By Steve Biodrowski 

Hollywood’s continued preoccupation with Jules Verne’s 1864 novel Journey to the Center of the Earthis a bit of a puzzle. Yes, the book provides a certain potential for visual razzle-dazzle, and any excuse to travel to a lost world inhabited by dinosaurs is a good one, yet outside of the basic premise, the novel has little to offer in the way of plot or characterization. The story is almost as much a travelogue as an adventure, and a modern reader may frequently find himself wondering whether the many strange sights encountered on the journey are really enough to justify plowing through until the end. It is not a bad book exactly, but it lacks the charm and humor that make Conan Doyle’s The Lost World not only readable but fun all these decades later. Continue Reading »

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Actress Adrienne Barbeau is known to fans of cinefantastique for her roles in such films as THE FOG, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, CREEPSHOW, and TWO EVIL EYES. She is also, now, a novelist, with a book coming out on July 8. (She published her autobiography last year, There Are Worse Things I Could Do.) Written in collaboration with Michael Scott, the novel is title Vampyres of Hollywood. In support of the publication, Barbeau will be doing a book tour, with stops around the country but mostly in Southern California. The premise is that vampires - excuse me, vampyres - work in the Hollywood film industry, churning out disinformation that misleads humans as to the true strengths and weaknesses of the undead (for example, the novel’s vampires are immune to sunlight). The official description from Publishers Weekly goes on:

One of the biggest bamboozlers is Ovsanna Moore, a seductive centuries-old vampire currently producing and acting in B-movies with titles like Vatican Vampyres. When humans and vampires in her studio entourage begin dying spectacularly gruesome deaths, Ovsanna knows that someone is specifically targeting her. Since it’s just a matter of time before investigating detective Peter King uncovers Ovsanna’s vampire pedigree, she must solve the mystery or “die” and resurface somewhere else. Alternate chapters from Peter and Ovsanna’s limited points of view build narrative tension. Briskly paced and full of fang-in-cheek humor, this novel is one of the more entertaining recent works of supernatural noir.

Barbeau’s ex-husband, writer-director John Carpenter, apparently enjoyed the book enough to provide a funny, favorable quote: “Sexy, funny and gory - and that’s just the first chapter. If I’d known she could write like this, I would’ve stuck around a little longer.”

Read a list of Bareau’s Southern California book tour appearances below the fold. Continue Reading »

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Vancourver24Hours.com offers an interview with UBC professor C. W. Marshall, who has edited a book of academic papers title Cylons in America”Critical Studies in Battlestar Galactica. The papers offer a scholarly examination of issues raised in the current television series BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, particularly those relating to living in post-9/11 America.

“The discussions that go on about contemporary issues are much more sophisticated and nuanced and are given much more time than they’re given on 24-hour news stations,” says Marshall. “I think we get a better examination of the psychology of what’s going on in Iraq and Afghanistan in the science fiction setting than we do watching CNN.”

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This strikes me as odd: Vincent Price, the late, great horror movie star who died back in the ’90s, is about to become the subject of a series of comic books. The series, titled “Vincent Price Presents,” will feature the actor “in a myriad of roles including host, muse, background player, and protagonist,” according to the official press release.

The series, from Blue Water Productions, is being written by Chad Helder, who has a nice blog called Unspeakable Horror. The first issue is scheduled to debut in October, naturally, to coincide with Halloween.

Read the press release below the fold. Continue Reading »

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Ehren Kruger, the screenwriter who hit big with THE RING, keeps churning out scripts. According to Variety, his latest is an adaptation of The Keep, a novel by Jennifer Egan:

[Roge Pictures] paid seven figures for the thriller that revolves around a mysterious prisoner who seduces a local woman with his tale of a supernatural secret that can transform her life.

Prague-based producer Matthew Stillman snatched up the rights to Egan’s tome, a follow-up to “Look at Me,” in 2006, for Kruger to adapt before shopping it to the studios.

 THE RING, based on the excellent 1998 Japanese horror film, made over $130-million at the U.S. box office. Kruger’s subsequent supernatural thrillers, including THE RING 2 and THE SKELETON KEY, have failed to match that success.

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Esplatter recycles some information gleaned from Fangoria: Stuart Gordon  is planning to film H. P. Lovecraft’s classic tale, “A Thing on the Doorstep,” which will be produced by Amicus, the company that financed his recent art-house release STUCK.

Gordon told Fangoria that he hopes to begin filming in the fall. “It follows the short story pretty closely, and what’s great about it is that, as far as I know, it’s the only Lovecraft tale that has a strong female character. Normally we have to invent one, but for the first time, we didn’t have to do that. We’re also working with Amicus again, because we had so much fun the first time around.”

Lovecraft’s story (which, running 27 pages and divided into seven chapters, might best be termed a novelette) takes the form of a first-person confession by a narrator named Dan Upton, who has just killed his best friend Edward Pickman Derby by putting six bullets in his brain. Dan’s justification is that he did not kill Edward but an evil intelligence that had possessed Edward’s body. Edward had been married to Asenath, who apparently had the power to transfer her consciousness from one body to another (the twist is that Asenath is not really Asenath; her body has previously been snatched by her evil father Ephraim, the story’s true culprit). Continue Reading »

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Variety reports that producer Nick Wechsler has obtained the rights to film “Throttle,” a collaboration between author Stephen King and his son Joe Hill. This 60-page story follows two men from a motorcycle gang - a father and a son - evading an 18-wheel truck. If that sounds reminiscent of Richard Matheson’s “Duel” (a novella published in Playboy that became a TV movie directed by Steven Spielberg), it is no accident: the story is scheduled to be published in an anthology titled He Is Legend, featuring stories inspired by Matheson.

“It has elements of iconic films like ‘Duel’ and ‘Breakdown,’ but with a horror element that I want to push,” Wechsler said. Literary collaboration is the first between King and his son.

Wechsler is currently wrapping post-production on a film version of The Time Traveler’s Wife, based on the novel by Audrey Niffenegger. Release for the film, which stars Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana, is scheduled for Christmas Day, courtesy of Warner Brothers and Newline.

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 …Our Ladies of Sorrow. I know them thoroughly, and have walked in all their kingdoms. Three sisters they are, of one mysterious household; and their paths are wide apart; but of their dominion there is no end.

- Thomas De Quincey, Suspiria de Profundis

Although it will never achieve the status of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein or Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Thomas De Quincey’s Suspiria de Profundis deserves a small place in horror history for having helped to inspire Dario Argento’s “Three Mothers” trilogy: SUSPIRIA (1977), INFERNO (1980), and MOTHER OF TEARS (2007) - films that depict the evil caused by three ancient witches known as Mater Suspiriorum (Mother of Sighs), Mater Tenebrarum (Mother of Darkness), and Mater Lachrymarum (Mother of Tears). Although Argento takes great liberties with his source of inspiration, the resulting films do contain interesting echoes of De Quincey’s (literally) hallucinatory imagery. Continue Reading »

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Book Lifts Lid On Screen’s First Dracula: Reuters reviews Stefan Eickhoff’s biography of Max Schreck, the actor who played Graf Orlock (i.e., Count Dracula) in the 1922 silent film NOSFERATU. Since Eickhoff’s book is in German, this may be the most that English readers can get out of it for some time to come.

Goyer Brings Horror to Chicago: The Chicago Tribune reports on THE UNBORN, a horror film that recently wrapped production in Chicago, under the direction of David Goyer. The film stars Odette Yustman (CLOVERFIELD) and Garry Oldman (HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN) in a story about a young woman haunted by her unborn twin. (The Dark Half, anyone?)

Top Ten Twist Endings: HorrorMovies.ca offers their selections in this misleadingly titled post (which actually contains fifteen surprise conclusions, not all of them from horror films). I didn’t read the whole thing, because I skipped those titles I have not yet seen (didn’t want to ruin the surprise). However, I did look close enough to note one mistake: the claim that “Bad timing was the box office downfall” of THE OTHERS. The film actually made over $100-million in the U.S. - hardly a downfall.

JENNIFER’S BODY: Apparently somebody is making a movie about a girl named Jennifer whose body is possessed by a demon that causes all kinds of trouble. Not the most original storyline, but the body in question is played by Megan Fox (TRANSFORMERS), and somebody has got hold of lots of photos of her wearing some kind of body suit that is supposed to make her look naked in the movie.

Five Science-Fiction Movies That Get the Science Right: ABCNews.com offers their somewhat eccentric selections. No one can argue with 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY topping the list, but some of the other titles feature science that is speculative or highly theoretical at this point, so whether they are “right” remains to be proved. Still, I have to concede the argument that SOLARIS (1972) belongs on the list “not so much for the specific science it portrays as for its portrayal of the limits of science and human understanding.”

Monuments and Primal Scenes: The Uses of Stillness and Violence in Horror. Over at the Groovy Age of Horror, Curt Purcell riffs on a 1999 senior essay by Yale University Student Sean Thomas Collins, which sought to fill a gap in horror film theory. Collins premise was that an emphasis on violence leads scholars to overlook something more important to the genre: the “Monumental Horror-Image” - i.e., ”curiously static” beings or monumental objects whose mere presence evokes a sense of the Uncanny. Expanding on this notion, Purcell tries to eat his cake and have it, too, positing a “unified theory” in which violence and statis are two sides of the same coin, each equally important to horror. As an example, he cites the opening of Dario Argento’s THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE, in which violent action is staged in an art gallery full of static objects, and the hero ends up literally trapped - in stasis - in a glass vestibule, able to watch but not to intercede.

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Den of Geek has an interview with Michale Staininger, who is making his directorial debut with a contemporary film adaptation of Edgar Alan Poe’s “Ligeia” (which previously furnished the inspiration for 1964’s TOMB OF LIGEIA, starring Elizabeth Shepherd in the title role). The story follows a man who believes his late wife willpower was strong enough to extend beyond the grave. Taking a new bride after Ligeia’s demise, he finds himself in a life-or-death struggle as his second wife succumbs to illness, apparently expiring and reviving several times over the course of a night - until she rises from her sick bed, revealing herself to be Ligeia reborn. Continue Reading »

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The Los Angeles Times confirms what has been expected for months: Guillermo Del Toro will direct two films inspired by Tolkien’s The Hobbit. The first will portray the events of the book; the second will cover the gap between the book and LORD OF THE RINGS. Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh will executive produce the films.

“We have long admired Guillermo’s work and cannot think of a more inspired filmmaker to take the journey back to Middle-earth,” Walsh and Jackson said in a statement. “We are delighted ‘The Hobbit’ is in such trustworthy hands.”

Del Toro will relocate to New Zealand for four years to work on the movies, which means fans will have to wait a long time for his recently announced project, SATURN AND THE END OF DAYS.

Del Toro’s latest film, HELLBOY 2: THE GOLDEN ARMY, is scheduled for release in July.

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Fringe film-making can be a fascinating subject, and certainly many of the subjects of Kirk Lodes’ book Cheesy, Sleazy, Mixed-Up Astro-Zombies: The 100 Worst Actors and Directors of All Time are deserving of greater critical attention. Unfortunately, this isn’t the book that brings a balanced look at the strengths and weaknesses of the filmmakers it covers.

Lodes is clearly influenced by MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 and shares a similar snarky attitude towards his subjects. Lodes has a easy to read style, and his choices are often apt (among his worst directors are Coleman Francis, Ray Dennis Steckler, Jerry Warren, Al Adamson, Jesus Franco, Bill Rebane, Larry Buchanan), but he also includes directors who have made entertaining and even accomplished films indiscriminately in the mix (e.g. Roger Corman, Jack Hill, Larry Cohen, and Monte Hellman among others). Continue Reading »

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Richard Matheson’s novel I Am Legend may not be as famous as Bram Stoker’s Dracula, but it is as least as influential on the development of modern vampire cinema. Not only have there been three official film adaptations; Matheson’s science-fiction approach to vampirism prefigures the majority of modern film treatments of the subject, and the novel’s story of a world overwhelmed by the living dead has served as the template for an apparently deathless parade of apocalyptic zombie movies, beginning most notably with George A. Romero’s NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. That is quite an achievement for a rather short novel with only a single major character and very little dialogue. Still, the question is whether the book is any good in its own right, or is it just a well of inspiration for the cinema? To some extent, it depend on whom you ask: Leonard Wolf, in his pioneering work A Dream of Dracula: In Search of the Living Dead, dismisses I Am Legend as boring, but  in his undead encyclopedia V is for Vampire, David J. Skal (Wolf’s heir apparent as the premiere commentator on all things undead) calls the book a “masterful science-fiction/horror-thriller.” Matheson’s tale may not quite be a masterpiece, but it is an engrossing experience that deserves to be appreciated on its own literary terms, not just as a seminal piece of horror history. Continue Reading »

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Apropos of this week’s release of THE RUINS, based on the novel by Scott Smith, Tom Burns over at Deadbolt.com offers up his list of “Five Other Horror Adaptations We Want to See.” Titles include Robert Kirkmans Walking Dead, Erik Larson’s Devil in the White City, Chuck Palahniuk’s Haunted, Stephen King’s The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, and James Ellroy’s Killer on the Road. The list pushes the definition of horror to some extent, especially with the Ellroy novel, which is really a piece of crime fiction told from the point of view of a serial killer. (It probably would make a good movie, but after shows like DEXTER and movies like MR. BROOKS, the essential conceit is not as innovative as it was when the novel was published decades ago.)

Anyway, Burns’ article got us to thinking: What are the books that we would like to see adapted into films? Read on to find out… Continue Reading »

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Science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke died at 1:30am Wednesday morning in Sri Lanka. The prolific author won several Hugo and Nebula awards for his numerous books, which included both fiction and non-fiction, many of them promoting the future of space travel and exploration. His most famous titles include Childhood’s End, Rendezvous with Rama, and of course 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The last of these was an outgrowth of the 1968 film that Clarke co-wrote with producer-director Stanley Kubrick, inspired by Clarke’s short story “The Sentinel.” The novel was written in conjunction with the screenplay, which formed the basis for the most monumental and important science-fiction film in the history of the genre. Clarke went on to write several sequels, including 2010, 2061, and 3001: The Final Odyssey. The first of these was adapted into a movie by writer-director Peter Hyams.

You can read a more detailed obituary, written by Ravi Nessman, here.

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