), Nick Stahl (Bully, Disturbing Behavior), Camille Sullivan ("The Man in the High Castle") and Summer Howell (Curse of Chucky). The film was directed and written by Shawn Linden (The Good Lie, Nobody).
HUNTER HUNTER follows a family living in the remote wilderness earning a living as fur trappers. Joseph Mersault (Devon Sawa), his wife Anne (Camille Sullivan), and their daughter Renée (Summer H. Howell) struggle to make ends meet and think their traps are being hunted by the return of a rogue wolf. Determined to catch the predator in the act, Joseph leaves his family behind to track the wolf. Anne and Renée grow increasingly anxious during Joseph’s prolonged absence and struggle to survive without him. When they hear a strange noise outside their cabin, Anne hopes it is Joseph but instead finds a man named Lou (Nick Stahl), who has been severely injured and left for dead. The longer Lou stays and Joseph is away, the more paranoid Anne becomes, and the idea of a mysterious predator in the woods slowly becomes a threat much closer to home.
Hunter Hunter is released theatrically in select locations, on Digital and On-Demand on December 18th 2020 by IFC Midnight.
Tonight we’re chatting with Liam O’Donnell, director of Skylines (In Select Theaters, On Digital and VOD December 18, 2020.) SKYLINES is the third installment of the Skyline franchise and stars Lindsey Morgan (“The 100,” Inside Game), Jonathan Howard (Thor: The Dark World, Godzilla: King of the Monsters), Rhona Mitra (Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, Doomsday), Alexander Siddig (“Gotham,” “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”) and James Cosmo (Braveheart, “Game of Thrones”). The film was directed and written by Liam O'Donnell (Portals, Beyond Skyline).
SYNOPSIS: When a virus threatens to turn earth-dwelling friendly alien hybrids against humans, Captain Rose Corley (Lindsey Morgan) must lead a team of elite soldiers on a mission to the alien’s world in order to save what's left of humanity.
Tonight we’re chatting with John Suits, Director of BREACH starring Cody Kearsley and Bruce Willis. Bruce Willis stars in the action-packed, Sci-fi thriller. Fleeing a devastating plague on Earth, an interstellar ark comes under attack from new threat; a shape-shifting alien force intent on slaughtering what is left of humanity. Breach comes to Theaters, On Demand and Digital on December 18, 2020.
Tonight we’re chatting with David Bowles, an award-winning author and translator from south Texas, where he teaches at the University of Texas Río Grande Valley. To his two dozen books, he'll soon be adding the space opera THE PATH, coming in 2021 from Castle Bridge Media. This is a special conversation in which Jason asks David about a conversation that recently ran wild on book Twitter-- about the "Canon," those works traditionally taught in school, and whether, why and how to rethink it.
Tonight we’re chatting with Trey Tucker, who stars in the new movie What Lies Below.
In What Lies Below, Liberty (Ema Horvath), a socially awkward 16-year-old, returns from two months at camp to a blindsided introduction of her Mother’s fiancé, John Smith (Trey Tucker), whose charm, intelligence, and beauty paint the picture of a man too perfect to be human.
See What Lies Below On - Demand and Digital on December 4, 2020.
Tonight we’re chatting with David Raboy, writer and director of the Giant, available from Vertical Entertainment on Demand November 13, 2020.
The GIANT- On her graduation night, Charlotte learns her first love has returned to her small Georgia town for the first time since vanishing the year before, in the midst of an awful trauma in her life.
But on that night, a girl her age is found dead – and then another.
Something terrible has arisen in this place, and as her final summer speeds towards a nightmarish conclusion, Charlotte gets the unshakeable feeling that somehow it is coming for her – in ways more troubling than she could ever know.
Tonight we’re chatting with Alastair Orr, director of the thriller/action/horror film, TRIGGERED which releases On Digital and On Demand November 6, 2020.
TRIGGERED stars Sean Cameron Michael (“Black Sails,” The Mummy), Liesl Ahlers (Friend Request, Daylight) and Reine Swart (The Lullaby, Detour). The film was directed by Alastair Orr (House on Willow Street, Indigenous) and written by David D. Jones, making his feature screenwriting debut.
SYNOPSIS: Nine friends, all harboring a dark secret, go camping in the woods. After a wild night of partying, they wake up with SUICIDE BOMBS strapped to their chests, all with varying times on their countdown clocks. They decide to work out how to disarm the bombs or find help - until they discover they can 'take' one another's time by killing each other.
Tonight we’re chatting with Erin Sanders (Zoe 101, Six Degrees of Separation) whose new movie THE CALL comes out on October 30th. From the creator of Final Destination, Lin Shaye and Tobin Bell star in this terrifying tale of death from the fall of 1987. After a tragic accident, a group of small town friends must survive the night in the home of a sinister couple. One by one, their worst nightmares quickly become reality as they enter the realm of THE CALL. Four Friends. One Phone Call. 60 Seconds. Stay Alive.
Hosted by Jason Henderson, writer of the 1950s surfer girl horror book Night of the Book Man under the name Peyton Douglas.
Tonight we’re chatting with Lance Jones who runs Gwandanaland Comics, which publishes new reprint paperbacks of classic public domain comics and magazines, from super-heroes to the first, now public-domain issues of Famous Monsters Magazine.
Tonight we’re chatting with Adrienne Biddle, producer of The Dark and the Wicked, which releases November 6. Biddle is a founder with writer/director Bryan Bertino of Unbroken Pictures. The Dark and The Wicked follows two siblings who are summoned back to the family farm to await the inevitability of their father's death. What initially appears to be a timeless ritual of loss and remembrance turns out to be something very different. RLJE Films will release the horror film THE DARK AND THE WICKED In Theaters, On Digital and On Demand November 6, 2020.
Jason chats with Hadrien Royo about the audio series Crypto-Z, which you can find on any podcast app. Hadrien is an award-winning filmmaker, who has helped independent features come to life and get prestigious festival runs. He is the producer and director of Crypto-Z, an audio drama podcast and the founder of euphonie™, a creative agency dedicated to developing original stories across media channels and helping their creator reach their audience where they are now.
He is also a professor in the prestigious graduate film program of the New York University Tisch School of the Arts where he also graduated.
Tonight we’re chatting with Kamal Khan who joins the cast of The Haunting of Bly Manor, the sequel series to The Haunting of Hill House on Netflix. The Haunting of Bly Manor premieres October 9. The Haunting of Bly Manor is a follow-up to the American anthology supernatural horror drama web television series The Haunting of Hill House, created and directed by Mike Flanagan for Netflix, and will be loosely based on the 1898 horror novella The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.
Tonight we’re chatting with Ausma Zehanat Khan holds a Ph.D. in international human rights law with a specialization in military intervention and war crimes in the Balkans. She is a former adjunct law professor and Editor-in-Chief of Muslim Girl magazine, the first magazine targeted to young Muslim women in North America. She is also the award-winning author of The Unquiet Dead and The Bloodprint, the first book in The Khorasan Archives. A British-born Canadian, Khan now lives in Colorado with her husband.
Tonight we’re chatting with Paula Guran, editor of the Simon & Schuster's October 20 release The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror.
This episode we’re chatting with Darren Lynn Bousman, director of the new movie DEATH OF ME coming to theaters, On Demand and Digital on October 2, 2020.
Vacationing on an island off the coast of Thailand, Christine (Maggie Q) and Neil Oliver (Luke Hemsworth) awake hungover and with no memory of the previous night. They find footage on Neil’s camera, and watch, horrified, as Neil appears to murder Christine. With twenty-four hours until the next ferry and a typhoon threatening the island, Christine and Neil attempt to reconstruct the night’s events—and are snared in a web of mystery, black magic, and murder.
Jason is joined by Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and X-Files artist Greg Scott to talk about Batman-- more specifically, the Batman seen in the trailer for Matt Reeves' 2021 film The Batman. Is Batman just Death Wish now, a fascist vision of violence, fun for adults and abandoning the principles of the past? Or is it too early to tell?
This episode we’re chatting with JH Moncrieff, whose book City of Ghosts won the 2018 Kindle Book Review Award for Best Horror/Suspense. She won Harlequin's international search for “the next Gillian Flynn” and her horror book Monsters in Our Wake was a TOP Amazon horror bestseller. But a lot of people know her as the resident writer/commentator on the True Crime Network show Cruise Ship Killers.
This episode we’re chatting with Simon Stephenson, whose book SET MY HEART TO FIVE debuts from HarperCollins this September. Set My Heart to Five is on tap for adaptation by Edgar Wright, the director behind Baby Driver and the upcoming Last Night in Soho (set for an April 2021 release). The book is set in the year 2054, and follows a human-esque bot named Jared as he slowly becomes sentient and sets out to find his family (i.e. the programmer who created him).
Jason joins Director/Writer Will Wernick, who also directed ESCAPE ROOM, to talk about his new film NO ESCAPE. The story here is: a social media star travels with his friends to Moscow to capture new content for his successful VLOG. Always pushing the limits and catering to a growing audience, he and his friends enter a cold world of mystery, excess and danger. As the line between real life and social media is blurred, the group must fight to escape, and survive. NO ESCAPE releases Sept 18 theaters and VOD.
This episode we’re talking to Glen Zipper and Elaine Mongeon, authors of the new SF book Devastation Class from HarperCollins. Zipper is known for creating the wildly popular Netflix series Dogs and producing such films as the Academy Award ® winning Undefeated and the critically acclaimed Showbiz Kids directed by Alex Winter (Bill & Ted Face The Music), currently streaming on HBO, and Elaine Mongeon is an associate producer on notable films and series such as Magic Mike XXL and Red Oaks and the director of cult short horror films for Warner Bros. and Hulu. DEVASTATION CLASS (HarperCollins/Blink, Hardcover, $18.99, September 8, 2020) is the story of seven young cadets on a futuristic starship who have to seize control of the ship to fight off a new attack from an alien enemy the earth had thought it had already defeated.
Interviewed by Jason Henderson, author of the new 1950s surf horror book Surf Mystic: Night of The Book Man by his alter ego Peyton Douglas.
This episode we’re talking to Leanna Renee Hieber whose new book A Summoning of Souls comes from Kensington/ Rebel Base Books… At the dawn of the twentieth century, New York City houses both the living and the dead. And when it comes to crimes of an otherworldly nature, it falls to the psychics and spirits of the city’s finest secret agency—The Ghost Precinct—to serve justice beyond the earthly realm.
This episode we’re talking to Julius Berg, co-writer and director of The Owners, in theaters and on demand Sep 4, 2020. The film stars Maisie Williams, Sylvester McCoy, Jake Curran, Ian Kenny, Andrew Ellis, Rita Tushingham. In the film, a group of friends think they found the perfect easy score - an empty house with a safe full of cash. But when the elderly couple that lives there comes home early the tables are suddenly turned. As a deadly game of cat and mouse ensues the would-be thieves are left to fight to save themselves from a nightmare they could never have imagined.
Jason chats with Chris Mooney, author of the new thriller Blood World, in which a cop must investigate an illegal trade in enhanced blood that renders those receiving a transfusion younger and healthier. We talk a lot about the craft of writing.
Jason is joined by Julia to chat with the Rifftrax comedy team of Bridget & Mary Jo-- Bridget Nelson and Mary Jo Pehl-- on their new feature-length riff of the late-50s monster movie Frankenstein's Daughter (Astor, 1958.).
Jason chats about the Shudder miniseries Cursed Films with the miniseries' director / Writer / Editor Jay Cheel and writer Mitch Horowitz (As a Man Thinketh), who provides much of the commentary on the series. They talk about the films the series covers, with an episode each for The Exorcist, The Omen, Poltergeist, The Crow and The Twilight Zone.
Jason chats with many-time New York Times Bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson on two brand-new projects-- "Stake," a new novel about a cynic and a believer investigating a man who may be a vampire hunter-- or may just be a serial killer-- and "Monsters, Movies and Mayhem," a brand-new anthology of movie-inspired monster stories from top writers which Publisher's Weekly calls "fun and nostalgia-filled... horror fans won’t want to put this down." Along the way Anderson also reveals some of his secrets for getting more writing done, including learning to dictate your novels.
This episode we’re talking to Daniel Kraus, author of The Living Dead from Tor. Kraus is a New York Times bestselling author. With Guillermo del Toro, he co-authored The Shape of Water, based on the same idea the two created for the Oscar-winning film. Also with del Toro, Kraus co-authored Trollhunters, which was adapted into the Emmy-winning Netflix series. Kraus’s The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch was named one of Entertainment Weekly‘s Top 10 Books of the Year, and he has won two Odyssey Awards (for both Rotters and Scowler) and has been a Library Guild selection, YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults, Bram Stoker finalist, and more.
This episode we’re talking to Danny Wolf, director of the documentary series Time Warp: The Greatest Cult Films of All Time. We talk about Danny's experience interviewing the stars of movies like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Rock & Roll High School, Dawn of the Dead, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, and more.
This episode Jason talks to Jeffrey A. Brown, writer and director of The Beach House, which comes to AMC’s horror streaming service Shudder July 9th (US/Canada/UK/Ireland).
In this episode Tony Salvaggio talks to Writer/Director Gavin Rothery about his soon to be released Sci-Fi thriller Archive. Gavin fill us in on the development of the film, his influences, and what it is like to transition from being an artist and production designer to being the writer and director on his first feature film.
Jason chats with futurist Cory Doctorow on the re-branding of the Disney attraction Splash Mountain away from the problematic 1946 film Song of the South and towards The Princess and the Frog.
We’re talking to David Bowles, author of the new series 13th Street, launching in July from HarperCollins. David describes it as a sort of Latinx Stranger Things for kids ages 5-9 from HarperCollins the new HarperChapters imprint.
Jason chats with Adrianna Gober, a writer and musician based outside of Philadelphia, PA. She is a lifelong horror fan and still can't quite believe she got lucky enough to spin that into a career. She currently serves as Director of Programming for Midnight Movie Society, an extreme horror/cult SVOD service from Rue Morgue and MVD Entertainment Group.
Jason talks to author/filmmaker Jim Towns about his new book from Anubis Press, American Cryptic – True Stories of the Strange and Uncanny by Author Jim Towns. This book is available now in paperpack and on Kindle.
American Cryptic is an open-minded cynic’s take on the uncanny and sometimes frightening things that border our accepted reality. Through thirteen stories and essays, author and filmmaker Jim Towns examines several legends native to his own roots in Western Pennsylvania, and recalls some of his own unexplainable experiences as well. From folk tales of Native American giants buried under great earth mounds, to a haunted asylum, to a phantom trolley passenger, this work seeks not only to present the reader with new and fascinating supernatural tales, but also to deconstruct why our culture is so fascinated by their telling and re-telling. Find the book here: https://amzn.to/2UqP6qg
This episode we’re talking to Cary Murnion and Jonathan Milott, the directors of BECKY (debuting June 5), a new revenge thriller about a teen girl, Lulu Wilson, who faces off against a gang of neo-Nazis led by an unusually villainous Kevin James. You guys have called it an “ultra-violent Home Alone”
This episode we’re talking to the creative minds behind the Adapt or Perish podcast, a bi-weekly podcast that examines adaptations of all kinds, whether stage to screen, book to television, comic to blockbuster, or movie to musical and back again. Our guests are Arielle Lipshaw (dramaturg, director, voiceover artist, and knitting enthusiast) and Jeremy Latour (filmmaker and media geek). You can find their show wherever you find your podcasts and at https://www.adaptorperishcast.com/.
This episode we’re talking to Angie Hodapp about her new book Query Craft, the Writer-in-the-Know Guide to Getting Your Manuscript Requested.
Angie Hodapp is the Director of Literary Development at Nelson Literary Agency. She holds a BA in English and secondary education and an MA in English and communication development. A graduate of the Publishing Institute at the University of Denver, she has worked in professional writing, editing, and education for more than twenty years. A frequent presenter at writing conferences and events, she loves helping writers improve their craft and learn about the ever-changing world of publishing.
This episode we’re talking to Director and Writer David Holroyd, whose new film The Haunted (May 22 on demand) is about a young caregiver in an isolated house who finds her elderly charge’s house may be haunted by a vengeful spirit.
In this episode recorded by the Monster Movie Happy Hour (http://www.monstermoviehappyhour.com/), Peyton Douglas AKA Jason Henderson discusses his new book The Book Man, due June 2. We talk about all the things that go into this book that P.J. Hoover called "a delicious retro treat wrapped into a perfectly crafted horror novel" -- the California surf craze, Gidget, demons, and mid-century pop culture.
This episode Jason talks to Scott Kenemore, whose new book Lake of Darkness explores the dark corners of WWI-era Chicago, when a detective hunts for a serial killer who preys on African-American twin children.
Jason chats with Leslie Lutz, who calls on her extensive scuba-diving knowledge to write a taut thriller that calls to mind the mysteries of Lost-- but with a killer resolution.
This episode we’re talking to Ramsey Campbell, who the Oxford Companion to English Literature describes as Britain’s most respected living horror writer. His new book from Flame Tree Press is The Wise Friend.
This episode we’re talking to Robert Nairne, who stars in the new film The Jack in the Box.
The Jack in the Box, Tues May 5, VOD Digital and DVD
When a museum is donated a vintage Jack-In-The-Box, it’s not long before staff member Casey starts to think that the creepy clown doll inside has a life of its own. As he discovers his colleagues are dying, one by one, Casey realizes it's up to him to find a way to end the nightmare or become another victim of the box's curse. Jack In The Box is a heart stopping horror that will fuel your fear of clowns.
Jason chats with Issa Lopez, director of the stunning magical-realist film Tigers Are Not Afraid. Coming to DVD/BD on May 5, 2020
We’re talking to Grady Hendrix about his new book The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires.
Jason chats with Cassandra Peterson, the actress and branding expert behind the unforgettable Mistress of the Dark, Elvira. As she puts the final touches on her upcoming autobiography, Cassandra talks about the creation of the character, the headaches of writing a movie commentary show, and reminisces about Vincent Price and fellow Groundling comedian Phil Hartman.
This episode we're chatting with Joe Bob Briggs, who host Jason first read when Joe Bob was the Drive-In movie critic for the Dallas Times Herald. Briggs is the author of books such as Joe Bob Goes to the Drive In and Profoundly Disturbing, and is now host of The Last Drive-In on Shudder, which returns this month.
This episode we’re talking with Danielle Trussoni, the New York Times, USA Today, and internationally bestselling author of the Angelology series whose new book The Ancestor (reviewed Tuesday at the New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/books/review/the-ancestor-danielle-trussoni.html), which called it "as creepy as you might expect from an author who also writes the Book Review’s horror column.") is a gothic thriller about a New York woman who receives a letter that informs her she has inherited a title and a castle in Italy. But for a book that starts out following what seems to be a gothic thriller of the old school, it winds up going places that twist and subvert the genre. One spoiler that the publisher is comfortable giving away is that the lead-inherits-a-castle story moves gradually, terrifyingly into a Michael Crichton-like scientific deep dive into crypto-zoology, the study of unknown creatures.
This episode we’re talking with Chris Vander Kaay, one of the authors of Spoiler Alert!: The Badass Book of Movie Plots: Why We All Love Hollywood Cliches by Chris Kathleen Vander Kaay, Kathleen Killian Fernandez, and Steven Espinoza
Celebrate Hollywood film-making in all its formulaic and predictable glory. Spoiler Alert! takes 38 mainstream movie genres, from 'Teen Sex Comedy' and 'Buddy Action Comedy' to 'Film Noir Detective Thriller' and 'Alien Invasion Thriller', and through detailed illustrations reveals what makes them so hilariously recognizable – the plots, the key lines of dialogue, the essential visuals, the crucial characters, and even the indispensable props!
This episode we’re talking Menna van Praag, author of the new book The Sisters Grimm from HarperVoyager. In the book, four girls all about to turn 18, Goldie, Liyana, Scarlet and Bea, all are blessed with elemental powers and are preparing to return to the dimension they came from to face their demon father. We talk about the author's process and the demands of urban fantasy.
In Churl Yo's Isonation (due out April 1 from Castle Bridge Media) is an adventure that takes place in a world where social distancing has given way to total social isolation-- where people live in hermetically sealed apartments and rely on drones for all deliveries, and VR for all socialization. Yo, a writer in Seattle, talks about how his story suddenly became a prescient look at the future.
A chat with director Neasa Hardiman on her new film Sea Fever (due out April 10) starring Hermione Corfield (Star Wars: The Last Jedi) and Connie Nielsen (Wonder Woman), about a fishing trawler that discovers a mysterious, virus-like creature that threatens the entire crew.
This episode we’re talking to James Rollins, author of the new book The Last Odyssey, due out from William Morrow/HarperCollins on March 24. The Last Odyssey is the 15th thriller in the Sigma Force series about "scientists with guns" solving thrilling mysteries around the world.
Lorcan Finnegan is the director of Vivarium, a very strange, almost Twilight Zone-like movie starring Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots as a young couple unable to escape the neighborhood where they went looking for a starter home.
This episode we’re chatting with KB Wagers, author of the new book A PALE LIGHT IN THE BLACK, it’s a SF book about the crew of a ship called Zuma’s Ghost, who are members of the Near Earth Orbital Guard—essentially the Coast Guard of Space. We talk about military sf, plotting your writing, and getting work done on deadline during the time of pandemic.
This episode we’re chatting with J. Suzanne Frank, author of the new book When Fire Loves Water Part 1 The Siren. The book comes out on Water Day, 3/22/20 -- and you can get the first three chapters free at jsuzannefrank.com. J. Suzanne Frank is formerly a lot of things: among them, a journalist, a freelance writer, an editor, and a writing teacher. Her passion for history has taken her to Egypt, Greece, Israel and throughout Europe. But she's always returned to Texas, where generations of her family roots are. She's also always returned to the water. While she hasn't managed (yet) to become a mermaid, it was her #3 childhood goal. Visit her at jsuzannefrank.com.
This episode we’re chatting with Katherine Hall Page, author of the new book The Body in the Wake, the 25th Faith Fairchild Mystery, from William Morrow/HarperCollins.
This episode we’re chatting with Theresa Mercado, curator of the Scream Screen film series in Denver. They’re in the middle of their fifteenth run for four Fridays at the Sie FilmCenter with a new series, "Hell On Wheels", which began February 7 at 9:30pm at the Sie FilmCenter, featuring some of the best terror on two, four, and ten wheels! Psychomania! Crash! Sorcerer! Next up Feb 28 is Dead End Drive-In (1986) w/ director Brian Trenchard-Smith in person. Previous series include: "Treasury of Terror: A Decade of Horror Anthologies", "The Psychosexual Films of David Cronenberg," "Journey Into a Damaged Brain," "The Horror Films of John Carpenter," "When Animals Attack!", "The Giallo Films of Dario Argento", "The Films of the New French Extremity", "The Non-Zom Films Of George A. Romero", "As Seen On TV!", "Beyond Elm Street: A Tribute To Wes Craven", "The Truth Is Out There!", "Welcome To The Funhouse: A Birthday Slash-ebration of Tobe Hooper", "Christmas In July", and "Petrified Woods". Scream Screen is a four-time "Best of Denver" winner! Including 2019's "Best Live Music With A Horror Movie." We chat about the challenges of programming a theater series in the day of streaming.
This episode we’re chatting with Daniel Kraus, author of Bent Heavens, a new novel from Henry Holt/Macmillan Books. Bent Heavens tells a harrowing story about a pair of teens who capture an alien creature and begin to take out terrible revenge for one of the teens' father's abduction. It's a book that asks tough questions about grief, paranoia, and torture. Hosted by Jason Henderson, author of Quest for the Nautilus, due in March from Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan.
This episode we’re chatting with Simon Cox, the writer, Director and producer of Invasion Planet Earth, a new film about a doctor who leads a group of patients at the clinic where he works in their journey to escape a massive alien invasion. The film comes out February 4, 2020 (VOD & Digital HD On Leading Digital Platforms & DVD).
In this interview: Trapped in the 80s is the brand new “Pick Your Own Quest” book from Connor Hoover, who’s released a whole slew of interactive books aimed at kids, including Escape from Minecraft and King Tut’s Adventure. This time you, the reader, take a wrong turn and find yourself stuck in the pre-digital, pre-Internet, pre-cell phone world of the 1980s. Connor lives in Austin, Texas and has a video game machine with 410 retro video games including Ms. Pac-Man, Frogger, and Connor’s personal favorite Q*bert. You can find out more about Connor at www.connorhoover.com.
This episode we’re chatting about the new Dark Shadows Audiobooks of classic Dark Shadows novels from Paperback classics. We’re talking to Kathryn Leigh Scott, a novelist, nonfiction writer, and of course actress who played Maggie on Dark Shadows and now reads the classic gothic Dark Shadows novels of the 60s. Then we talk to Steve Smith, publisher of the new Paperback Classics imprint of Oasis Audio, who is heading up the effort to bring lost classics like the Dark Shadows book series and vintage Flash Gordon adventures to audio.
This episode we’re chatting with Tara Westwood, who stars in Sony’s new reboot of THE GRUDGE. The film will release in theaters on January 3rd and is a new take on the 2004 film of the same name which itself was based on the 2002 Japanese original Ju-on. The film-- which Westwood calls "a simulquel"-- is directed by Nicolas Pesce and produced by Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert, and Taka Ichise.
This week we’re chatting with Adam Egypt Mortimer, director and co-writer of Daniel Isn’t Real, which is about a Troubled college freshman Luke (Miles Robbins) suffers a violent family trauma and resurrects his childhood imaginary friend Daniel (Patrick Schwarzenegger) to help him cope. Charismatic and full of manic energy, Daniel helps Luke to achieve his dreams, before pushing him to the very edge of sanity and into a desperate struggle for control of his mind -- and his soul. The film also features Mary Stuart Masterson as Luke’s mom, who suffers from mental illness and Sasha Lane as Luke’s new artist girlfriend . Samuel Goldwyn Films will release the horror/thriller DANIEL ISN’T REAL in theaters, on digital and on demand December 6, 2019.
This episode we’re chatting with Mary SanGiovanni about her new book Beyond the Gate from Kensington Books. Ms. SanGiovanni is the Bram Stoker-nominated author of the Kathy Ryan novels Beyond the Door and Inside the Asylum, and numerous other novels, novellas and short stories. BEYOND THE GATE stars her character occult security consultant Kathy Ryan, who has been called to look into the disappearance of scientists who have discovered a portal to another world, and the mysterious Dead City in the world on the other side.
Actress Nicole Tompkins talks about her role in Antrum, a remarkable horror film that opens with a documentary telling us we're about to see a lost, cursed film from the 70s about a brother and sister who go into the woods to perform a ritual to rest the spirit of their beloved, recently dead dog.
This week we’re chatting with Cory Doctorow about a topic that just fascinated Doctorow—enough that he wrote the amazing novella The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow—and fascinated host Jason Henderson: the Walt Disney World attraction Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress. We talk about futurism, the optimism of the past, and whether forgotten midcentury fears are a match for modern fears of climate collapse.
This week we’re chatting with Leanna Renee Hieber whose new book A Sanctuary of Spirits comes from Kensington/ Rebel Base Books. An enthusiastic public speaker about the history of the Gothic novel, she loves nothing more than a good ghost story and a finely tailored corset, wandering graveyards and adventuring around New York City. Find Leanna at Twitter @leannarenee and Facebook.com/lrhieber. More information as well as free reads, author resources, links to her art and Etsy store and more can be found at leannareneehieber.com.
This week we’re chatting with Roger Corman, because Friday November 15 premieres a new series from Shout Factory TV Cult-tastic: Tales From The Trenches with Roger and Julie Corman. Heralded as “the Pope of Pop Cinema,” Roger and Julie Corman pull back the curtain on the Cormans' lifetime of innovative genre filmmaking in this never-before-seen docu-series. The Cormans open up about their iconic pool of collaborators such as James Cameron, Joe Dante, Penelope Spheeris, Pam Grier and more, as well as their notoriously bare-bones production philosophy that created some of film’s most memorable special FX sequences in science-fiction, fantasy and other cult favorites.
Tonight we’re chatting with Frank Sabatella, writer and director of THE SHED. The Shed is a new movie in which bullied young man Stan (Warren) and his best friend Dommer (Kostro) discover a murderous vampire living in Stan’s shed. Seeing the bloodshed and destruction the monster is capable of, Stan knows he has to find a way to destroy it - but Dommer has a much more sinister plan in mind. It’s directed by Frank Sabatella and stars Jay Jay Warren (“Bosch”), Cody Kostro (“City on a Hill”), Sofia Happonen (Woman of a Certain Age), Frank Whaley (Pulp Fiction), Siobhan Fallon Hogan (Men in Black) and Timothy Bottoms (The Last Picture Show). THE SHED comes to theaters and VOD and Digital HD on Nov. 15, 2019.
PARADISE HILLS is Spanish fashion creative and photographer Alice Waddington’s feature debut, in which Emma Roberts plays a girl who wakes up on an isolated island in a facility run by the sinister Duchess played by Milla Jovovich, to whom high-class families send their daughters to become perfect versions of themselves. Director Alice Waddington chats about the film. Samuel Goldwyn Films will release the fantasy/sci-fi/thriller PARADISE HILLS in theaters October 25, 2019 and on digital and on demand November 1, 2019.
Drew Edwards is writer of the long running underground comic series Halloween Man and winner of the 2018 BEST OF AUSTIN AWARD from the Austin Chronicle. He's launching a new arc of the ongoing Halloween Man series starting this month with Issue #18, a set of stand-alones called Halloween Man: Ugly America. The arc is a satirical look that calls to mind the famed Swamp Thing series American Gothic, in which Halloween Man brushes up against angry citizens out to summon demons and an issue on school shootings. Meanwhile, Edwards will be kicking off a year of celebrating Halloween Man's 20th Anniversary with a "Halloween Man: Road to 20 Years Kickoff Party" in Austin at Flamingo Cantina, evening October 19, benefiting Girls Rock Austin and Out Youth.
Andy Martin is the author of Reacher Said Nothing: Lee Child and the Making of Make Me. He writes for The Independent and The New York Times and teaches at the University of Cambridge. His nonfiction book on surfing, Walking on Water, is a cult classic. His new book is With Child: Lee Child and the Readers of Jack Reacher.
Bridget Jones Nelson is a writer and comedian known for her work on Mystery Science Theater 3000 and for the past several years as half of the RiffTrax audio commentary team Bridget & Mary Jo, where she and comedian Mary Jo Pehl riff on features, industrial shorts, often with an eye on the social lives and mores of the United States in the mid-century. Her new short is VACATION DAYS, a 1947 entry into a series about and called TEEN-AGERS.
This week we return to the Stephen King Retrospective: we’re talking about IT Chapter 2 directed by Andy Muschietti. We talk about the meaning of it all, compare this version with the 1990 Tim Curry vehicle, and more. Let us know what you think on our Facebook page!
PJ Hoover is the prolific writer of the new book from CBAY, The Hidden Code. Eleven years ago, Hannah Hawkins' parents disappeared while traveling abroad. Presumed dead, Hannah and her uncle are shocked when a letter from her mom arrives right after Hannah's sixteenth birthday. By piecing together cryptic hints from the note and other clues left behind, Hannah realizes her parents disappeared while trying to find the mysterious Code of Enoch, an artifact they believed could hold the key to curing disease—or creating it. Hannah's parents had been determined to destroy the Code, no matter the cost. Now with the help of her uncle, her best friend, and another cute but not entirely trustworthy guy, Hannah sets out to discover what happened to her parents and if the Code of Enoch is real.
Patrick C. Greene is a lifelong horror fan who lives in the mountains of western North Carolina. He launched his Ember Hollow series with Red Harvest and is currently working on the third novel in the series. He is also the author of the novels Progeny and The Crimson Calling, as well as numerous short stories featured in collections and anthologies. GRIM HARVEST from Kensington Books is the gripping second installment of Greene’s Haunted Hollow Chronicles, continuing a year from where the first book left off. Faced with a monster desperate for revenge and out for blood, this town might just realize the killer is one of them. Set in a fictional town loosely based on Asheville, NC, this chilling return to a town cursed by a dark and twisted evil will have you scrambling for the lights.
Brandy Herr is the co-owner of Spooky Spectacle, a convention featuring horror, paranormal, sci-fi, cosplay, fantasy, etc. Spooky Spectacle 2019 will be held September 14 and 15 at the Will Rogers Memorial Center in Fort Worth, Texas. This event will feature Ken Sagoes from A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 & 4, the Giant Green Goblin Head from Stephen King's Maximum Overdrive (making its first ever Texas appearance!), as well as a Pet Sematary reunion with Dale Midkiff and Miko Hughes.
3 From Hell is the long-awaited followup to the crime film The Devil’s Rejects, itself a sequel to the nightmarishly bloody and phosphorescent House of 1000 Corpses. 3 From Hell follows the remaining members of the Firefly family as they run from the law and try to make sense of their future. The film debuts on September 16 in select theaters from Fathom Events, and comes to DVD and Blu-Ray on October 15. We talk about media commentary in 3 From Hell and the value of a director's vision. Hosted by Jason Henderson, editor of this Summer's Castle of Horror Anthology: Volume 1 and author of the upcoming Young Captain Nemo: Quest for the Nautilus.
Grady Hendrix is a popular horror author of such books as My Best Friend’s Exorcism and the amazing nonfiction look at vintage horror, Paperbacks from Hell. He’s the writer of the new movie SATANIC PANIC starring Hayley Griffith (“The Loudest Voice”, “The Mysteries of Laura”), Ruby Modine (“Shameless”, Happy Death Day franchise) and Rebecca Romijn (X-Men franchise, “Star Trek: Discovery”), directed by up-and-coming director Chelsea Stardust (“Into The Dark”, Seeing Green). In SATANIC PANIC, pizza delivery girl Sam finds herself in an upscale neighborhood where a group of classic Satanists decide she will make the perfect sacrifice. The film comes out September 6.
Jason talks to Robert Patrick about his role in TONE-DEAF and advice for young actors. TONE-DEAF is written and directed by Richard Bates, Jr. (Trash Fire, Suburban Gothic), and stars Robert Patrick ("Scorpion," Terminator 2: Judgment Day) and Amanda Crew ("Silicon Valley," The Age of Adaline), about a young woman who rents an ornate country house to get away for the weekend only to discover that the eccentric widower Harvey is less eccentric than he is angry and homicidal. Running through the whole thing is a very sharp wit and a lot of 4th-wall monologuing from Robert Patrick as Harvey, a man losing a grip on his sanity and eager to share his many thoughts about what’s wrong with young people today. Hosted by Jason Henderson, editor of this Summer’s Castle of Horror Anthology Volume 1, available now.
DALE BERAN's new book IT CAME FROM SOMETHING AWFUL, How a Toxic Troll Army Accidentally Memed Donald Trump Into Office (All Points Books/Macmillan) is here and it explores the toxicity of the online culture that bred the alt-right and wonder what could have gone differently. We chat about the origins of online trolls and why it's difficult for everyone else to understand the culture. Hosted by Jason Henderson, author of Young Captain Nemo from Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan Children’s Books.
Head Count is a horror film from Elle Callahan that premiered at last year’s Los Angeles Film Festival, where the pic won a special jury prize for actor Ashleigh Morghan. It hits theaters and digital on June 14 and we're lucky enough to talk to Ashleigh, who talks about how she approaches her craft. Hosted by host Jason Henderson, editor of this Summer's Castle of Horror Anthology featuring fiction from David Bowles, Dark Shadows' Lara Parker, Kevin J Anderson, Leanna Renee Hieber and more.
Aminah Mae Safi is the author of the new novel Tell Me How You Really Feel, which comes out this month and which Bustle already called "the queer hate-to-love story you've been needing in your life." Tell Me How you Really Feel is her second novel after 2018's Not the Girls You're Looking For. Safi was the winner of the We Need Diverse Books short story contest, and that story appears in the anthology Fresh Ink. We talk about writing gay romances for teens, the importance of representation and process.
Boy, is The Cleaning Lady disturbing-- the story of a lovesick woman who befriends her badly-scarred cleaning lady, only to become the object of her new friend's dangerous obsessions. Jason chats with Alexis Kendra, who co-writes and stars, and Jim Nelson, Executive Producer, on playing obsession and the slow burn.
David Gregory has made documentaries about a slew of films and filmmakers, most notably 2014’s terrific LOST SOULS, which detailed director Richard Stanley's travails on his big screen adaptation of The Island of Dr. Moreau. Now his subject is Dark Shadows, which starred Canadian actor Jonathan Frid as vampire Barnabas Collins and inspired the 2012 film of the same name. The film features interviews with cast members like Lara Parker, John Karlen and David Selby, famous fans like Whoopi Goldberg, partners of producer Dan Curtis like Barbara Steele, and is narrated by Deadwood’s Ian McShane.
Charles Rutledge is the author of Dracula's Revenge: A Jennifer Grail/Carter Decamp Novella that mashes up hard-case-style crime with gothic horror. Rutledge is the coauthor of three books in the Griffin and Price Crime/Horror series, Blind Shadows, Congregations of the Dead, and A Hell Within, all written with James A. Moore. We talk about the rebirth of novellas and gothic, and how to keep writing consistently.
Mike McBeardo McPadden is the author of TEEN MOVIE HELL: A Crucible of Coming-of-Age Comedies from Animal House to Zapped!, an extensive look at the pre-internet era of teen comedies. We talk about why there's no longer such a thing as a teen sex comedy, and why some people think Ferris Bueller is the worst.
The Haunting of Sharon Tate directed by Daniel Farrands is a new movie that tells a fictionalized story of the final days of actress Sharon Tate and her friends, including celebrity stylist Jay Sebring and coffee heiress Abigail Folger. Jason chats with Jonathan Bennett and Lydia Hearst, who play famous stylist Jay Sebring and coffee heiress Abigail Folger.
Travis Stevens talks about his writing and directing debut, GIRL ON THE THIRD FLOOR, which premieres in March at South by Southwest.
Eyal Kless is a classical violinist who currently teaches violin in the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music at Tel Aviv University, and performs with the Israel Haydn String Quartet, which he founded. He calls in from a visit to Stuttgart to discuss his new post-apocalyptic book The Lost Puzzler, a rich vision about the search for a boy who can unlock any puzzle.
Kelly Meding’s STRAY MOON from Harper Voyager is a follow-up to her book Stray Magic which about one Shiloh Harrison and her team of Paranormal Marshals who are once again put between upholding the law and doing what is right. Werewolves are going missing and it’s up to Shiloh to help. We talk about dark fantasy, paranormal, and Meding's writing process.
Daniel Farrands chats about his new film THE AMITYVILLE MURDERS, which tells the story of Ronald "Butch" DeFeo, who one sleepy day in 1974 murdered his entire family in Amityville, Long Island. We talk about the pluses and minuses of life in that analog era and the horrors that can hide in a house. Farrands also shares news on his other priod piece, the upcoming THE HAUNTING OF SHARON TATE.
St. Agatha is a brand-new psychological horror film (but don't worry, it gets intense and sometimes gory) about a young con woman (Sabrina Kern) in the 1950s who, finding herself broke and pregnant, joins a convent only to find herself trapped by an evil Mother Superior (Carolyn Hennessy.) It's an amazingly powerful performance from both, and we chat with director Darren Lynn Bousman on bringing this dark, pulse-pounding tale to life.
This week we wrap up our retrospective dedicated to the films of Bela Lugosi, this time with Lugosi’s performance as a character that David Skal called “Dracula in all but name,” vampire Armand Tesla in the 1943 Columbia picture THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE.
Mari Mancusi's The Camelot Code: The Once and Future Geek is a fast-paced middle grade adventure from Disney Hyperion, in which an adolescent King Arthur comes to the 21st Century and decides he doesn't go back. We chat about how the book came to be, the long process of publishing, and how to make the sometimes-adult Arthurian legends work in a family adventure.
Tonight we’re chatting with Anthony Rotolo, the creator of the TV Terror Podcast. TV TERROR is the show devoted to horror, thriller, and suspense programming from the movie-for-the-week golden age and beyond.
Leanna Renee Hieber is back to discuss her new book THE SPECTRAL CITY, from Kensington's new Science Fiction / Fantasy imprint Rebel Base Books. It's the beginning of a new series featuring a group of young lady psychics and mediums, and their ghostly best friends, as The Ghost Precinct solves weird and unsettling crime in 1899 New York City. We discuss ghosts, history and where to write in New York.
Bram Stoker Award-nominated author James Hornor Jacobs is the author of THE SEA DREAMS IT IS THE SKY. The story features a strong female lead, a powerful LGBTQ protagonist, a horrifyingly gripping plot, and a culturally-sensitive perspective as John worked directly with South American readers to shed light on aspects of distinct South American cultures and history. We talk about Jacob's process in creating this gripping story.
In 2015, Zack Akers and Skip Bronkie launched the Limetown podcast, about an NPR-style reporter investigating the mass disappearance at a corporate town in Tennessee. On the iTunes homepage, the podcast went to the #1 US slot—topping This American Life and Serial. With its cult following, Season two is now here, along with a TV adaptation with Facebook Watch in production, with Jessica Biel confirmed to produce and star. Now Simon & Schuster has released LIMETOWN: The Prequel, by Cote Smith, Zack Akers and Skip Bronkie. The book is goes back in time to tell the stories of both Lia’s adolescence and her Uncle Emile’s—and how his strange psychological condition entangled their family in mysterious and dangerous research. This exhilarating, completely original prequel takes readers back to the beginning and opens a whole new dimension of the Limetown universe. The LIMETOWN prequel is an addictive entry point for a new audience, and an explosive new layer of the story for existing fans of the podcast. We chat about the creation of this and every version of Limetown.
We chat with Duncan Skiles, director of THE CLOVEHITCH KILLER, which opens in theaters and VOD on November 16. The film tells the story of a boy from an apparently happy family who suspects his dad (Dylan McDermott) might be Clovehitch, an infamous serial killer that was never caught.
In Monster Party, which comes out on November 2, three young thieves plan to rob a dinner party at a fancy Malibu mansion, only to discover that the dinner guests are all serial killers with no intention of letting them leave. Jason chats with writer/director Chris von Hoffmann.
Jason chats with Drew Edwards, writer of the long running indie comic Halloween Man and COMING Oct. 24th from Comixology and Sugar Skull Media, the all-new two issue mini-series Halloween Man: Hallowtide.
In Killer Kate! Which comes out in theaters and VOD on October 26, soon-to-be-bride Angie invites her estranged sister Kate to her bachelorette party held at a remote house booked on a home-sharing app. The women are unaware that by booking this house, they’re walking into a trap set in motion by a disturbed family of amateur killers who are out for blood to right a cosmic wrong. They soon become unwitting participants in a savage and often ridiculous life-or-death struggle that pits family against family, and past against present. The trailer is up and it’s extremely exciting, and its director is Elliot Feld, making his directorial debut. He says the family-versus-family thriller film was inspired by many of the low budget flicks of the 1970’s & 1980’s.
Jordi O'Dael is one of the co-founders of Aberrant Theatre, a brand-new horror-centric theatre company, and the director of The Ghost Light Anthology - Aberrant's first major Toronto production. A life-long horror fan with years of experience both on stage and behind the scenes, they co-founded Aberrant earlier this year as a way of bringing horror to the stage through the lens of social responsibility. Find the theater at https://www.facebook.com/AberrantTheatre/, get tickets at https://ghost-light-anthology-2018.brownpapertickets.com/.
Amy Lukavics is the author of Daughters unto Devils, The Women in the Walls, The Ravenous and now NIGHTINGALE from Harlequin Teen, new out now in hardback. NIGHTINGALE is a bout a teenage girl and budding writer in 1951 who chafes at the demands of her family until she finds herself committed to an asylum, where she suspects something evil and otherworldly is going on.
Jason chats with reliable tough-guy-and-villain actor Michael Ironside on his new film Knuckleball, in which Ironside plays a grandfather taking care of his grandson during a visit. After Ironside imparts some wisdom, the visit takes a deadly turn when the grandfather suddenly dies, leaving the boy to fend off a dangerous attacker in a movie nicknamed "an R-Rated Home Alone."
Christian Parkes and Grant Moninger are the founders of Beyond Fest - the highest-attended genre film festival in the country - running in Los Angeles from Wednesday, September 26 to Tuesday, October 9th. We talk about the Cronenberg Retrospective they're hosting which is bringing in luminaries such as Debbie Harry and Jennifer Jason Leigh, Halloween Day featuring the new film plus a free tattoo, and more.
We chat with Boaz Yakin, director of Now You See Me, on his new thriller Boarding School. From the producers of American Honey and Freak Show, Boarding School was written and directed by Boaz Yakin(Now You See Me, Remember the Titans) and stars Will Patton (Halloween, Armageddon), Samantha Mathis (The Punisher, American Psycho), Luke Prael (Eighth Grade),Sterling Jerins (The Conjuring, World War Z) and Nadia Alexander (Blame, Netflix's "Seven Seconds").
Jason talks to Tom Defalco, writer of Spider-Girl: The Complete Collection Vol. 1 (new in trade paperback from Marvel) on the popularity of his story of a female super-hero "fifteen years in the future." We also talk about different formats and attempts to get new readers into comics, such as when Spider-girl successfully sold for years in a special manga-sized format just for schools.
Jennifer Ziegler talks about REVENGE OF THE TEACHER'S PETS, the latest in her very funny, engaging series about the misadventures of a set of Texas Triplets, in this fourth book entering the seventh grade. We talk about letters from fans, writing the wrong thing to get to the right thing, and juggling narrative voices.
LUKE SPARKE is the writer and director of OCCUPATION, in theaters and on VOD and Digital HD on July 20, 2018. In Occupation, the inhabitants of a small town in Australia realize they must band together for a chance to strike back at an massive alien invasion. The film features a really big cast including Dan Ewing (“Home and Away,” “Power Rangers R.P.M.”), the always amazing Temuera Morrison (Aquaman, Green Lantern), Stephany Jacobsen (Alex Cross, “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”), and a heck of a lot more. We talk about making great indy movies and juggling characters.
Professors Guadalupe Garcia McCall and David Bowles discuss their new translation of McCall's book Summer of the Mariposas-- a magical Mexican American retelling of The Odyssey about four sisters traveling from Texas through Mexico.
Paul Tremblay's new book is a terrifying home invasion story about a small family under attack from four strangely polite, very scary people. We talk about the home invasion genre and how evil can sometimes sound so darn nice right up until the worst moments.
We talk to Halloween Man creator Drew Edwards on his new special from Sugar Skull Media, Lucy Chaplin: Science Starlet, and about creating a new heroine who has garnered surprising attention.
David Bowles, professor at University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, talks about his sweeping new book of Myths of Mexico: Feathered Serpent, Dark Heart of Sky.
Gary Rhodes talks about his new book culled from thousands of primary sources and long-unseen illustrations, The Birth of the American Horror Film. The book explores the influence of horror-themed literature, theatre and visual culture in America, and how that context established a foundation for films produced between 1895 and 1915. Exhaustively researched, bridging scholarship on Horror Studies and Early Cinema, The Birth of the American Horror Film is the first major study dedicated to this vital but often overlooked subject.
Jason and Drew chat with Larry Blamire, creator of affectionate, keen parodies like The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, The Lost Skeleton Returns Again and Dark and Stormy Night, among others.
We chat with Cutter Wood, author of Love and Death in the Sunshine State: The Story of a Crime from Algonquin Books. A gripping piece of creative nonfiction in the tradition of Capote's In Cold Blood, Wood's book tells the story not just of the murder and its three suspects but of his own journey in telling the story. We chat about nonfiction, true crime, and writing.
RS Belcher is known for the urban-legends-based horror novel The Brotherhood of the Wheel, which has been optioned for TV and compared by The Wall Street Journal to Neil Gaiman’s American Gods. Belcher's new book is The Night Dahlia, new from Tor, a noir fantasy about Laytham Ballard, a modern mage hired to find the missing daughter of a faery mob boss. To find Caern Ankou, Ballard will have to confront old enemies, former friends and allies, and a grisly cold case that has haunted him for years. We chat far and wide about noir, writing, and daring prose.
Chris Pardal co-stars in the new film CORBIN NASH, as the partner of a rogue detective (Dean S. Jagger of Game of Thrones) who is murdered and reborn as a demon-hunting vampire. Chris was a professional dancer before becoming an actor, and we talk acting and making it in the professional scene.
RACHEL STAVIS is a screenwriter for film, television, and video games. She has published four horror novels under the name R. H. Stavis. She is also an exorcist, doing her work pro bono and without advertising her services. Her new book is Sister of Darkness: The Chronicles of a Modern Exorcist from Dey St/ William Morrow. As a secular exorcist, Rachel H. Stavis has worked with thousands of tormented people, from small children and Hollywood moguls to stay-at-home moms and politicians. The book is a unique look at demonology removed from religious dogma.
Connor Hoover wanted to be a wizard and wanted to time travel, but when that didn’t work out, Connor wrote about time traveling wizards instead. It’s actually pretty fun. Connor lives in Austin, Texas with a couple of entertaining kids, a couple of crazy but cute dogs, and a couple of everlasting tortoises. You can find out more about Connor at www.connorhoover.com .
MIDNIGHTERS (premiering Friday 3/2) is a layered, enigmatic thriller set in the Gothic backwoods of New England, where a young couple’s marriage faces the ultimate test after they cover up a terrible crime and find themselves entangled in a Hitchcockian web of deceit and madness. The movie is the theatrical debut of director Julius Ramsay, who is known for his work on AMC's "The Walking Dead” and Syfy’s upcoming Superman prequel “Krypton.” The film was written by his brother Alston Ramsay, who was inspired to write MIDNIGHTERS after seeing a disturbing real life news story in the LA Times about a woman who drove home someone she struck with her car and kept him in her garage. Midnighters premieres Friday 3/2 on VOD and in theaters in LA, New York and elsewhere.
Jason chats with TIM HUNTER (Riverdale, Mad Men, The River's Edge), director of Looking Glass, a new thriller starring Academy Award Winner Nicholas Cage, Robin Tunney and Marc Blucas about a man who discovers that the motel he just bought contains a strange hidden hallway that lets him spy on the hotel's guests, leading to a story of obsession, suspicion and murder. The movie debuts February 16.
Jason chats with Johnathon Schaech, who plays a wily, muscular zombie in the new re-imagining of George Romero's classic "Day of the Dead. We talk "Day of the Dead: Bloodline."
Jason chats with Greg Sestero, whose memoir of the making of the cult drama The Room has been turned into a new film with James Franco.
Tony and Jason chat with Gene Pao, VP Digital at Shout! Factory about what makes the premiere brand of cult film and TV tick. We talk about the amazing brand that is "VHS Vault," and the surprising resilience of MST3K, no matter the medium.
Jon Schnitzer is the director of HAUNTERS: The Art of the Scare, which presents two competing visions for haunted attractions in america—the traditional boo-scare style of haunt as seen in the guise of Shar Meyer, legendary scare actress, and haunt designer Donald Julson, as opposed to the new “extreme” vision exemplified by Russ McKamey of the McKamey Manor in San Diego.
Grady Hendrix's new book is a non-fiction chronicle of the boom in horror paperback publishing in the Seventies and Eighties that followed in the wake of Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist, and Thomas Tryon's The Other. It's called Paperbacks from Hell.
This week we look at the brand new documentary HAUNTERS: The Art of the Scare directed by Jon Schnitzer, about the growing rift between people who continue to put on traditional "boo-scare" haunted attractions and newer "extreme" experiences."
Michael Okon is the author of the new book MONSTERLAND from Wordfire Press, about a theme park called "the scariest place on Earth." With real werewolves, vampires and zombies as the main attractions, what could possibly go wrong?
Michael Okon is the author of the new book MONSTERLAND from Wordfire Press, about a theme park called "the scariest place on Earth." With real werewolves, vampires and zombies as the main attractions, what could possibly go wrong?
Richard LeMay is the director of Dementia 13, a new gothic horror film coming this month. A vengeful ghost, a mysterious killer, and a family where everyone has a secret converge in one night of terror in this remake of Francis Ford Coppola’s first feature film.
Michael Aronovitz is an author of weird fiction. His first collection titled "Seven Deadly Pleasures" came out through Hippocampus Press in 2009, and about two years ago we talked about the fantasy horror "The Witch of the Wood," and now he's back with a new release from CEMETERY DANCE Publications. He's a Professor of English and the English Department Chair for a Philadelphia charter school. He lives with his wife Kim and their son Max in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. The new book is called Alice Walks from Cemetery Dance Publications.
Filmmakers Bobby Roe and Zack Andrews, co-writers of HOUSES THAT OCTOBER BUILT 2. Bobby is director and Zack is the producer, and they also make up a significant piece of the cast in this second movie about Halloween-loving friends who go looking for the country's best haunted houses, only to find trouble.
We chat with Paul Tremblay, whose new book Disappearance at Devil's Rock (William Morrow) is a harrowing story of the disappearance of a young boy and the possibly supernatural phenomena that occur in the aftermath. We talk about the book and the dangers (real and imagined) of childhood.
Julia and Jason chat with the comedy duo of Bridget Nelson & Mary Jo Pehl, whose new Rifftrax commentary is for the film Deadly Instincts, a bizarre college-alien-invasion film.
We talk to C. Robert Cargill, AKA Aint it Cool News' Massawyrm. He is a co-writer of the horror films Sinister and Sinister 2, and Marvel's Dr. Strange. His new book is "Sea of Rust," in which 30 years after the destruction of humanity by robots, a scavenger robot wanders in the wasteland created by the war in this post-apocalyptic “robot western.”
Bushwick is a new thriller starring Brittany Snow and Dave Bautista in which the pair must navigate through the invasion of New York by a new rebellion: a Southern Army launching a second Civil War. We chat about the making of this scary, fast-moving film.
There are few writers as prolific and successful as Kevin J. Anderson, publisher at Wordfire Press and author of over 130 books, 54 of which have appeared on national or international bestseller lists. With lots of his own books as well as hit Star Wars, X-Files and Dune novels. Kevin has won or been nominated for the Bram Stoker, Shamus, Hugo, Nebula, Scribe, and Colorado Book Award. We chat about Kevin's new releases: Tales of Dune, an anthology in the Dune world, and the zombie-PI collection Zomnibus.
UNION FURNACE is a new horror film out on Blu-Ray this month, a terrifying tale that evokes the grinding economic realities of the Rustbelt . The story involves a young crook who's given a chance at wealth that involves gambling with his life amidst a horde of masked sadists. Our guests today are Union Furnace's director and writer Nicholas Bushman and co-writer-producer-star Mike Dwyer. They talk about the inspirations of Union Furnace and share wisdom for new filmmakers.
Best-selling author Jonathan Maberry of the Dead of Night series talks about the brand-new anthology in the world of George Romero's zombie films, Nights of the Living Dead (St. Martins/Griffin).
Kevin Murphy portrayed Tom Servo on Mystery Science Theater 3000 for 10 years, has written bestselling books on films, and contributes to NPR as a movie commentator. Now as a member of Rifftrax, he's doing a live show in August, a comedy show built around the 1983 special episode of Doctor Who, "The Five Doctors." We chat about riffing, respect for Doctor Who, and being known as Tom Servo.
GRAVEYARD SHIFT is the debut novel of Michael Haspil, a hard-boiled noir about an ancient Egyptian Pharaoh masquerading as a detective and investigating supernatural crimes. We talk about the book and entering the writing world.
Leanna Renee Hieber returns to the show to talk about her Victorian Supernatural Adventure series Strangely Beautiful and the new book in the series, Perilous Prophecy, about a team she calls "Victorian Ghostbusters."
We talk to the author of Flashmob, the latest in a series we describe as "Reacher with ESP," about an ex-military troubleshooter who can read minds-- and what he reads is often terrifying.
We RETURN with a look at the 1954 CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON. Then, in honor of George Romero, we recommend our favorite Romero features including the upcoming October 2017 Romero series at the SIE Center in Denver.
Jason checks in from sabbatical to chat with Andrew Pyper, whose new book from Simon & Schuster, The Only Child, features a psychiatrist investigating a killer who may have a personal connection to the great gothic novels Frankenstein, Dracula and Doctor Jekyll & Mister Hyde.
We talk to the author of Monster Mash: The Creepy, Kooky Monster Craze In America 1957-1972 (Twomorrows Publishing). We talk about horror hosts, toys, books, movies, and why monsters became an integral part of mid-century pop culture.
A chat with Sarah Habel, just recently Riverdale's sexy, troubled Mrs. Grundy, as she stars in the new Syfy film Atomica.
Kaaron Warren is the author of The Grief Hole (IFWG Publishing), about a young social worker haunted by ghostly visions that warn her how people are going to die. When she investigates the death of her cousin in an Australian beach community, she discovers a dark landscape of grief and exploitation. A cerebral, thought-provoking horror tale. We chat about the book, writing, and the weird 18-hour time difference between Melbourne and Colorado.
Director Ed Gass-Donnelly is the director of The Last Exorcism Part II and Small Town Murder Songs. His new film is Lavender: When a photographer (Abbie Cornish) suffers severe memory loss after a traumatic accident, strange clues among her photos suggest she may be responsible for the deaths of family members she never knew she had.
Sheryl Scarborough is an award-winning writer for television, having written for shows such as Kim Possible, Doug, and Tiny Toon Adventures among many other credits. She lives in Washington state, and has always had an obsession with forensics since long before she became a writer. Her debut teen novel is To Catch a Killer, about a witty young protagonist who balances her school work with a budding forensics career.
Chris Von Hoffmann is the director of the new film Drifter, about a pair of outlaw brothers in a post-apocalyptic desert world who find themselves trapped in a small town run by cannibals.
The Riverman is the fourth novel in the DCI Lorimer series from Alex Gray. In the new book, Detective Chief Inspector Lorimer investigates the death of an banker whose body is fished out Glasgow’s River Clyde, and uncovers an international accounting scandal.
Love is Love is a new comic anthology collection from IDW and DC Comics that gathers some of the greatest talents in comics today to tell stories in commemoration of the Pulse Night Club Shooting of June 12, 2016, honoring the victims, supporting the survivors, celebrating the LGBTQ community, and examining love in today's world. Organizer Marc Andreyko and two artists on the book, Brent Peeples and David Sexton, talk about the New York Times Best Seller.
Aaron Michael Ritchey is the author of the Juniper Wars series from Wordfire Press, about the adventures of three gunslinging sisters in a toxic post-apocalypse in the territories of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, and Montana. We talk about weird westerns, steampunk and the process of writing a series.
Laura Bickle's new book Nine of Stars launches a new series called Wildlands, about a woman who battles supernatural villains in the wilds of modern Wyoming. We talk about writing, what makes Weird Westerns versus Urban Fantasy, and more.
The Demon in Business Class is a tale of corporate espionage and demon wars, told in a knowing way by former AOL road warrior Anthony Dobranski in his debut novel. We chat about what went into this brand new urban fantasy.
The director of the noir-infused "ultimate haunted house movie" talks about the challenges of scaring people who won't pay attention and chats about ABATTOIR.
New York Times Best-seller Gregg Hurwitz talks about The Rains: A Novel from Tor Books, in which all the adults are becoming mindless murderers, and a pair of brothers must race to defeat the plague before one of them falls victim.
David Bowles is one of the most prolific writers this show has ever talked to, and he often returns to his native Rio Grande Valley of Texas for source material. A professor at the University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley, David's new books are GHOSTS OF THE RIO GRANDE, a lovingly researched collection of legends and ghost stories from the lives of the people on the border. But wait! He also has a new novel out, Lords of the Earth, a kaiju novel about giant lizards attacking Mexico.
John Pitts is the author of the Sarah Beauhall urban fantasy series including Black Blade Blues (2010), Honeyed Words (2011), Forged in Fire (2012), with the fourth book, Night Terrors (2016), coming out now from Wordfire Press.
Lara Parker has written a series of gothic novels that follow up on the original TV series Dark Shadows-- and this month she releases the most anticipated Dark Shadows story yet. Heiress of Collinwood promises a solution to the mystery that drove the show's very first seasons: the secret origin of Victoria Winters, the governess whose trip to Collinwood sprung the whole series. But there's a more pressing mystery at hand for Victoria: when she returns to Collinwood this time, the whole Collins family is GONE. (And by the way, did we mention that Parker actually played the twisted Angelique on the show and in the scary film NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS?)
Bradford Tatum talks about his new book in which a single mysterious young girl affects all of horror movie history
We talk to author Ruth Franklin about her new biography of Shirley Jackson, author of The Lottery and The Haunting of Hill House.
We talk to the fabulous duo Bridget and Mary Jo, whose collection of oddball mid-century short films are often as challenging and saddening as they are funny.
For eight years, the Bug Theatre in Denver has presented a live adaptation of Night of the Living Dead. We talk to Kris Hipps on how to translate the most anxious film of the 60s into a stage play.
We talk to the makers of the new thriller FORCED MOVE, about a man who realizes on his morning job that a serial killer is working the way through his neighborhood.
We talk to marketing for Humanoids comics #SHOWUSYOURCLOCK, the social media campaign behind CLOCKWERX, and the challenges of publishing comics today.
A chat with USA Today Bestselling Author Kristine Rusch, who writes in multiple genres under multiple names, and is now the editor of a collection of short SF fiction written by women throughout the 20th Century.
We talk to the author of Life Moves Pretty Fast, about 80s movies, changing body images, and why movies like Pretty In Pink don't get made today.
We talk to Shean Pao, author of the The Feather and the Moon Well, a fairy-tale-tinged story of a tower-locked sorceress who sees an opportunity to escape-- but risks the world in the process. The book is the first novel selected in the new David Farland Discovery Program to showcase new talent.
We talk to Greg Scott, who's taking over The Black Hood from Dark Circle Comics with Season 2, about art, parenting, the tenacity of Archie, and more.
A chat with CRACKED editor Robert Brockway, author of the new horror thriller THE EMPTY ONES from Tor Books.
We talk to New York Times bestselling author Wendy Corsi Staub about BLUE MOON, her new thriller in the Mundy's Landing series from HarperCollins.
We talk to the best-selling RAPAIRMAN JACK author about his new thriller in which cops, spies and zealots clash and kill over a drug that can cure all disease.
NY Times Best-selling author Todd McCaffrey talks about his process and his book on a walking, nano-bodied AI called Ellay, after the city she came from.
We talk to the author of the exciting vampires-in-Vancouver series HUNTER'S MOON from "Supernatural" and "Once Upon a Time" actor Ramon Terrell.
We talk to the author of The Kidnap Plot from Knopf, a steampunk thriller about a boy who must rescue his family from trolls.
A conversation with the author of The Body in the Wardrobe, which features an empowering female duo: long-time favorite part-time sleuth Faith Fairchild alongside new series favorite Sophie Maxwell (last seen in The Body in the Birches).
We talk to the author of the Garza Twins adventures, about shapeshifter twins exploring Latino legends and myths.
We chat with the incredibly prolific best-selling author Kevin J Anderson about his new projects, including 2113, stories based on the songs of RUSH-- and a brand-new HUMBLE BUNDLE of 18 Wordfire Press books.
We talk with horror chroniclers Chris and Kathleen Vander Kaay about their new book on the many sugenres of horror, which lists their top recommendations for each.
We talk with the Shirley Jackson-award winning author of the "Motherless Children" series.
We talk with the author "The Brotherhood of the Wheel," about a secret organization of road-defending "truckers, bikers, taxi hacks, state troopers, bus drivers, and RV gypsies."
ANGELUS is the new novel in the BOOKS OF RAZIEL series, a gothic supernatural tale about a girl who discovers she holds the keys to both Heaven and Hell-- and that angels, demons, and all the creatures in between will stop at nothing to possess her and control that power.
We chat with the author of a new book featuring Chinese ghosts, hopping vampires and a very real look at the evolution of Chinese culture in San Francisco.
We talk to Josh Viola, editor of the new horror anthology NIGHTMARES UNHINGED on what makes for great horror fiction, and the process of working with many voices.
We talk to Colin Geddes and Sam Zimmerman, curators of Shudder TV, the app/channel dedicated to all kinds of horror, from Gothic to J-Horror and everything in between.
Simon Toyne's new book "The Searcher" has been compared to King and Koontz and already optioned to film-- we talk about what goes into writing a gripping thriller.
We talk to USA Today Best-seller Susan McBride about her new book "Say Yes to the Death" and about the fine art of the mystery.
We talk to Bram Stoker Award finalist Paul Tremblay, whose new book A Head Full of Ghosts is a terrifying riff on The Exorcist, in which a teenage girl's apparent demon possession results in TV stardom and genuine, hair-raising chills.
We talk to Richard Kadrey, author of the hard-boiled, urban crime-fantasy Sandman Slim series, about his new novel Killing Pretty.
We talk about -- and are fiercely divided on-- the 2007 found footage hit PARANORMAL ACTIVITY
We talk writing-- the process and the career-- with the author of the new book REVENGE OF THE ANGELS, sequel to the popular middle grade novel REVENGE OF THE FLOWER GIRLS.
A talk with USA Today Bestseller James Hayman, author of the McCabe and Savage series and his new book THE GIRL IN THE GLASS.
We chat with author Kari Anne Holt (http://kaholt.com) on her new book House Arrest, about a middle schooler struggling with probation and the stress of a seriously ill brother. Holt is also the author of the amazing zombie romance novel (in verse), Brains for Lunch.
We talk to Caseen Gaines, chronicler of the making of the beloved BACK TO THE FUTURE trilogy.
We talk about the secret world of horror novels with the prolific creator of the Too Much Horror Fiction blog (http://toomuchhorrorfiction.blogspot.com), which provides a vast catalog of classic and modern horror.
We talk to the authors of the new supernatural thriller THE CLIFFHOUSE HAUNTING, about a seaside California community plagued by violent spirits both living and dead.
We talk to DJ Butler, author of the new novella HELLHOUND ON MY TRAIL from the action-packed series ROCK BAND FIGHTS EVIL. Find the author at http://davidjohnbutler.com/
We chat with horror writer Michael Aronovitz, whose new book The Witch of the Wood involves an aging professor who inadvertently falls into bed with a demon who threatens the universe.
We talk to prolific comic artist Greg Scott of Sword of Dracula, IDW's X-Files: Year Zero and the new Steve McQueen: Full Throttle Cool.
A talk with writer David Bowles, whose new book THE SMOKING MIRROR is just the latest in a career focused on Latin-American monsters and myth. David has also been interviewed on Discovery America's Monsters and Mysteries in America
We talk to P. J. HOOVER, author of books for children and teens including Tut: The Story of My Immortal Life and Solstice. When not writing, the Austin-based author spends time with her husband and kids and enjoys practicing Kung Fu, solving Rubik's cubes, and watching Star Trek.
We talk to Mark Jordan Legan, co-executive producer of Disney's MIGHTY MED and creator of the hilarious web series WORST CINEMATIC CRAP THAT'S EVER BEEN MADE.
We talk to Casey Wolfe, creator of the Twilight Zone-like award-winning internet radio drama series EARBUD THEATER.
We talk to Chris Barton, author of the new book Attack! Boss! Cheat Code! along with numerous books for young people including Can I See Your ID?, a book about famous scammers.
A discussion with the authors of the new book The Anatomy of Fear, which features interviews with classic creators of horror including The Terminator, The Blair Witch Project, Near Dark and More.
Jason chats with New York Times Best Selling author Ernie Cline, whose Ready Player One is an addictive, futuristic love letter to the 1980s.