This week's theme is slashers, so you'll read a tributes to our favorite villains and learn what makes a good slasher movie. As the first writer of the week, I decided to take the long view. What are the slasher's origins? What typified the slasher's heyday? How have filmmakers varied on the slasher theme since its inception? Let's take a look at slashers from before then to then to now. Before Then: The Slasher's Origins Slasher plots originated in the mystery genre as films where people were killed one by one until the killer was found. The Terror (1928): Gu[...]
All Posts By
MidnightSocietyGhost
1 ...and I love it. **Caution: slight spoilers ahead** In case you missed it, American Horror Story Hotel premiered this week and it was UH-MAY-ZING!! Let me start by saying that I just love the tone that this first episode set up for the rest of the season. It is SO dark and grotesque but also sexy and mysterious too. I was definitely given a sense that this season will be very different from all four of the previous seasons of the anthology show and after watching on Wednesday I can say I think that this is going to be an unforgettable season[...]
This week's theme is supposed to be ghosts but since I already talked about the only game with ghosts I could think of, so I'll review a game so hard that it makes the player a ghost of themselves. Whatever. We're rolling with it. Back in 2010, the year you'll be posting about on Facebook with a picture of a USB drive and the caption of "dur, thunk kidz theze dayz kow what dis is?" as you slowly realize with growing horror that yes, you really are as boring and banal as your kids think you are, I discovered internet critic/comedian Yahtzee Croshaw, and to my[...]
Our very own Jolene Haley teamed up with Brian LeTendre to write Woodsview Murders #1: Harrowed. Let's celebrate by reading it together! Synopsis Journalism Rule #1: Always report the story. Never become the story. Avery Blair has accepted the fact that nothing exciting ever happens in her small town of Woodsview, Massachusetts. As the editor of the high school blog, she prays for something–anything–to come along that would make for a great headline. When Beatrice Thompson’s body is found in the girls’ bathroom, Avery has her biggest story ever. The ru[...]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghrEiLgehDU American Horror Story is one of my favorite shows on television. Just seeing the story world in this trailer gets my heart pumping. Let's do this! What We Know Lady Gaga plays Countess Elizabeth, proprietor of Hotel Cortez. She has some dark needs: first, an "ancient blood virus" that she must satiate by drinking human blood, and then, a ravenous sexual appetite--sleeping with both Matt Bomer's character Donovan (the son of the front clerk, Iris, played by Kathy Bates) and Finn Wittrock's male model character Tristan.[...]
I decided to tackle a post on something I am asked about all the time. Like, really, all the time. I don't think more than a day goes by where someone isn't emailing/tweet/DMing/PMing me for querying advice. It comes with the territory of being a literary agent intern (multiple times). So I decided to do a comprehensive post on my top advice for those who are querying horror. As not only someone who writes it, but someone who interns for the Bree Ogden (horror queen), I know plenty about it. Giveaway! I'll be selecting two queries to help in the month of October[...]
Back when fellow Society member, Cat Burglar, International Adventuress, and Supreme Necromancer, Countess Kim von Graff innocently asked me to contribute at YA-Asylum.com (now e-zine Strange Far Places), I started off writing reviews, where I treated YA horror with all the literary criticism I thought the genre deserved. One of the titles in those halcyon days before my brutal murder at the hands of schismatics was Mary The Summoning. It was also my first positive review. Then I had a small heart attack when Hillary tweeted me to say how much she loved my[...]
Moira Fowley-Doyle's The Accident Season has me really excited. Magical realism. Great comp titles. Horror. Also, Fowley-Doyle is an Irish author. Not only do I love reading international authors, but as an Irish American, I have a personal interest in this one. Synopsis For fans of We Were Liars and How I Live Now comes a haunting, sexy, magically realistic debut about a family caught between a violent history, a taboo romance, and the mysteries lurking in their own backyard. It's the accident season, the same time every year. Bones break, skin tears, bruises[...]
You've probably heard by now, but Wes Craven passed away on August 30th after losing his fight with brain cancer. He was 76 years old and a super horror champ. He was a writer and director of many horror classics, A Nightmare on Elm St, Scream, and Last House On The Left just to name a few. He's truly a horror legend, and I can't imagine someone who loves horror not knowing and loving at least one of his films. I will admit, I was always a Halloween and Friday the 13th girl (I was brought up on those franchises). Scream and A Nightmare on Elm St are w[...]
Last Sunday, the first episode of Fear the Walking Dead aired on AMC. The acting, writing, and production value I've enjoyed on The Walking Dead are here as well, so I'll be watching the second episode tonight. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDxew5SguVw One of the reasons zombies are such a popular trope right now is how ripe (ha!) they are for the thematic explorations of our world. In the first episode, the following concepts were introduced. Check out how timely they are: 1. Addiction The show opens on Nick Clark (played by Frank Dillane), a heroin addict,[...]